The night we waited for...

Last night was a wonderful night. Why? Because we attended our first class that will lead to us becoming a pre-adoptive home.

There are nine classes total - an orientation, and then eight educational courses that are designed to answer our questions and help us prepare for the challenges we may face when we adopt a child from the foster care system. Last night was the orientation, and Jeremy and I were both suprised to see so many people there - I'm guessing there were over 30 people, all interested in either becoming a foster parent or adopting from the foster care system. It warmed my heart to see so many so willing to take children with troubled pasts into their homes.

The orientation went over a lot of the basic details about the foster care system and what it takes to be an approved, licensed home. Although Jeremy and I will not be foster parents, in order to adopt from the state we have to become a licensed foster care parent, so we will learn a lot about what that involves.

We will have to undergo a homestudy before we can have a child in our home. The homestudy will take an in-depth (and somewhat intrusive) look into our home and lives and determine if our home is safe enough for a child to live in and if we are fit to be parents. We found out last night that we will be given paperwork to get that process started around the 5th class (which is roughly in the middle of August). Once we are given the paperwork and submit it we can expect to meet with the social worker who will do the homestudy within 30 days. The quicker we return the paperwork, the quicker we will be scheduled for the homestudy, so you can bet that we will have our paperwork finished with 24 hours of recieving it, lol. We will also have to have criminal background checks done, and have a doctor sign off that we are in good enough health to raise a child.

We were aware of all of the above requirements before the class, but it was nice to hear more details about all of it last night. In the actual classes (which start next week) we will learn about all sorts of things - loss, attachment, family relationships, discipline and several other topics I can't remember at the moment.

It will definitely be a learning experience, but we're excited to finally have started this process. We have been waiting a very long time to start our own family, and it feels so wonderful to have finally begun that journey :).