Unexpected

When we decided that we would take the step toward learning more about adoption this past summer I began to do more in depth reading about the experiences of others on the Internet.  The process did not seem encouraging from the very beginning.   It seemed as though many families were waiting over a year just to hear back from their local Children's Aid Society (CAS) and then another year or more before being invited to the PRIDE training and then even more waiting for their home study to be completed and the report submitted in order to be considered "adopt ready".   This is all before any possible placement of a child in their home. 

Our experiences thus far have not followed this path.  I made the initial call to inquire further about CAS adoption in late August and was told that I would be sent an application along with an invitation to attend PRIDE training in September.  After a couple of weeks without the package arriving I did some follow up and soon after the application and invitation to training came in the mail.  We began training at the end of September.  The 3 hour training sessions took place one night a week for 9 weeks.  Some weeks were more informative than others but each time we took something new away to think about. 

During those weeks we were able to submit our application and forms to have our background checks and police checks done.  In December we able to secure a doctors appointment to complete our medicals and our police checks came back a few weeks ago and we were assigned a resource worker.

I am excited to move on to this step.  I had hoped that we would gain more clarity through the PRIDE training.  Although it was informative and necessary it didn't move us much toward our decision.   The home study is supposed to delve deeper into determining a family's preparedness for handling the changes that come along with adoption.  I anticipate with the schedule it has been following so far that we will have completed the home study before spring comes . I will not be surprised though if the process begins to slow down considerably after having read how many families have dealt with long wait times throughout their process.

Even if we are deemed adopt ready and choose to pursue adoption, placement is one aspect of the process that follows no schedule. It could be 2 weeks before we are approached about a possible placement or it could be 4 years or possibly never.

The big questions we face include: "do we want to move forward to grow our family through adoption?" and "can we work as a foster family?".  Originally we had only wanted to pursue adoption.  We have been recently wondering about fostering and whether we could accommodate the school schedule of a foster child into our lives.   The early morning buses and afternoon arrivals, the homework and social issues that come from the school environment are all things we have to think long and hard about.  For most families it is just common place to accept the adjustments to family life that institutionally schooling brings but it really would be a change for our family. 

We had our first homestudy interview just this week and will be continuing with more interviews in a couple of weeks.   It was painless.  A nice introduction to the homestudy process and a gentle beginning to what may prove to be quite invasive in to our personal lives.  The resource worker was friendly and approachable. I look forward to meeting with her soon to work through this process.