Adoption Process

I finally feel ready to blog about this 'publically'. Michael and I (and of course Logan) have been pursing the adoption process since August. It's been a fabulous journey and so interesting along the way!

It took a long time to gather all the information. They give you a few pages of information and a list of things they require, which in the end isn't all that 'complex' but just time consuming! Our biggest hold up was Michael's criminal record check. No, my husband is not a criminal, but there are pardoned "offenders" in this country, and the police station do not have any personal information on those people except for things like birthdates - really just no names. Anyways, Michael's birthday falls on the same day as one of these people and thus he had to go downtown Calgary to be fingerprinted. They then send the fingerprints to the federal gov who confirms or denies if Michael is the offender in question. Does that make sense? It truly was a pain as there was only specific days and times he was able to go, first come first serve basis. Thankfully with prayer and inspiration on our side we chose the day and time that allowed him to get in and out quickly.

It's been an incredible journey. We weren't sure how we were going to financially cover the cost of adoption but again, we have the Lord on our side and it hasn't been a problem at all. In fact we've had occasions where things have ended up costing half or less the full cost 'just because'.

We recently finished our home study. We had a wonderful lady meet with us about 3 times (twice in our home) and she evaluated us and grilled us thoroughly. Thankfully Michael and I dont' have any secret ghosts in our closets and we have a fairly normal relationship - which resulted in a great written up analysis of us! I am very very pleased with the study.

As of monday (should the printing/copying process go as planned) I will be dropping off our profile and a cheque at LDS social services in Calgary. We are finished the paperwork side! At this point our file goes to be reviewed and eventually when the time is right our profile will be placed with the other profiles for adoptive parents to look at and choose from.

What a wonderful experience this has been, and Michael and I are very excited what the following years will bring us. Adoption can take years, and we anticipate this as we hope to have an addition to our family one way or another - if we have a biological baby then our account is put on hold until after the baby is born - no additional cost thankfully, just put on hold. My inspiration to get the process going was in my opinion strictly to get into 'the system'. My case worker had told me the rules were to be changing soon, which i'm not sure that they are changed yet or not, but the rules will allow only infertile mothers an opportunity to adopt. I'm sure this is supply and demand based. My own mother said this goes in and out of the rule book all the time, and apparently right now it's going in!

Anyways, looking forward to whatever comes onto our plate in the future :)