Our homestudy has been scheduled for this Wednesday morning at 10:00! We didn't think it would be this soon but it is very exciting.
So this weekend we locked up all our alcohol and we unloaded our gun and locked it in a separate room then we locked the ammunition...
Just kidding Mom! (no alcohol or guns around our house!)
We did put up all the safety locks that we had to have and I am in the process of cleaning the house. They will check for smoke detectors, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, all medications locked behind a baby lock, all cleaner locked behind a baby lock, and for our house I think that is about it. If we had other stuff, like the stuff mentioned above, that would be checked too. Oh and they will check for adequate indoor and outdoor play space.
The rest of the homestudy is just an interview with us. Someone told us they may interview us separately, but I'm not sure about that.
The homestudy is approved in 2-4 weeks and then they can start showing our profile to birthmothers.
We got a baby care class scheduled
We are checking into an infant CPR class (hopefully one of the hospitals let us because the Red Cross charges $45 per person - the hospitals charge $10 per person).
We are attending a trans-racial adoption workshop with the Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children
Our support group starts Tuesday Feb. 7
(All these go towards our 24 hours of orientation/training that we have to receive)
So anyway, that is the update for now. More to come soon....
Monday, January 30, 2006
Friday, January 27, 2006
Fingerprints
Well, we have now been fingerprinted for the FBI. We went down to the St. Matthew's Police Station yesterday to have them fingerprint us. Since we used to live in Tennesse they don't trust us (you know there are some pretty shady people in Tennessee) so we not only had to have background checks done by the state of Kentucky but the FBI has to do a background check on us now. The good this is the police station didn't charge us for the figerprinting because we are adopting - wasn't that so nice of them!
I just ordered a bunch of books about adoption- some for me and some are children's books - some are general adoption some are about transracial adoption. So I am going to be well informed about all of this stuff - I think I ordered about 10 books (bye bye birthday money!). So if you have any questions I'm sure I have a book to answer your question. I got some kid books and if they are good I will probably get one for the nieces and nephews so that they understand what Uncle Daniel and Aunt Christy are doing. I found one kids book for $3.25 so it isn't too bad.
Well, that is all for now. They told me they would call about scheduling the homestudy soon.
I just ordered a bunch of books about adoption- some for me and some are children's books - some are general adoption some are about transracial adoption. So I am going to be well informed about all of this stuff - I think I ordered about 10 books (bye bye birthday money!). So if you have any questions I'm sure I have a book to answer your question. I got some kid books and if they are good I will probably get one for the nieces and nephews so that they understand what Uncle Daniel and Aunt Christy are doing. I found one kids book for $3.25 so it isn't too bad.
Well, that is all for now. They told me they would call about scheduling the homestudy soon.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Orientation
Well, many of you are curious about how the orientation went so here is a summary (please keep in mind this was a 4 hour meeting that was very informative and I could never remember everything! I will try to hit on the important things and the things you would be most interested in).
First of all the meeting overall...
There were about 12 couples at the meeting. These couples came from all over the state. All of them were probably between 35 and 45 years old except maybe one couple who was in their late 20s - so we were the youngest by far (this is my estimation - we did not go around the room and tell our ages). One guy there had a 25 year old son - he looked like he was about 50 (this is his second marriage). One couple was there who had adopted with the agency before so they got to add some comments since they had experienced everything first hand. So anyway they are our "competition" - hehe
At first I was a little discouraged because there were so many couples and they told us the state had changed the requirements for hours of training before a baby can be placed. The way the agency sets us up to receive the training takes about 6 months. So I was thinking it would probably be a year before we could get a baby. They cannot place a baby in your home without the required training hours. This training includes 6 sessions with an adoption support group - these groups meet once a month (therefore indicating at least 6 months before a baby), it also includes a baby care class (they are trying to set up a class at Norton (a hospital here in Louisville) for those of us who live in Louisville that is exclusively for adoptive parents), we also have to take an infant CPR class.
But....
