Our Adoption Story: Almost Approved!
Our Adoption Story: Almost Approved!
It has been a little while since my last update Our Adoption Story: Highs and Lows. We have had more progress since then so I thought it was time to share that with you. Shortly after the last update, we met with our agency and had a meeting to see how we wanted to proceed. What we thought would be a somewhat short meeting turned out to be much more. We actually ended up finishing our Home Study!! YAY!! That’s a big accomplishment when going through this process. The Home Study alone takes several hours of talking with your agency, answering questions about your entire life and even meeting with our kids. Then the agency that you go through (if you go through one) has several hours ahead of them to write it all up. So our Home Study is all drafted up and just waiting for the final touches. All we have left to do is add a family picture, have our fire and health inspections done at our home and complete 10 hours of observation with another adoptive family! This may not sound like much, but we still have a way to go.
I’m not sure about many details for the health inspection, but I wanted to share some of the requirements to be able to pass the fire inspection. It was a lot more than I would have imagined. One thing that we have to get is a 5lb fire extinguisher that has the tag on it and have it maintained every year. Did you know there are actually fire extinguisher stores?? I didn’t. Also, if you have gas in your house (like we do), you may have to have someone come out and make sure there are no problems with any of your gas lines. You also need to make sure all the breakers in the breaker box are labeled, there are smoke detectors in each bedroom and that you have a carbon monoxide detector. Oh…..and we have to have a fire escape plan posted in our house in two separate places. If you’ve been following our story, then you know my husband travels for his job. So just having him home and getting him to help me get all of these things done is a task in itself.
The part that we have left that I am actually excited about is our 10 hours of observation. We had a family come and visit one day during our classes and that’s the family we get to observe. Luckily, they have been through this before. Otherwise, how awkward is it to go to someone’s home and watch them take care of their kids? The family seemed really nice the day we met them and the young man they adopted looked so sweet. We learned that he had a very hard life when he was younger, so I am hoping to learn how the family coped and handled that. I want to know how they helped him feel better about the situation, how they helped him understand that they loved him and would never hurt him. They also have biological children, like we do, so that will also be a great help.
Once we get all of this done, our Home Study will be finalized and we will be licensed to foster. Just so I don’t confuse anyone. Our intent is to fully adopt a child or children…for them to become a part of our family forever. But before you can legally adopt, you actually “foster” the child or children for 6 months in your home. This is the route we are taking…Foster to Adopt. But there is straight adoption and regular foster care too.
That’s the update for now, but I will definitely do another update when we are finally approved!
If adoption is something you are interested in or maybe your just curious to see what our journey is like, please check back for updates. I will be writing new parts to our story as they happen.
Helpful Websites:
TARE – Texas Adoption Resource Exchange
Childwelfare.gov – Adoption websites listed by state
Things you may not know about adoption:
- Did you know that Texas has an official Adoption Day? Well, we do and it is the Saturday before Thanksgiving, each year.
- Did you know that the average age of a child in foster care is 9 years old?
- Did you know that families who adopt a child from foster care may qualify for a federal tax credit even though they may not have had adoption expenses?
- Did you know that the average time that a child waits for a forever home is almost 2 years? And the older a child gets, the longer they may wait.
- Did you know that there are Adoption Assistance Resources on a state and national level?
