Our Adoption Journey
We thought adoption might be right for us a few years ago, but wanted to wait a while until we were certain (take some trips, just enjoy being young and independent...and get a bigger house!). Finally, this past January we moved, I finished my masters degree in May, and we finally felt ready (or as ready as we could be). We decided to go through state adoption rather than private adoption, where we thought we might be able to do the most good. We started P.R.I.D.E. (Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education) classes in September and graduated in November. The classes that we took were amazing, heartbreaking, and eye-opening. We came home from each of the classes with so many things to talk about and homework to complete. One week we had to reflect on how we want to parent and another we had to make genogram, just to name a few things. Each of the eight weeks provided us with a fresh perspective, introspective questions, and tough conversations. Hurricane Dorian pushed back our classes one week, so Andrew missed graduation--but I was able to ‘bring’ him utilizing FaceTime. All we had left post-graduation was to complete our home study and background checks. The holidays came and went and, for a little while, we thought that perhaps they decided that we would be terrible parents...since we had not heard from anyone come February. Then we got an email to confirm a home study date--we were both at work and saw the email around similar times. Both of us were elated. Now, with our home study complete and our background checks processing, it is finally hitting us that we may become parents...soon(ish)!
We’ve been wracked with questions for our parent-friends--ranging from: can 5 year olds sleep on a top bunk?; what do you do when your kid is the opposite gender than you, you are out alone with them, and you need to use the bathroom...do you pee in front of them??; how old are kids when they stop using bath toys?; what kind of bed does a 3 year old sleep in?; Will I be eligible for maternity leave to get our kid(s) settled; what pediatrician should we use? And the questions just keep on coming.
We don’t know what the future will hold for our new family, but we are so ready for all the crazy, all the messes, all the fun, and all the love! I’ll definitely be updating as we go along!
These pictures are the ones we used for our adoption profile, which our future kid(s) will get from their case worker! Hemi and Hendrix are looking forward to having a sibling/siblings, too!