One day I was talking to a friend of mine, when she asked me if Cameron and I had considered adoption. It was kind of funny because she felt prompted to ask me but almost didn't because she felt it was too personal of a question. Thank goodness however, she did ask me. I told her that Cameron and I had strated looking into the process in IL, but it's very expensive and since we moved we had to basically start all over. With the move and everything, it would be a while before we could save up the money to adopt through LDS social services.
She told me that the county we live in, Contra Costa County, has a foster-adopt program that has no cost to the Parents. I about fell off my chair. I was absolutely speechless. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, could we really be that lucky? Would we actually be able to adopt in the near future? I bombarded her with questions about it, and I must have asked her at least 4 or 5 times if she was sure it was free. She and her husband had started the process but stopped due to pregnancy, so she knew quite a bit about it.
I went home and looked up the website, I spent all evening reading about the program and other people's experiences. When I told Cameron about it that night, he was also in shock. Eventually we got over our shock and moved into action!
We attended an orientation where they told us about the county, the process, and other information. It was really informative and by the time we left, we really excited! We had heard from our friends that the people in this program were extremely wonderful, and the people at the orientation certainly lived up to that. This county really puts the children first. They try to place kids so that they only go to one foster home, then are either adopted or returned to family. They don't want them bounced around. Isn't that awesome? The biggest road block with adopting through the county is making sure that we are comfortable with the fact that these children are considered "at risk". As opposed to LDS social services, these kids are removed from their homes, usually due to neglect. There is the possibility of drug addiction through the mother for an infant, and also the risk that a child placed with us could be re-united with their parents. I prayed hard about this, and in a blessing, the answer I was given was that we were doing the right thing and that there was a baby waiting for us. So I figure, if we get a placement and they are taken away, then the Lord will give me the strength to deal with it, or it won"t happen. I'm just having faith and putting it in God's hands.
We have to do a live scan, which is digital fingerprinting. We have to have 27 hours of training, which they provide, called PRIDE classes. We had TONS of forms to fill out too. Honestly, our hardest decision so far was picking our references. We were not allowed even onre family member as a reference. The hard part is finding people who had known both of us a long time, could recomend us based on their knowledge of us with children, and making sure they were responsible enough to fill the form out and return it promptly. We were able to pick four though, and they were all sooooo wonderful about getting the forms in quickly.
The forms consisted of: Budget statement, health statements, scale drawings of our home and the pool area at our apartment, background check releases for every state lived in in the last 5 yrs, Applications for the live scan, copies of drivers liscence, and a few others. Our live scan is set for June 25th. After that and the PRIDE classes, they will do our homestudy. They will come to our home and make sure it meets the standards for the state and county.
We were more than willing to take twins, and when I asked pne of the women at the orientation about it, she said if we were willing to take a sibling set, we would get placement faster. She said last year, they had 7 sets of twins that they couldn't find homes for! I couldn't believe it! WHERE WAS I??? Anyway, Cam and I discussed the possibility of taking a sibling set and it felt really right. So we told them that we would love a sibling set if the oldest was 2 or under and we would like and infant. I thought a lot about it and felt that 2 was as old as I was ready to go right now. At 2, kids are still young enough that the likelyhood of abuse is very slim, and they are still developing their personalities. I obviously can't say for sure, but I get the feeling we are going to be blessed with two. As my mom said, I need to catch up! :)
We are trying to keep ouselves from going crazy, but now that it is so close I am having a hard time being patient! So we started re-arranging our furniture to pill the piano and desk out of the second bedroom so that it can be a nursery. Unfortunately , our apartment is a little small, but it will do for now. Hopefully we can buy a house when our lease is up next february. I'll write about decorating and more in my next adoption post.
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