We're oriented and heading in the right direction

We had our orientation with Homes of St. Mark (HSM for short) on Friday. It was wonderful. They really made us feel like we're going to be in good hands with them. Several things I liked:

• They specialize in infants and young children
• They specialize in children that have a high likelihood of being adopted
• They understand that the infertiles need to have a child with a high likelihood of adoption, given that we've already been through a lot of loss
• They are more than willing to help ease the bureaucracy and red tape as much as possible

Did you know there are 900 children in the Houston area who need homes? Yup, 900.

There were about 10 other couples at the orientation. Some were infertiles, some were just people who had grown children and wanted more. They basically went over the whole process with us and answered questions. The process is relatively fast. Next week we will have our pre-adoption counseling session, where the social worker meets with just the two of us. Then we will begin our PRIDE classes, which will last for a month. We'll learn all about parenting special needs children and take infant CPR and first aid. And they feed us dinner! After all the classes are complete they will finish our homestudy. We can go ahead and take care of some of it, like collecting our pet vaccination records, getting a TB test, getting fingerprinted, having a fire inspection of our home, and making a little photo album/scrapbook that has photos of our house, our pets, and us and what activities we like to do. Then we'll have them come to the house a few times to make sure it's all safe and we'll have more interviews. After all that is done, then we will be licensed to be foster parents!

The child has to reside with us for at least 6 months in Texas before they are eligible for adoption. And the birth parents have to get their rights terminated, either voluntarily or involuntarily by the judge. So once you have TPR (termination of parental rights) and they've been with you for 6 months, they are legally free for adoption. So we could have our baby early next year!

It's so wonderful to feel hopeful again. I left there feeling like we were in really good hands, and that we're with the right agency, and that WE ARE GOING TO HAVE OUR BABY.