Our First Class

We attended our first adoption class Tuesday night. Our anticipation/nervousness was growing as we entered the building because we honestly had no idea what we were about to experience. Five minutes into the class we realized that we were surrounded by 10 people just like us. It is a class set up for people wanting to adopt, as well as, fostering children and teens. Some of the stories of how everyone arrived in the class were similar to the path we have been down. But, some of the couples there were just genuinely wonderful people wanting to help a child in need.

In our first class, we did a few group building exercises to help everyone get comfortable with each other. We talked about some of the different situations where children have needed to be adopted or fostered and what feelings they might have or behaviors they might show. We learned how to recognize some of our strengths and needs when it comes to parenting a child. We were given some handouts that described in detail what to expect in the upcoming classes. We are looking forward to our next class and we'll keep everyone posted as we continue. We love you all and thanks for the words of encouragement and prayers.

April 20

There are a lot of things involved in adopting a child. Our agency requires all adoptive couples to complete a training course. It will be once a week for 10 weeks. As far as we can tell, it will be a course to determine if Gary and I are ready to adopt, among other things. They will inform us of what emotions the birthmother is experiencing and what to expect before and after adoption. They will instruct us on preparing our portfolio and scrapbook for the birthmothers. They will also inform us on everything that is involved in the home study, which we were told would be conducted after the 10 week course. Our first class is May 4. We are excited and anxious and ready to begin. We will post more later and let all of you know how our first class went. Thank you all so much for your genuine excitement and continuing words of encouragement. We love you all so very much!