October 24, 2006

Our social worker called today-YEAH!!! We’ve been going at lightning speed to get our portion of the paperwork done as quickly as possible but we never dreamed we’d be matched with a social worker who also believes in working so quickly-we’re thrilled to say the least! Our first meeting is set for Wednesday, November 1…just 1 week away! We are a little anxious as we’re really not sure what to expect, but very excited to cross yet another necessary step off of our list. Our first meeting will be at the agency and will take about 3 hours….3 hours talking about our lives with a complete stranger….we’ll see how this goes. Our second (and hopefully final meeting) will be at our house and we’ll put that meeting on the calendar when we meet with Mary (our social worker) on Wednesday. Let the time begin to fly!

October 23, 2006-Homework is DONE!

In record time, we have again finished more requirements for the agency. Today all 40 pages of our self-reflections (yes, 40 PAGES!) were dropped off at the agency. Now we just have to wait to hear from our social worker. We’ve been told we’d hear from him or her in the next two weeks. Again, we need to remind ourselves to be patient….

October 20, 2006-PAC is done!

What an emotional two days it has been. We spent 16 of the past 48 hours in discussion with small groups and social workers. It was so good for us to talk with other couples working through the same long and at times frustrating process of international adoption. Part of what was stressed was how being adopted into a “white” family is going to impact our child. Luckily, we both feel the two of us already create a multi-racial family so this “shock” of how society will now view our family isn’t going to pose a difficult transition for us. The social workers also talked a great deal about birth families, most specifically the birth mother. This was a wake-up call for both of us…it was kind of a reality check to know that somewhere in the world, there is a woman carrying our child for us. She will be giving us the most selfless and wonderful gift ever. Although we may never even know this woman’s name, we already both feel endebted to her.

Going into these meetings, we were still planning on dual listing. After attending a meeting specific to adopting from Colombia, we got some shocking news. Apparently the desire to adopt from Colombia has sky rocketed, and as a result there is an international hold until July! This was shocking news to us and we were concerned waiting to hear what the Korea meeting had in store for us. Luckily, the news on that front wasn’t quite as bad as we were expecting. We are no longer going to be dual listing-we will just be on the Korea list. Things do happen for a reason and this was our sign that our baby will be waiting in Korea for us. The new Korean laws will still go into effect on January 1. The law states that any child born December 31 or earlier will be available for international adoption as soon as legal details are taken care of-that is how things are currently running. Babies born January 1 or later will remain in Korean foster homes for 5 months as the agencies try to find them homes in Korea. This is an interesting concept as adoption is frowned upon in Korean culture. Our agency isn’t expecting there to be any fewer babies matched with American families as there is no real desire for adopted children in Korea. This new law will just create a longer wait time for some families and the babies will join their families around 7 months old instead of the current 4 months old.

Part of these workshops was receiving what they call “homework”. Once this homework is done, the social worker will visit our home and officially place us on the list. Knowing that we want the youngest baby possible, we felt that we were working with a deadline to be matched with a baby born before December 31. Our weekend will be spent completing many questionnaires and answering question after question regarding our lives, growing up, and our marriage. We both joke that it felt like we are in marriage counseling. We are determined to get through it all this weekend though and with any luck it will dropped off at the Agency in the next few days. Let the countdown to bringing our baby home begin!!!

October 2, 2006-The Next Step

The next step in the adoption process for us is attending a two day workshop creatively titled “The Pre-adoption Class” or “PAC”. These classes are only offered once a month and apparently fill up very quickly as we found out when we were told we would have to wait until the October class even though out initial application was turned in at the end of August. It’s only been about two months since we began this process and already the wait is very difficult. We are both learning that the adoption process is a true test of our patience. Today, we finally got our invitation in the mail to attend PAC on October 19 and 20-YEAH!!! These two days are spent meeting with families who are at different points in the adoption process, talking with social workers, and learning more about the process in general. We are happy to know that the process is still moving forward for us…