We completed our Weekend Intensive course this weekend and per the agency, we are officially parents! We are...excited, overwhelmed, giddy, and purely in awe that we will have a baby in ~1.5 years! A little longer than the typical 9 months wait, but we'll have a fantastic story to share with our kid.
In eleven hours of "class," we learned of how many forms and hoops to jump through before we can schedule our homestudy visits, how to write a dear birthmother letter, how to talk to a birthmother, what the matched process generally entails, and the legalities of finalizing our adoption.
Lets just say that if typical birth parents had to go through what we will, not as many would be having children. We must have a fire extinguisher on each floor of our home - who has that? We must be physically and criminally clean; even have HIV testing done. We must provide proof of employment and write autobiographies. We must sign a gun safety form, even though we don't own a gun. We must also complete an online transracial training since we are open to children other than Caucasian.
After being overwhelmed by all of that, our adoption process was affirmed via videos of successful adoptions. We have no idea the roller coaster of emotions we will ride, but in the end we will have the baby that's meant to be ours.
I think the best part of the weekend was meeting other couples who are starting the process with us. One of which lives across the street from SML's parents! It's comforting to know that we have someone else to turn to during this process who knows exactly what we are feeling and thinking.
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