For us the circumstances are a little different. She went on to talk about the homestudy. I have told all of you that we are in a "race" to get a letter signed by our lawyer and back to the agency. The first couple to get that letter back is the first to schedule their homestudy. But...she said one couple here has said they are open to bi-racial/african american adoption, so their homestudy will be first no matter what. Well, that couple just happens to be me and Daniel. I talked to her about it and she said we should have a baby by summer - since we are open to a baby of another race. So I asked about the required hours and she thinks we can speed up the process and pack more than one support group session into one month (the others are not allowed to do this but because there is such a need for adoptive parents of bi-racial babies they let us do that - and the fee is waived a bit too).
So all this means we will have our homestudy very soon and probably a match with a birthmother in the very near future. It also means that more than likely our baby will be of another race which could be African-American, bi-racial (white, black, hispanic, asian, etc. w/white), Asian, Hispanic, Etc. Some of you may have concerns about this and we are happy to talk to you about it. I have some articles about transracial adoption that I would be happy to share with you and I am going to be getting some more books on the subject. Just for future information we are going to have an around the world family! We want one of every color!
Other things to be aware of...
They were very concerned about us having too many visitors after the baby comes home (they talked about it 3 different times). They said you are taking the baby away from everything he/she knows (the baby learns his mother's voice and smell, etc.) and so it is important to make the baby feel at ease and to make sure the baby has a strong attachment to you. So they suggest no visitors for the first 5-7 days that you are home. They said even our family shouldn't come. So I'm going to do a little more research on that. I can pretty much guarantee our parents will be allowed to come but other visitors may have to wait until a little later. I just wanted to warn all of you up front. And absolutely no visitors will be allowed in the hospital unless the birthmother specifically says " I would love to meet your brother, mom, dad, etc."
Once they begin showing our profile to birthparents and we are chosen we will have 24 hours to decide if this is the match we want. We will be faxed several pages of information on the birthparents, the risks of this particular situation, estimated cost, family history of the birthparents - what they know, and stuff like that. We will have to look over this information, call our pediatrician if we have questions regarding the baby's health, and then we make the decision. If we say "yes" then we will meet the birthmother or both birthparents within 48 hours. We will stay in contact with birthmother until the baby is born.
That is all I can think of for now but I do have a lot of articles and things that I will probably share thoughts from in the near future. So keep looking and I will let you know when the homestudy will be soon!
First of all the meeting overall...
There were about 12 couples at the meeting. These couples came from all over the state. All of them were probably between 35 and 45 years old except maybe one couple who was in their late 20s - so we were the youngest by far (this is my estimation - we did not go around the room and tell our ages). One guy there had a 25 year old son - he looked like he was about 50 (this is his second marriage). One couple was there who had adopted with the agency before so they got to add some comments since they had experienced everything first hand. So anyway they are our "competition" - hehe
At first I was a little discouraged because there were so many couples and they told us the state had changed the requirements for hours of training before a baby can be placed. The way the agency sets us up to receive the training takes about 6 months. So I was thinking it would probably be a year before we could get a baby. They cannot place a baby in your home without the required training hours. This training includes 6 sessions with an adoption support group - these groups meet once a month (therefore indicating at least 6 months before a baby), it also includes a baby care class (they are trying to set up a class at Norton (a hospital here in Louisville) for those of us who live in Louisville that is exclusively for adoptive parents), we also have to take an infant CPR class.
But....
For us the circumstances are a little different. She went on to talk about the homestudy. I have told all of you that we are in a "race" to get a letter signed by our lawyer and back to the agency. The first couple to get that letter back is the first to schedule their homestudy. But...she said one couple here has said they are open to bi-racial/african american adoption, so their homestudy will be first no matter what. Well, that couple just happens to be me and Daniel. I talked to her about it and she said we should have a baby by summer - since we are open to a baby of another race. So I asked about the required hours and she thinks we can speed up the process and pack more than one support group session into one month (the others are not allowed to do this but because there is such a need for adoptive parents of bi-racial babies they let us do that - and the fee is waived a bit too).
