The rest of the story

I ended the last blog at the point where we decided to adopt domestically. So here's the rest of the story. For anyone who's adopting domestically, here's some advice: don't look at the waiting children's list until you are completely done with training and your home study. Here's why...we fell in love with a boy named Shawn. His smile was beautiful and we just knew he would be ours. We prayed for him and looked at his picture daily. We rushed to get all our trainings done and we really did finish them quickly. A few weeks before we completed everything, Shawn's picture went off the waiting children's list. We were heart broken. So as you can see, it's not a great idea and we learned a lesson : )

So at our home study(which really is not as scary as you might think) our caseworker asked if we would be open to foster care. Initially we had decided on straight adoption. Greg said, what else do we need to do? and when she said nothing, we agreed. That was in January. Then the waiting began...

We started getting emails from our agency with pictures of children. If you want to submit, you email back and wait some more. The adoption coordinator is allowed to choose two home studies to be sent on to that particular child's case worker. Then they look at all the home studies and choose 3 to go to the final staffing where they pick the family. As you have probably already figured out, it's a long and frustrating process. We waited patiently, okay maybe Greg waited patiently but I didn't! It seemed like forever!!

On Friday April 8th, 2011, Greg got a phone call from our agency asking if we would be willing to take two foster children, ages 6 and 7. He immediately called me and after a short discussion we said yes! After rushing to clean out our two rooms, the kids arrived less than two hours after the initial phone call. It was like two little tornadoes came in our house, ha! While we tried to fill out all the information and sign all the papers they opened every drawer and closet we have! Eventually we finished and the CPS workers left. We went through their two bags they brought with them and believe me, it wasn't much. That night was a bit of a blur. Surprisingly enough, they asked if they could call us mom and dad. Of course, we said yes.  After we got them in bed, Greg and I looked at each other and knew that our lives would never be the same....we were parents.