Tuesday, March 6, 2012

A Bittersweet Day - A New Journey Begins

Week 1 - Information Overload
Last Tuesday, we applied to American Adoptions (AA) - a national adoption agency located in Kansas that specializes in Domestic Infant Adoption. Our initial application was accepted, and now we are in the INFORMATION OVERLOAD stage of adoption. Who knew how much stuff there is to learn! It is CRAZY! Because AA (no that is not Alcoholics Anonymous - but we may need that by time we are done with all of this!) is not licensed in Colorado, we need to find a Colorado agency to do our Home Study - which will likely take 6-8 weeks - maybe longer. This digs into our history, finances, our house itself (better find our cleaning supplies and rubber gloves!), requires background and fingerprint checks, etc... In addition, we have to complete a very extensive Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ) with our preferences for our future child. (ie: race of baby, our acceptance of smoking, alcohol consumption and drug use of mother during pregnancy, etc...) We also have to complete information so that the agency can put together our print & on-line profiles. This includes gathering lots of photos, and also working on our video profile. All of these steps have to be taken before we are even officially activated with American Adoptions and our profile can begin to be shown to potential birthmothers. If we seem a little out of touch and overwhelmed over the next couple of months, WE ARE! Pray for us - we will need it as we travel this path.

2 comments:

Sue said...

No one is better equipped to handle the home study than you! It will be stressful, but I know you know how to get things done and get them done well. Congratulations on embarking on the journey!

Holli and Chris said...

Thanks Sue!
If you have any funny stories about your home study, or just plain words of encouragement for us - I'd love to hear them. You & Bob (and Beth & Jeff too) are such inspirations to us!