So all this means we will have our homestudy very soon and probably a match with a birthmother in the very near future. It also means that more than likely our baby will be of another race which could be African-American, bi-racial (white, black, hispanic, asian, etc. w/white), Asian, Hispanic, Etc. Some of you may have concerns about this and we are happy to talk to you about it. I have some articles about transracial adoption that I would be happy to share with you and I am going to be getting some more books on the subject. Just for future information we are going to have an around the world family! We want one of every color!
Other things to be aware of...
They were very concerned about us having too many visitors after the baby comes home (they talked about it 3 different times). They said you are taking the baby away from everything he/she knows (the baby learns his mother's voice and smell, etc.) and so it is important to make the baby feel at ease and to make sure the baby has a strong attachment to you. So they suggest no visitors for the first 5-7 days that you are home. They said even our family shouldn't come. So I'm going to do a little more research on that. I can pretty much guarantee our parents will be allowed to come but other visitors may have to wait until a little later. I just wanted to warn all of you up front. And absolutely no visitors will be allowed in the hospital unless the birthmother specifically says " I would love to meet your brother, mom, dad, etc."
Once they begin showing our profile to birthparents and we are chosen we will have 24 hours to decide if this is the match we want. We will be faxed several pages of information on the birthparents, the risks of this particular situation, estimated cost, family history of the birthparents - what they know, and stuff like that. We will have to look over this information, call our pediatrician if we have questions regarding the baby's health, and then we make the decision. If we say "yes" then we will meet the birthmother or both birthparents within 48 hours. We will stay in contact with birthmother until the baby is born.
That is all I can think of for now but I do have a lot of articles and things that I will probably share thoughts from in the near future. So keep looking and I will let you know when the homestudy will be soon!
Monday, January 23, 2006
Don't Forget
Don't forget that tomorrow is our orientation and training.
Pray that they won't cancel again! Pray that we get to schedule our homestudy soon! Pray for twins (hehe - really I am serious)! Pray that we don't get scared away! (we won't - but a lady at church told us her friends were scared away after going to the orientation - I think because they say don't spank and don't do this and this...etc. and probably because they remind us that the birthmother can change her mind, etc. - but I don't think that stuff can scare me off - I'm on a mission!).
I guess that is about it for now.
Oh, and pray for the mother of the baby/babies because more than likely she is already pregnant. Pray for the baby/babies as they grow and develop.
We will update you on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning on how things went.
Pray that they won't cancel again! Pray that we get to schedule our homestudy soon! Pray for twins (hehe - really I am serious)! Pray that we don't get scared away! (we won't - but a lady at church told us her friends were scared away after going to the orientation - I think because they say don't spank and don't do this and this...etc. and probably because they remind us that the birthmother can change her mind, etc. - but I don't think that stuff can scare me off - I'm on a mission!).
I guess that is about it for now.
Oh, and pray for the mother of the baby/babies because more than likely she is already pregnant. Pray for the baby/babies as they grow and develop.
We will update you on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning on how things went.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Sophia Katherine
Well, I just wanted to let you know that Sophia Katherine Davis (our niece) was born today - on my birthday, Jan. 11, 2006! What a wonderful birthday present. She was born to Daniel's oldest brother Matthew and his wife Melanie. They have two kids Will and Alex. So now I have 4 nieces and 2 nephews and more on the way! There may be more 2006 babies than 1980 babies in our family - we have 3 1980 babies right now ( I guess we aren't babies we are 26!). 2006 is definitely the "year of the baby" for our family. Oh and today also kicked off the "year of the party!" Just in case you need to know that information! Well, I hope you can read this in this light pink!
I don't have a picture yet but hopefully I will soon!
No adoption news today there probably won't be until after the 24th.
I don't have a picture yet but hopefully I will soon!
No adoption news today there probably won't be until after the 24th.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Orientation
Last night I e-mailed the director of the agency to see if they had rescheduled our orientation. I had an e-mail this morning saying that they have scheduled it for the 24th. So I imagine we can get our homestudy done in February - hopefully - worst case probably March.
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