Last night I spent some time reading through posts on the website www.circleofmoms.com, and some of them eased my fears and some of them created new fears. In reading one post where a couple had started their fost/adopt classes and started looking through a website similar to www.nwae.com and reading through the profiles of some children in their state that were available for adoption. They had fallen in love with the photos and the descriptions of 3 children that they thought would fit into their lives perfectly, but they were in the beginning steps of becoming certified and like me had fears that this process could take a long time due to the home study and background checks and what not.
Two weeks later, still with a long way to go, the woman couldn't stop herself and she inquired about the children. She learned that they had been in foster care for a few years and only two of them were living in the same home but that the 3 wanted to live together. Other families that were certified had inquired about the children but no further steps had been taken.
Another two weeks went by and the woman checked the website again and they were still there and her fost/adopt classes were done. This only put her at the half way point and they had a lot to do but she inquired about the children again and found that since her last inquiry that no one had asked about them again. She scrambled and started filling out stacks of forms and making appointments.
Nearly 6 weeks later the couple had finished everything and were waiting on the background checks to come back and then that would be that. She checked every week to see if the children were still there on the website, and they were. At the beginning of week 7 (after the fost/adopt classes) the background checks were in. The woman had been very detailed when writing about things that could come up in these checks (as they ask you to do) but they still wanted the couple to do an extra class due to something in her husbands background check.
The woman was in tears as she searched through the list of classes to find the next set of them. There was one that very night! With a heart full of hope she called but never got an answer. Desperate the couple showed up at the class and explained the situation and were permitted to take the class that would run the next 4 days, every night.
At the beginning of week 8 they made arrangements to meet with the children for dinner at McDonalds (one of the ones with a play area) on Wednesday night. The children had not seen each other in 3 weeks and at first were more interested in each other than the couple. An hour later they were all laughing and playing in a ball pit together. The social worker was very pleased and they made a date to spend time with the kids the next week but the social worker reminded them that these things take time.
That Friday the couple got a phone call from the social worker. The male child (who didn't live with his sister) was in the hospital with minor injuries as his foster home had burned to the ground that morning (electrical fire). The foster family did not have a place to take him and the social worker was looking for a place to take him. In the hospital the boy kept asking for the couple.
They went and picked him up from the hospital that night and a week later his two sisters moved in with the couple as well. The adoption was final on national adoption day of 2010.
Somethings are meant to be, you just need hope and to work hard toward your goal. Not all adoption placements happen this fast and this was a rare case, but I am in hopes that ours goes fast as well.
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