Adoption ??!!!

[SueC]

Peggy, I know someone with a similar story--they went to Russia with plans of adopting two children (aged 2 and 3) and come to find out they had 3 other siblings that were school-aged. They couldn't bear to split them up so they went from being a couple with no kids to a family of 7--can you imagine??? The kids were a little "culture shocked" as well, especially the older ones, but as far as I know everything is going pretty well!

[DCJenn]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone!

We're getting excited and overwhelmed- mostly overwhelmed at the sheer amount of paper that is required!

We had our first meeting today with the social worker. (and in a funny note, she has a BSW intern who will be doing the homestudy and interviews with her- it just put me back to when I had to do my BSW internship! and although it's another unrelated story- I am still working with adults with disabilities- lo these many years later!)

Anyway- the list of required documents grows daily- now we have to get a copy of our driving records, a copy of a police report from DC stating that we're not criminals; my mom, my friend Leslie, Rick's friend Dave (our best man) and our friend Jeannette have to write our references. (I told Les that perhaps this might not be the time to mention the night I drank a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill and then puked it up all over her mom's new white rugs...). Plus we have to write our autobiographies (3 to 4 pages- although one section is about our careers and since my resume is two pages long...my story might be lengthy!).

Then in two weeks Rick has his first meeting alone and the following week it's my turn. Then she comes to our house to make sure we don't starve the pets and live in squalor. (and you can be sure that I will make sure that she undertands that I had nothing to do with the purple carpeting all over my house! Please- I have some taste!) After that- who knows, I guess it's more compiling of paper.

I will keep you all posted!

Jenn

[PrincessFiona]

Wow, Jenn! Do you have any idea of the timeframe that you two are looking at?

kris

[HeartRN]

How exciting!!! Keep us posted.

[DCJenn]

Kris-

I have heard of the process taking five months from first application to child at home, to as long as 18 months- so hopefully we're somewhere in between. Rick will be at Children's in DC for April, May and June which will make it very hard for him to leave and fly to Russia. (His director has told him that he can go whenever we get the call, but his director has no control over what they do at Children's so he'll have to go first thing and let them know what's going on) So, we'll see.

Jenn