November

I decided we should update everyone on our life. This last month has been pretty hectic, even for us. At the beginning of November Dan and I had our physicals for adoption licensing. The doctor found a large lump in Dan’s throat, he said it felt as though his thyroid was more than 4 times the size it should be. He gave us a few “could be”s (including cancer) and sent us for more tests. Nothing can get you as nervous as the word cancer. For 3ish weeks I was a complete wreck but all his blood work came back perfect and there are just a few nodules that are probably nothing. We are breathing easy and have further confirmed our belief that God answers prayers.

When I called to set up our next appointment with our adoption worker it did not go as expected. I was told that we would not be allowed to adopt but we would be up for review in 6 months and than we could start the process again. When she started talking about this I kind of shut off and didn’t listen to much she said after that and cried for about 5 hours.

After a few weeks playing phone tag we talked to her again and got the real story. Apparently if we wait the 6 months they will consider us “infertile” which means we will be given priority when it comes to adoption. Her and I talked for while and agreed that we could start the process again in after we got our foster license. Here is where it gets confusing: You are not supposed to be allowed to be a foster parents and an adoptive parent. That is what we have always wanted to do, adoptive parents with Emergency Shelter infant foster children. The teachers of our classes and a few social workers we spoke to said we would not be allowed to do this because it’s “cheating the system.”

So here is our plan now: We are going to be allowed to be foster parents, we are going to be able to start that process in January. It should take 2-3 months, again it is the state and as we are learning you can’t believe “them.” Than we can start up the adoption process again, which means all we should have is 2 more interviews and than we’ll be licensed as adoptive parents.

We may or may not be able to do emergency shelter; I have been getting mixed signals on this one. One social worker said we could and another said they only want experienced foster parents. At any rate we are hoping to be a foster home for children under 6 months. This will allow us to have the foster children in our room and leave the kids room open for 2 adoptive placements.

Dan and I both were able to talk to our adoptive worker who said she can’t wait to help us be parents she thinks we will be pretty great at it. And since she’s the one we have to depend on to be our voice and help decide which kids we will be chosen for.
Now we have 3(ish) months to get ready for an infant. I about had a heart attack when I figured that out. Child proofing our condo, getting the kids room ready! Not to mention all the things we need to acquire, we have a crib, some clothes and baby toys…..I’m pretty sure we are going to need more than that for a baby! Lol thank you Craigslist!

Hope this note finds you all well and I was able to share with all of you where we are at!
God Bless!
Katybeth