Thursday, September 4, 2014

Our Adoption Journey Update - September

I thought I'd give an update on our adoption journey progress for those interested (and as a record for ourselves)!

We've been diligently working on the amazing mound of paperwork that is needed to prove to the caseworkers that we are capable of being parents, aren't axe-murderers, and prove that we aren't dirt broke. I was really lucky to get a bunch of the work done before school started back, but once pre-planning started I've been so swamped that our progress came to a screeching halt. 

It's amazing how even with all of the excitement of a new school year, mentoring an intern and two new teachers in our school, and of course meeting a bunch of new kids and seeing my old kids...the adoption paperwork has been hanging over my head the whole time. The good news? After almost a month, we're finally getting a glimpse of light at the end of THIS tunnel. We're finally at the point where we were able to set up our home visit. This is where the caseworker comes to our home and checks it out for safety and space purposes, and also interviews us. The big date for that is October 3rd, so that gives us about a month to finish gathering the paperwork and to get our house in order and clean!

Here's one of the completed pages of
our profile. PLEASE tell me if you
think it looks bad...
All of the legal paperwork aside, there's a much bigger project on our plate right now...the adoption profile. This is the book (or pdf) that birth mothers will look at to help them choose a family to entrust with their child. I have to say that making this profile feels like the biggest and most important homework assignment of my life. We've scoured the internet, and I've done more "how to write a great adoption profile" google searches than is reasonably sane...and still I find myself sitting here at my computer stressing out about it. 



Anything you think we could do to
improve the look of the pages? 
It's pretty obvious that I'm no professional at this, but we really can't afford to hire someone to do it. Luckily, I have some practice with making things for TpT, otherwise I wouldn't even know where to start. 

We want our profile to be reflective of who we are, but we only have about 15 pages to do that. There are so many great things we'd love to share, but we've read over and over again that it's best to include lots of photos. Choosing those photos has been the really hard part. Oh, how I wish that we had taken more photos over the past 7 years! We've managed to get a few from family, but we're starting to hit the point where we just don't have great photos for certain things...

Of course I'm at the point now where I have been staring at it for so long that I can't even tell if I'm doing a good job or not anymore! And of course there's a fine line between taking my time with it and being a perfectionist. After all, this has to be done before we can make a match! 

Unfortunately, most of the pages look
like this right now...missing photos.
We need to come up with about 15 more photos and then I think our first draft will be ready to go! I'm looking forward, but nervous, to share it with friends and family so they can edit and critique it for us. And somehow I need to find the balance between being a 24/7 teacher, obsessively working on this profile, making things for my class and TpT(which is helping to pay for all this), being a good husband, blogging, and taking a little time for myself now and then! Have you ever wanted to flash forward a couple months?!

So yeah, that's it for now...home visit on 10/3, hopefully a completed home study and profile shortly after, and then everyone cross your fingers for a quick match with a birth mother and baby after that! Thanks for letting me vent! 

9 comments:

  1. Your pictures and words brought tears to my eyes. I think you're doing a great job with the profile so far. Wishing you the best of luck through the process!

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  2. The pages you've done so far look fantastic! I can understand wanting to fast forward a bit to get to the good stuff :)

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  3. Everything looks great. I don't have much to compare it too, since I've never seen this before, but I am crossing every body part of mine for smooth sailing for you guys! :) Theresa

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  4. I think it looks so great so far! I can't wait to see the whole thing. I am so excited for you and Killer B! :) :)
    Jivey

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  5. I am loving what you have put together so far! I just have such a great feeling about this! Sending you lots of positive thoughts! Hope you do well on your "homework" project!
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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  6. You are doing an amazing job and all of the stress and hard work will totally be worth it when you are finally able to adopt - then you can have more stress and hard work : ) Wishing the two of you the very best on your journey. I hear you on taking more pictures - we have a ton of pics of our kids as little ones - but very few of us grown ups!!

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  7. You are doing a wonderful job. I think the pages you shared with us show your heart. Maybe you could take pictures to fill in the gaps instead of trying to track down more photos. For example, a picture of you or your wife sitting in the rocking chair with a book from your childhood that you want to share. Or a picture with extended family to show all the love this baby will have. Maybe a pic of you as a youngster playing ball, enjoying holidays or birthday traditions. Just thinking aloud, not sure they are good ideas. Good luck on your journey!

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  8. This is so amazing for you! Everything looks great! Fingers crossed for a quick and smooth process!
    Michele
    Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans

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  9. I love the pictures you have chosen. It looks great so far. I want to adopt some day, so this post means something special to me. I think you could even share short little stories about you two. How you met, what you love about each other, a story from your wedding day, etc. Makes it feel like they know you. That idea just came to me. Good luck on your big adoption adventure! Praying that the right birth mother sees your profile, and it touches her heart.
    Angela
    Southern Fried Teachin’

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