What we've learned so far ....

So far we have been through the first two pre-service training classes and an orientation meeting. We took the two classes in Marion county, because we're going to miss the first two in Delaware county (our county). This past Tuesday night, we attended an orientation meeting in Delaware county. Its amazing the differences between the two counties! Big differences in personality, professionalism, the need for foster to adopt families, the facilities, etc. We are VERY happy to be going through Delaware county! ;)

As we start down this road, with each meeting we attend we feel more and more confident that God has us heading in this direction for a reason. The stories touch our hearts and affirm the need for families to step up and help these children who so desperately need love and comfort!

What we've learned so far:

~ Delaware county does not have enough foster-to-adopt families. This year they've had to contract several other counties to take in children from our area ... even some infants straight from the hospital! Right now there are 17 foster/adopt families in our county.

~ How the system works. I won't write all of that here, but if you have questions about this, we'd love to chat with you about it!

~ In order to place the children, they do not just go down the list of foster parents - they try to make the best match possible, taking into consideration things learned at the homestudy and the age/sex/etc preferences of the foster parents.

~ We really like the two social workers from Delaware county who we would be working with.

~ The timeline: Our training will be completed on November 7. At that point, we are given an application packet. Once we complete that (which takes a lot of time and writing), the homestudy process begins. The homestudy can take anywhere from 2 to 6 months and includes everything from interviews to home visits to background checks to fire & safety inspections of your home. After the homestudy and the social worker's written report of the homestudy are complete, we receive our certification (as long as we pass!!!). At that point, it will totally depend on the what situations arise in Delaware county.

So, there's a little update. We are getting ready to leave tomorrow for a trip to Gatlinburg, TN and will be back on Friday (23rd). On Saturday the 24th we begin the remaining three weeks of pre-service training. Classes will be Tuesday and Thursday from 6-9pm and Saturdays from 9am-4pm. We'll update again once that all starts.

Thanks so much for your love and support!

Changes

So ..... things have changed!

Last October we were placed on a waiting list to adopt an infant from Guatemala. We were told that adoptions would reopen at the beginning of 2009 between the US and Guatemala; however, last week we received a phone call from our adoption agency letting us know that, to make a long story short, it will most likely be several years before adoptions reopen between the two countries.

Now ..... Aaron and I have been through a lot this year. We've done a lot of soul searching, praying, talking to eachother and to others, and we have decided that we are going to pursue adoption through our county system. We have entertained this option several times over the past few years, but something seems different now. We are both excited and at peace with this decision and feel that this is a door God would have us walk through.

The first step in this process is to attend 36 hours of Pre-Service Training. We will be going to our first class this Monday (Oct. 5) and the remaining courses throughout the next month, ending on Saturday, November 7. After the first class, I'm sure we will have a lot more information to give you. Right now, we're just kind of learning as we go.

Also, we have received news recently that my blood hormone levels are all perfectly in line with where my doctor feels they should be, which has never been the case before. So, though we have not been blessed with one of our own yet, it is not absolutely out of the picture!

We will write more later ~ we plan on posting MUCH more often than we have been!

Thanks for your prayers, and thanks for checking in!!

I'm going to go watch "Police Women of Broward County" with Aaron now. :)