She finally called!!

THE SOCIAL WORKER CALLED ME!!!!

I was in shock, because I heard that she was out of the office yesterday, so I definitely didn't think I'd hear from her. OK, here's the poop: they have a contract SW who is going to do our home study. She is finishing up some agency-specific training this week and we are going to be her first clients. She will schedule with us next week. There should be no problem doing the interviews before the holidays and the home visit in January. She says I shouldn't have to wait more than 6 months for a referral. Hallelujah!

If we end up using the facilitator to get a referral, I can use HSM to do a "designated adoption" and we can use their home study, counseling, and legal services, for a fee of around $10K (plus the birth mom fees). If however I hire a private adoption attorney, I would need to do a new home study at my expense.

HSM also has a maternity program, and she said we can pursue the foster/adopt and the straight adoption simultaneously. We don't need to do any additional work, and the fees are around $23K. She also said (without me asking) that David and I look really good on paper, and that if a really great match came along, she felt confident that we would be chosen over other couples (AHA - there is competition).

So, we are on target for the arrival of our baby in 2006.