Adoption Updates

Hey everyone. While we know that the idea of our adoption doesn't exactly excite everyone we know, we would still like to extend the invitation for all of you to check this site frequently for updates. We are going to try to be quick about getting updates on here as they come. We also would like to thank so many of you that have sent us such warm, supportive messages about our journey. It means a lot to us. More than you know.

Now on the topic of updates. We wanted to explain where we are in the process.
We are adopting a child from the US that is from the foster care system.
They will be anywhere from infant to 5 years old. Infant is very unlikely since it usually takes at least a year or more to for them to become legally available for adoption after being removed from the home. We have listed that we are open to adopting a sibling set of 2 but no more. We don't know yet which state they will be from. We also don't know if it will be a girl or boy or one of each. That will depend on who we are matched with. We have completed our application process and submitted all of our paperwork. In order to be matched with a child(ren) we have to have what's called a homestudy completed and on file. A homestudy consists of a social worker visiting our home and interviewing us and writing a report on his findings. It also consists of physical reports from our physicians, financial documentation, online adoption training courses, copies of certificates, and clearances from the past two states we have lived in. Sooooo, the homevisit is completed. The clearances have been requested, the physicals have been done, the training is complete and so on. The only thing we are waiting on for our homestudy package to be complete is for the clearances to come in and for the doctor to finish writing our report (they said it would be Friday). Once all of this documentation is gathered, we'll send the package into the adoption agency we are working with and they will file it. Then, as we are interested in children on the listing, we will inquire about them and our homestudy package will be sent to the child's social worker. There are already several we are interested in. If they agree that we are a good match for them, they will approve us and we will then make travel arrangements to meet the child. We will need to stay in the child's state for about 3 weeks or so to have gradual visits with the child. Eventually they will end up spending the nights with us in our hotel there but at first they will just be doing day visits. If the child is immediately ready to spend the night with us, they will be allowed but that will just depend on the child. Once everyone agrees that we're all a "good fit" for each other, we'll be bringing them home. We are hoping to be able to travel to GA to introduce the child(ren) to everyone but we aren't sure what they'll allow. These children have typically been through an awful lot and have usually had bad experiences with moving around a lot and feeling secure. So we'll just have to see what the social worker will allow us to do with them for travel.

Hope this helps explain it all a bit better for you all. But please, by all means, feel free to ask any questions you want. We are open to questions and actually enjoy answering them. We've taken a lot of time to learn about this type of adoption so we would love to answer any questions you might have. We look forward to sharing our journey with you all.

Love,
Allison and Eddie