Adoption Training

Mark and I have been racing through the paperwork for adoption for the last 2 months. This past Thursday, March 11th, we had our second interviews with our case worker. He commented to me about how quickly we had gotten everything done. I felt like we were taking a long time, but he said that we had gone through it at warp speed. Yea for us! I just feel an urgency to get everything done as quickly as possible, probably because I feel like we have wasted 5 years already not having children.

On a side note, I can say that rarely do I feel a conection with anyone from the scriptures, particularly from the Old Testament. Mark and started reading the Old Testament together, again, and today I was reading to him the story of Sarah and Hagar. I can truly say that I can now relate to her. I can understand how difficult it must have been for her to have a loving relationship with Heavenly Father when he promises her husband children, and then made her barren. I must say that for me it is a daily struggle. I often feel that he loves me, but then I have the daily reminder that we don't have children, although Mark is promised that he will.

Back to the adoption process. Mark and I mailed off the forms for the background checks, and so the only thing really holding us up was the adoption training. They LDS Family Services prefers that we get training from the FSA, Families Supporting Adoption, but they have their meetings on Wednesday nights, when I have class and Mark has Scouts. Fortunately, they sent us a list of books, articles, and videos that we can watch as well, and then we just log the hours that we spend reading/watching them. We only need 8 hours to finish the adoption application, and Mark and I are proud to say that we finished all 8 hours.

We have been reading and discussing adoption much more than that, but we haven't kept track of the time spent on it up until now. Needless to say, we will continue to read more about it, as we both feel very inadequate for the task ahead. Not only is parenting extremely difficult, but then there are the added challenges that come with adoption.

Some of the things that we have found interesting is the benefits of open adoptions. We have decided that we want to leave that up to the birth mother, as far as how open she would like it. After all, it is her sacrifice that will provide us the opportunity to be parents. From several studies it has been shown that children, in general, fare much better with open adoptions.

Sad fact that we were told from our case worker, he said that there aren't as many newborns available for adoption anymore because women either, 1) decide to parent the child on their own, or 2) opt for abortion. He said adoption doesn't appear to be a choice for many of these mothers. Very SAD!

Needless to say, we will be very grateful to the woman who decides to carry her child, and then trust us to raise it. We sincerely hope that we will receive a baby someday!