Due to popular demand.....Details!

Since our Mother's Day post, I have recieved numerous emails looking for details! So here they are!!!

YES! We are starting adoption number 2!

We have decided to use a different agency this time. We loved our previous agency but since they have made a lot of changes to their program and have a low placement rate, we have decided to follow our hearts elsewhere. We will be using an agency in Utah who does placements all over the country. We know many families who have used them and loved them so we are comfortable with their practice (lots of birthparent support, good ethical agency, etc).

So where are we in the process.... We have been collecting our paperwork, fingerprints, etc for a little over a month. We have our first (maybe only) homestudy visit tomorrow. Then we need to get our application for the agency completed, do our family profile, send it all in, get it approved, and then we will be officially waiting. We hope to be waiting by the end of June.

Questions we have been getting that you may be wondering too:

• How long will it take? We don't know! Domestic is variable depending on what you are open to, what birth moms are coming into the agency and what they are looking for. Our wait won't officially start until we finish all of the things I listed above. We are planning on a 6 month wait until we match. The agency typically matches people fairly quickly (within 3 months) but setting our goal out a little bit makes it less stressful for me! However since it is domestic adoption, it could be as quick as a day or as long as 4 years (or longer).
• Are we ready for baby #2? Our plan is to have two children. We would like them around 2 years apart. Because adoption isn't a guarentee and we don't know if it will be weeks, months, or years, we want to start now in case it does take a longer time. And if we match a week after we start officially waiting GREAT!
• What is a match? A match is when a birth mother has chosen you to parent their child. They may have a month or two left in their pregnancy or be close to delivery or have a baby they want to make an adoption plan for who is already born.
• Can a birth parent change their mind? Yes, this is one of the hard parts of domestic adoption. There are no guarentees. The birth parents can decide to parent at any time prior to their rights being terminated. Termination is based on the different state laws so will vary depending where our baby is born. Although a failed match would be very difficult, we know that the birth parents need to do what is best for them and we wouldn't want to adopt a child if the birth parents were not at peace with their decision to do an adoption plan.
• Will our baby be African American again? We don't know! We will be open to all races again (except Native American due to ICWA and extra legal issues). Our new agency does mainly African American and biracial adoptions so most likely the baby will be one of those.
• Will we request gender? We think maybe! Jared would like a boy, but we would be happy with either. I know they need more families open to boys so we may request a boy but haven't solidified that decision yet. (Some of you may disagree with having the option to choose since when you give birth you don't get to and if you do disagree, keep it to yourself! We have an option and will do what we think is best for our family.)
• How old will the baby be? We will be homestudy approved for 0-12 months, however will not adopt a baby that would be close enough to Addy to be in the same grade. So if we wait a short time, we would only be open for a 0-5 month old, if we wait longer that age range would expand. The majority of the babies placed with this agency are newborns and are placed directly after dismissal from the hospital.

If you have other questions, feel free to email them to me! We do reserve the right not to answer questions that may be inappropriate!

So we are excited about adoption number 2 and hoping that it goes smoothly. We will keep you posted on our progress and will let you know how things are going. No news is, well, no news!

Thanks again for your love and support through this process. As you may remember from our last adoption, it is the most exciting, amazing, stressful, scary, heart warming journey. There will be ups and downs and we are ready to face them.