A Child For Us

First Interview…

On the one hand, our interview was pretty short and sweet, on the other hand, it was quite a lot of information to take in. I have to be honest, I felt a little nervous going in but our social worker is so sweet I felt at ease as soon as I saw her. And for anyone wondering, the first interview is pretty easy. Nothing to worry about at all. It’s the second one, the individual one, that asks a ton of questions. To ease us into the process they only asked two questions today: 1) Explain our jobs… likes and dislikes and 2) What led us to our decision to adopt? Pretty simple.

Next, we signed some paper work:

• Statement of Understanding - Changes in Family Status (meaning we must inform the agency of any changes, such as, family composition, marital status, employment status or health)
• Adoption Release and Consent Form (accepting risks involved in adoption outside of Bethany’s control)
• Adoption Services Contract (services and payment schedule)

Then, we received the following packets:

• Background Investigation Packet (includes fingerprinting instructions to be done at a police precinct; $50 ea for processing; $10 ea for fingerprinting; money orders or cashier’s checks only)
• Child Protective Services Forms (Child Protective Services Central Registry Release of Information form; $7 ea; money orders or cashier’s checks only)

Packets to be returned close to second interview. Although timing is everything as there can only be 90 days from time the packets are submitted to adoption approval. 

All medical (HIV, TB and drug test results) must be turned in as well.

We have signed up for another Educational Workshop on 4/12 from 6:30-9pm. This course addresses interracial and inter-country adoption. So we will be exhausted after three, 3 hr long, seminars in one week.

We were able to ask questions. First one was obviously time frame. What could we expect? She said the earliest we could get approved is by June… latest by August. We were commended on our quick turnaround on our formal application (go us! there are some things I don’t procrastinate on ;) And here is where it gets a little complicated. Bare with me as I try to sort it out. Biracial children are sort of few and far between (I was a little surprised by this). Only two were actually placed last year. And technically, there are two categories of biracial children: african-american/caucasian and then caucasian/asian and caucasian/latino. The children with latino or asian decent are included in the caucasian pool while the african-american children are in their own. More folks have issues with adopting any child with african-american blood. Will our wait time be shorter than average? We can’t really say at this point. We will fill out a more detailed form as to exactly what we are willing/not willing to accept (so not looking forward to that). But we know that we have to both agree to the same things… absolutely no coercion. 

So that was our meeting in a nutshell. Lots of info in only 50 minutes time.