Our profile book has been printed and shipped to Bethany's office. To make the book a little more personal, we wrote a letter to the expectant parents. Thought you would like to read it:
Hello!
Thank you for taking time to look at our book. We also want to thank you for considering us to be the adoptive parents of your child. We hope that you have been able to learn a little about us and what our lives our like.
Since deciding in December that we wanted to adopt, we have been thinking about you, the expectant parents, and the baby you carry. We are so excited and thankful that you have made the decision to make an adoption plan for your child. We are sure that getting to this point has not been easy for you. We pray for you and your baby often.
We cannot wait to open our home to a baby. We have been waiting for this day for about 3 years because we have not been able to have biological children.
We want you to know that we will love your baby so much, and that all of our extended family is equally thrilled to welcome a new baby. We will continue to pray for you throughout the rest of your pregnancy, your labor & delivery, and for all the days that will follow.
Jeremiah and Amanda
Showing posts with label adoption plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption plan. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Home Study is Finished!
Our case worker came to the house yesterday for the third and final visit. She had several more questions for us, but this time about our community. She wanted to know what we thought about living in the country, what we liked about it and didn't like. She asked about our neighbors...which are few. We were happy to tell her that all of our neighbors attend our church and they are really good people. We also had to tell her how many miles to the nearest hospital in case of emergencies. She even wanted to know where we would send our children to school (James Valley was our answer, by the way).
After she finished with her questions, she walked around the house just to check things out. She took the water temperature (ours was perfect at 120 deg). She asked how many smoke alarms we had. You're supposed to have one in every bedroom and at least one on every level. We have to pick up a few more.
She ended the session by working through our adoption plan. This is a list of items we filled out that they use to match us with an expectant mother. It went mostly well, but we do have some things to think about. We also came up with a list of goals to work on over the next few weeks.
Overall, it went really well. We are now done with all of the preliminary work. She will write up our report and send it to us for review. After they approve it, we will become a waiting family. She tells us that it will be approved next week.
On a side note: In celebration of being done with all this adoption paperwork stuff, we ordered a crib and a changing table for the baby's room. In the picture are the pac-n-play, stroller, and rubber duckies. We're going with a brown, green, and yellow theme since we won't know the gender of the baby. Either way, we figure it's time to start decorating the baby's room!
After she finished with her questions, she walked around the house just to check things out. She took the water temperature (ours was perfect at 120 deg). She asked how many smoke alarms we had. You're supposed to have one in every bedroom and at least one on every level. We have to pick up a few more.
She ended the session by working through our adoption plan. This is a list of items we filled out that they use to match us with an expectant mother. It went mostly well, but we do have some things to think about. We also came up with a list of goals to work on over the next few weeks.
Overall, it went really well. We are now done with all of the preliminary work. She will write up our report and send it to us for review. After they approve it, we will become a waiting family. She tells us that it will be approved next week.
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| Yellow Rubber Duckies in the Baby's Room |
Saturday, February 5, 2011
More Things To Think About
Thursday's meeting with the adoption agency was a big one for us. It was a little bit of training about adoption and a little bit more information to help us make some important decisions. It definitely gave us a few more things to think about.
A majority of this meeting focused on our adoption plan. The plan is divided into two major sections: adoption preferences and openness plan. As we work through the adoption preferences we are to decide whether we will welcome a child that has correctable medical conditions, severe medical conditions, a different race than ours, among other things. We also have to decide our preferences about the social and medical history of the expectant parents, such as, mental illnesses, drug/alcohol use, HIV infection, etc. While these decisions may seem simple (Who wouldn't adopt a child no matter what?) there's a lot more involved than just checking yes or no. As I think about a child with several medical disorders, I have to be honest that we may not be the best parents for that child. For example, we have no experience in caring for a child with something like Cerebal Palsy. There are parents who would be much more qualified for providing outstanding care for a child with that condition. Then I think, "Well, certainly no parents are prepared for that." So, this is the sort of thing we need to think and pray through.
The second part of the plan addresses our openness. This asks us to decide what sort of relationship we want with the birth parents. The options are open, semi-open, and closed. The "closed" option means that we will have no contact with the birth parents and the child will not know the parents while he/she is growing up. The "semi-open" option means that we will have access to the birth parents and can send them notes and pictures, though the child will not have contact with them. The "open" option means that we (including the child) will be able to meet the birth parents. This is another difficult decision and we have received advice going in both directions. It's hard to know what the right/best thing is to do. We watched a video about "openness" and it involved birth mothers. One mother said the hardest part after giving birth was leaving the hospital in a wheelchair, but not having a baby in her arms. I can't imagine how difficult that must be.
Our prayer needs:
- Pray for us as we work through the adoption plan and decide on preferences about the child.
- Pray for us as we think about and make decisions regarding our openness.
- Continue to pray for our finances. Currently we have 27% of the total we need at placement.
- Pray for that mother out there who is carrying the baby that will grow in our home.
We continue to be excited about this journey and definitely see God at work, but it can be quite emotionally draining. It will be oh so worth it in the end.
A majority of this meeting focused on our adoption plan. The plan is divided into two major sections: adoption preferences and openness plan. As we work through the adoption preferences we are to decide whether we will welcome a child that has correctable medical conditions, severe medical conditions, a different race than ours, among other things. We also have to decide our preferences about the social and medical history of the expectant parents, such as, mental illnesses, drug/alcohol use, HIV infection, etc. While these decisions may seem simple (Who wouldn't adopt a child no matter what?) there's a lot more involved than just checking yes or no. As I think about a child with several medical disorders, I have to be honest that we may not be the best parents for that child. For example, we have no experience in caring for a child with something like Cerebal Palsy. There are parents who would be much more qualified for providing outstanding care for a child with that condition. Then I think, "Well, certainly no parents are prepared for that." So, this is the sort of thing we need to think and pray through.
The second part of the plan addresses our openness. This asks us to decide what sort of relationship we want with the birth parents. The options are open, semi-open, and closed. The "closed" option means that we will have no contact with the birth parents and the child will not know the parents while he/she is growing up. The "semi-open" option means that we will have access to the birth parents and can send them notes and pictures, though the child will not have contact with them. The "open" option means that we (including the child) will be able to meet the birth parents. This is another difficult decision and we have received advice going in both directions. It's hard to know what the right/best thing is to do. We watched a video about "openness" and it involved birth mothers. One mother said the hardest part after giving birth was leaving the hospital in a wheelchair, but not having a baby in her arms. I can't imagine how difficult that must be.
Our prayer needs:
- Pray for us as we work through the adoption plan and decide on preferences about the child.
- Pray for us as we think about and make decisions regarding our openness.
- Continue to pray for our finances. Currently we have 27% of the total we need at placement.
- Pray for that mother out there who is carrying the baby that will grow in our home.
We continue to be excited about this journey and definitely see God at work, but it can be quite emotionally draining. It will be oh so worth it in the end.
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