| After learning that we could not have any children of | | | | adoption. |
| our own we thought about adopting. We had heard | | | | We waited for weeks and didn't hear anything from |
| about the abundance of children waiting to be | | | | the adoption agency. The agency had a website with |
| adopted and that they would appreciate having a | | | | pictures of children up for adoption that we kept up |
| home to call their own. | | | | to date with only to find out that the state never |
| We took the necessary steps with our state to | | | | updated the list so many of the children on the |
| apply for the adoption process. We had no idea that | | | | website had already been placed in a home. |
| the process was so involved. After learning what the | | | | Weeks went by and we still never heard anything |
| background checks were for it all made sense. The | | | | but we kept preparing for the eventual arrival of a |
| state didn't want to place a child into a home that | | | | child. My wife had the better paying job of the two |
| was unfit for children so they had to check out each | | | | of us so I started a small home business that I would |
| applicant thoroughly. Part of the background check | | | | work with full time once we finally got a child. After |
| required finger prints be taken and to fill out a form | | | | not hearing anything for a long time I started to |
| listing people who knew you and ones you worked | | | | make some phone calls and found out that the state |
| with who may not have known you so well. | | | | employees had been replaced with subcontractors |
| There was also an eight week class to teach the | | | | and they had no record of us at all. It turns out that |
| aspects of child rearing and what to expect | | | | they lost the records of a lot of prospective parents. |
| throughout the adoption process. The class was | | | | So because our records were lost we would have to |
| extensive covering everything from vandalism to a | | | | go through the whole process all over again including |
| child with severe depression. The vandalism comes in | | | | the class. We became discouraged after a couple of |
| if you happen to get a child that was abused in some | | | | years of going through this plus we felt that we |
| way and vandalizing something is their way of acting | | | | were possibly too old at this time to even try to |
| out their fear and frustration. We were told to | | | | adopt a child so we never took it any further. At the |
| expect both possibilities and that either would require | | | | time I didn't know that various churches had affiliation |
| professional help to work with the child. | | | | with children up for adoption. We were told that if |
| Everything went according to plan. We graduated | | | | we had looked further we may have found a child |
| from the class and them had our home study done. | | | | with one of them and our paperwork could have |
| The home study is where a social worker comes to | | | | been transferred to them for qualification to be able |
| your home to check on the type of environment | | | | to adopt. So had we followed up and not just blindly |
| that the child would be exposed to. At the time we | | | | trusted the state we may have been parents today. |
| had a small three bedroom house and the social | | | | If you are considering adopting don't make the same |
| worker pointed that out to us by emphasizing how | | | | mistake that we did by trusting someone to follow |
| small the house was. I never found out why she | | | | through on your behalf. You have to take an active |
| commented on the house size there was surely | | | | role in the search for a child to adopt. If you are |
| enough room for one maybe two children. So after | | | | looking on websites for children make sure you check |
| the home study was complete we were told that | | | | to see if the website has been updated so you don't |
| they would be in touch with us about events you | | | | get your heart set on someone only to find out that |
| could go to where you could meet children up for | | | | they had been adopted a month earlier. |