Thoughts

We are in the beginning stages of our adoption.  There is (as best I can explain right now) the homestudy, then the dossier, approval from USA, getting a referral for a child/children, traveling to meet child, accepting of referral, travel back again, bonding with child, court hearings, and finally coming home. But it doesnt stop there, because then you have to make sure the child and you are doing well and report back to agency and country adopting from for a while to make sure everything is A OKAY.  I may have gotten some backwards, or missed some.  We are at the end part of the homestudy and starting on the dossier paperwork, so I do not know what I have not done, but I do know the general timeline.

Reading others blogs and seeing others thoughts, I thought, hey, I am going to write my own down too.
So,

My thoughts....

Adoption.
Did you ever think you would adopt?  No, we were led here through different twists and turns through life but now that we are here we know it is for a reason and that this is where we are supposed to be.

Is it a process?  More than some can imagine.
 
Is it emotional?  Yes.

Is it crazy?         Yes.

Did you have any idea when you started what it entailed?    Nope. and we are just beginning

Do you have a clue what is to come.  Nope.

Are you excited?  Yes, so hopeful and exited, imagining the who/what/when/where of everything all the time.

Are you scared or nervous?  Yes.  Its the unknown and its always scary and nerve racking.

Do you have a million questions?  Yes, and they change and then I think about something else with the adoption and then my questions change again.  

What have you learned so far?  You have to just go with the flow, open your mind and every aspect of your life to complete strangers to critique you and be okay with it and that can be very hard.  

What is the craziest part so far?  That you have to double check the checked documents so check em again and then check the checker.  :) sorta.


I get people that ask a lot of questions when they hear I am adopting because they have thought about it or know someone thinking about it and I answer their questions and try to guide them as best as possible and believe that is part of why we were chosen to adopt; to help others to know about and lead them to adopt as well.  It's definitely something for those with patience and who can stand by their partner and get through things together.  It brings you closer together and makes you really think about what you will do in the future and how you will do it. 
You go in a little naive but are guided along the way with great support from the agency and social worker you are working with.  We have been fortunate to have an awesome agency and social worker and it makes a world of difference I think.  Our families have also both been very supportive and wishful and wonderful listening to us babble on and on about it as this will be the first grandchildren either side has. So not only is it monumental to us, it is monumental to the family.  Our child or children are going to be showered with so much love and acceptance and family its gonna be great!

Home visit complete

Ok, had home visit of homestudy.  Answered the questions as best we could and try to convey what we feel in words.  Will be a few weeks for them to get their typing of paperwork and things done.  Sent off some things to apostile (certify) and still waiting on some things.  So we now go into the limbo stage of waiting on different places and people and once that gets together send all that off for apostile and see what else we can do.  So for now, we are going to start on reading a few adoption books we got and have another book or two in mind for parenting we wanna read, going to practice learning polish, and just hang in until we can do some more.

at home homestudy meeting soon

we met at the office for our first visit with our adoption agency and in 5 days they are coming to the house to do our second and final visit. looking forward to it, wondering what else she may ask us, wondering if what we feel and believe is on target with what others have said or if theres a 'right answer' and hoping us just being ourselves is good enough. it should be, we are wonderful stable loving people, so i ponder for no reason i guess but u know how your mind wanders when the future is at stake... cant wait, very excited to answer all the questions, show our house off and get things rolling as soon as we can. it is definitely a process full of not knowing so you really have to have faith and know everything is on course and will work out in the end and take a chunk at a time and even though I dream about who are kids are out there, what our kids will look like, what will happen with us and them, if theyll love us and bond quickly, when itll be, and a bijillion other things i just can not wait til the day we get our referral.