My SW had been sick for a week and when I emailed her asking for an update she said they haven’t been placing children in care over the last week (but then again she was sick, so perhaps she wouldn’t have known). This was disappointing so I emailed her last week and asked if I could be considered for two cases at the same time. Perhaps a two-year-old girl while I waited for an infant. She just emailed me back on Friday to say because adoption is an emotional roller coaster they do not place more than one child with a family (unless they are siblings). This makes sense since there are court hearings and possible visitations and that could get a little crazy to juggle, but I wanted to ask her because not knowing is no fun. She said they are still doing all the checks for extended family and to hang in there. So maybe there is a waiting period between contacting grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Perhaps it’s one of those things where they have to follow some type of protocol while they wait and when all extended family passes then they can place the baby with me and await TPR (termination of parental rights). So I’m still excited and impatient and waiting and nesting and making lists and checking them four and five times and frustrated and irritated and so very over the waiting period. I am however working on being appreciative for my extra sleep since I can guarantee I will not have any 9 straight hour nights without paying a sitter or enlisting my mom after the baby arrives. Just wanted to give everyone an update and sorry I didn’t have better news, both for myself and everyone in blogland. And someone had asked about naming a foster child. For me I know they will likely come to me with a name already, but their ‘pet name’ will likely turn into their “new” name. I had a mom in my old preschool center that was foster/adopting a little guy and we knew his birthname (which was God forsaken) and the name she was going to give him and he got a lovely hodgepodge of the two. He responded to both names and once she got closer to completing the process she called him by his birth name less often. I liked how she did that and I think I may do the same, but it depends on how old they are. For the younger ones social services here in California wants to complete the process within 6 months. Especially if this is a case where bio-fam/mom has had multiple children taken out of their care and placed for adoption within the last couple of years. They give them a chance, but when no steps are taken towards visitation or completing classes or training it becomes fairly obvious they are not fighting for their child, or perhaps they physically/mentally are not able to due to addiction or mental incapacity.
I really do expect to have my baby home by spring. I DO NOT want to go on 4 years of waiting for a baby.
More news to come and have no fear y’all will be one of the first to know. First, a call to my closest friends, then an email to all extended friends, then blogland gets the news. No fancy announcement, just a hearty…GUESS WHAT! Oh, that’ll be fun.
