because a post without pictures is boring, these pictures are our new wall hangings over the couch in the living room. The kids made the waiting for baby one.
Thought I'd give a quick update on the adoption process, just to keep us all on the same page :)
We have finished all our paper work and our homestudy (which gets ups approved by the state to be adoptive parents). That's what we've been working on since May, so, whew, it's done. Now we are in the "be ready and wait" stage. Our information is being presented to birthmoms and we are waiting to be chosen by one.
We are adopting in the US, a newborn minority (Africian American or bi-racial) baby, either boy or girl.
We are working with Christian Adoption Consultants, so our consultant gets many situations presented to her from several agencies across the country. When the birthmother's wishes match up with our family she sends us the information about the mother. If we decide we want to be "presented" to that birthmom then our information is given to her. The final decision is hers, she needs to be completely comfortable with the family that ends up raising the baby.
There are two main ways it will work from this point on. One, we can be matched with a baby that is not yet born. We would then know the due date, and probably the gender. At that point we would just be waiting for a phone call telling us that the birthmom is in labor and we can then head to the hospital.
The second scenerio is called a "whirl wind situation". This would be a baby that was born hours ago, or is in the process of being born, we would get matched quickly and jump in the car/airplane. The end result is the same, it's just a matter of how long we know before hand.
That's what the "get ready to wait" comes from, we've got the baby's bag packed and whatever can be packed and sit is ready so that if we need to grab it and run, we can. But we also know we might be waiting for months.
We are very excited, the kids are thrilled. We talk about the baby a lot, we pray for the baby and birth mom every day. The kids are super excited, they have never blinked an eye about the fact that the baby will not look like us. They've never thought it is odd that it will be a different color, a baby needs a family and here we are.
We know that not everyone will see it that way and that we'll have comments to deal with, but we already get lots of comments about the number of kids we have, so we'll just have new ones now that center around race, and adoption.
We are very ready to bring our new baby home. We know God created a specific baby for our family that will come to us through another mom. We are prayerfully waiting for Him to bring that baby home to us!
Posts
