Bittersweet

The good news: Liz called to say she has our home study done. She's sending it to us to check for factual errors, once we verify it, we go into the system and can start learning about sibling groups, working toward a match.

The bad news: Liz quit. That's why she got our home study done in record time.

We will now be working with Suzanne. She happens to be the only other social worker we've met, she and Liz co-taught our classes last fall. This doesn't make up for all the hours we've spent with Liz, allowing her to get to know us and hear in our words what we are feeling, our expectations, our fears, etc. We have no ill feelings toward Liz, we wish her the best in whatever she turns to next.

We had a chance to speak with Suzanne yesterday at an event held by Children's Home. It was nice to chat with her and clarify some things about ourselves.

At Children's Home yesterday there was an event for teens and sibling groups waiting to be adopted and Waiting Parents. The adults manned stations (Tom and I had pumpkin painting) and the kids rotated through, allowing us to ask benign questions and simply interact with each other. The intent was for the kids to see who some of these people are that want to adopt kids and for the Waiting Parents to see who some of the kids are, to hear what their interests are. It was enjoyable. There was a group there that I'd had personal interest in, but after meeting them I'm a bit turned off. There was another group that I hadn't paid any attention to that we are now interested it - not telling you anymore than that!

support meeting

A little over a week ago we were able to get our family, friends and neighbors together so they would have the opportunity to speak with our social worker. The meeting was held with some folks in our house and the rest, who are spread all over the country, joined us via conference call. It all went very well! It was awesome to be surrounded by the people that are so special in our lives, who came together with the sole purpose of supporting Tom and I on our journey to parenthood.

We discovered that our neighbors are even more wonderful than we thought and will be a great support! One of them adopted a 2 year old from Korea many years ago and the other couple raised a son with anxiety/anger issues. The neighbors were also forthcoming in saying we can call them for any needed help - even an emergency at any time of day. It was good to hear.

There were some great questions and advice from our "guests." It was an emotional afternoon, full of love, support and generosity.

Now - Liz writes up the "home study," which is basically a synopsis of who Tom and I are with facts and thoughts related to how we will parent and who we would make a good match with. This goes into a database for all county workers in MN to access and assist in matching us with kids. She expects to get this done before a long vacation in Nov. We also need to get licensed for foster care, since that's what we will technically be doing until the adoption is finalized - we have that paperwork and working on that.