Friday we had our initial intake appointment/home visit with the adoption agency we chose. I was extremely nervous leading up to it, but tried to just channel all that nervous energy into cleaning like a crazy woman. Mr. Ladd was playing it cool, which totally helped me, although as you can see he was anxiously awaiting the meeting as well. The adoption supervisor told me on the phone that there would be no need to prepare and this wasn't an inspection or anything; that they just liked to do the first meeting in the home to get to know us in our environment a little bit. But you try to have the first meeting with the people that make you parents and try not to clean as if a white glove inspection was taking place.
As with most things though, the nerves were for naught, because it went fabulously! Our dogs were incredibly well behaved, which was another worry of mine because they can be a bit crazy with new people, and we actually really enjoyed the meeting. One of the main purposes of this visit was to go over all the requirements and make sure we were clear on next steps. The more we learned about the requirements, the more at ease we actually were that the necessary steps were very doable, and that we had definitely picked the right agency. They offer tons of support throughout the whole process. We really liked the adoption supervisor, even chatting with him for an hour past when our appointment was scheduled to be over, and he told us he was really excited about us and didn't think we'd be waiting too long for a placement. Seriously the only thing we learned that was a bummer is we definitely will have to be putting up a wrought iron pool fence. It's an agency requirement, and the removable mesh ones won't cut it, which means our yard will be sporting a bit more of the prison chic look, but if that's the biggest disapointment for now, we'll take it. Plus, in the long run, a sturdy pool fence will provide some extra peace of mind, I'm sure.
So, next steps...
A pool fence guy is coming out to talk with us about specifics and requirements and what we can do for our space.
We start 12 weeks of required PS-MAPP training classes mid-June. They will be once a week for 3 hours each week, and we need to get the following in before then:
- Agency application
- Fingerprint Clearance Card
- Criminal History
- Counseling Release
- Income Verification
- Guardian Form
- Copies of marriage license, birth certificates, passports, driver's licenses, rabies vaccinations and licenses for dogs, auto registration, and insurance
We get physicals, and do a bunch more paperwork and tell our whole life stories basically in our personal profiles (Good thing I'm a writer) while going through training.
Within 60 days of completing our training classes we'll have our final home visit and inspections completed, and hopefully be certified and ready to accept placements.
We are really excited, and it's definitely more real now that our to-do list is tangible!
We'd love for you to join us on our journey to adopt (hopefully two siblings) from foster care. I'll be keeping everyone updated via the blog since I'm sure I will run out of time along the way to individually share details with everyone. If you'd like to follow along for what's sure to be an interesting story, make sure to sign up for all the latest posts by just entering your email address and hitting subscribe in the upper right corner of the blog.
