Our adoption process--the beginnings

Hello everyone! Chris and I have a lot going on in our lives, so I thought it would be fun to start a blog.

Most of you know about our desire to have children and that we've been going through the adoption-certification process in the state of Arizona. Since this is my first blog, I'd like to chronicle our journey thus far. I promise my posts will be shorter after this!

On November 4, 2006, we attended the Orientation seminar. This is the first step of going through the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) to adopt children who are in the foster care system. We learned there are nearly 10,000 children of all ages in Arizona who are out of their homes due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. After the session, we went out to lunch at one of our favorite spots--Richardson's (at 16th St and Bethany Home)--to talk about whether we'd like to adopt children through this process. We decided we would take the next step.

Anyone wanting to adopt in this method needs to have an agency. So, I called one of the local agencies and discovered that the 30 hours of training we needed would be given 2 evenings per week. Given my job travel responsibilities, I knew this agency wouldn't work for us. The woman I was speaking with recommended another agency that offers their sessions on weekends. So, our agency is Arizona's Children Association, and the first step was to meet Erin. She came to our house to interview us. We liked her very much and have relied on her to help guide us through the process so far.

Next, we started our training sessions. Our first class was Saturday, January 27, 2007. At first, it was just going to be 5 Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Then, there was an issue with the state, and they had to extend them for 7 weeks, with several half-days, instead of full. This caused the first bit of frustration for me in that if that hadn't been changed, Chris and I would have both completed the course by March 10. But, because of my Baker & Taylor sales meeting on March 3, I had to miss a Saturday (2 sessions); it was required that I make up both of them. Unfortunately, the make-up classes weren't until April 24 and May 1, so it added nearly an extra 2 months to our process. Meanwhile, we'd been completing and submitting reams of paperwork, as well as "roadwork" from the courses. As you can imagine, Chris was not a big fan of the classes or, well, any of it.

Another requirement was that our caseworker visit our house to take a tour and interview both of us. Our caseworker is Elizabeth, so she came to visit sometime in April. It was quite a long evening--she interviewed us together, as well as each of us individually.

Oh, and we had to have 5 reference letters, so we volunteered many of you, and 5 people were sent a form to complete. Thank you to those of you who vouched for us!

A Life-Book was also required, so I had fun putting together a Creative Memories scrapbook of our home, family, and life.

We also had to be fingerprinted and submit them to both DES and DPS (the Department of Public Safety). Chris had to have his fingerprints re-done once, and I've now done mine 3 times. This is a big source of frustration. We didn't know my fingerprints were rejected until the end of May (it takes 6-8 weeks to process them at DES!!!). The police departments only offer the service once a week, so they were finally submitted again on 5/29. I have no idea why two departments need our fingerprints. We have no criminal record and are responsible people--all this finger-printing seems excessive while there are children out there who need homes.

So, anyway, our nearly-completed Home Study (which is the term for all of our paperwork, the interviews, the course-work, etc, that Elizabeth compiled for us), is in the court system. We're waiting for my approved fingerprints to get to the judge, and then, (keeping our ink-stained-fingers crossed) we'll be certified to adopt children!

You may all be wondering what happens next? Well, after we are certified, if Chris and I seem to be a match for any children who become available for adoption, we will get a call to see if we are interested. We'll get a brief description of the children, and if we would like to adopt them, our names get thrown into a pool of other interested people. The caseworker for the children (CPS), our caseworker (Elizabeth), and several other folks, then have a meeting to discuss the family that would make the best home for the particular children. They review everyone's Home Study and look at our Life-Books. If we are chosen, and if we are very, very serious about adopting them, we can meet the children and possibly move ahead with bringing them into our home.

You may also wonder how the children are chosen for us? Well, we have submitted a lengthy list of the kinds of things that we feel we want/can handle. For example, we've chosen the ages of 0-7, no severe physical or mental handicaps, and we'd like 2 siblings. Most of the children in the foster care system have had a rough time of it in their lives, as you can imagine, so we need to be willing to accept some emotional and behavioral issues. We learned a lot about working with children with these special needs, and you know me, I've also been doing a lot of reading. It's scary to imagine some of the possibilities, but on the other hand, by providing a stable, loving home, we hope we can help our kids grow up into healthy, responsible, happy people.

We're hoping we'll be certified by the end of July. Please keep us and our future children in your thoughts and prayers! I'll keep you posted.