May, ??, 2010 – Not sure of the date but it seems like it may have been right around our anniversary on May 16th. No matter… we went to a class on adoption that was being hosted by one of Lesley’s co-workers. It was through AWAA and was held in a church in Norwalk, IA. Robby stayed with Grandma & Grandpa while we were there and nobody knew at this point that we were considering adoption. I really don’t recall if we learned all that much but it was good to see parents with their adopted children and to hear stories about their experiences.
Update Feb. 4th, 2012 * * *
I wanted to clarify something that I noticed recently. Depending on how you read and interpret that last sentence, you could end up thinking that remark was made about the folks who held the class. That is NOT what I intended and is certainly NOT true!
The couple who held the class were fantastic and gave some great information. The reason why I said "I really don't recall if we learned all that much..." was based on us having a plethora of thoughts, and some doubts, if we were doing the right thing. Although we were just getting started, it seemed that information was coming at us fast and furious so, overall, it was a lot to process.
Sincerest apologies if that comment offended.
End Update * * *
Somewhere in late May, we decided that we were going to use Holt International as our company of choice for the adoption. There are a host of companies out there that one could select. Why did we choose Holt? I can't tell you at this point and I didn't document that decision. I'm not sorry that we did though, because for all of the stuff that happens once you travel, it went about as smoothly as we could have hoped.
June. 3rd, 2010 - finger printing in W.D.M. police station. What an experience… there was roughly 8 – 10 African-Americans in there waiting to be finger printed for a door to door sales business they were attempting to start up. All of them were talking at the same time and I don’t believe any one of them was listening.
I had to look up the address of the company I work for (I’m a consultant, so I don’t care about the address of the company I work for as long as the checks don’t bounce). They were then giving me a hard time about just grabbing a name and address out of the phone book for my “personal information”. All I really wanted was to get my stinkin’ fingerprints done and get the blazes out of there. Ugh…
July 21st, 2010 - adoption application received and we sent off our references.
July 23rd, 2010 - physicals for one and all! Did I mention I just turned 40?!? You’d think with two older brothers and the fact that I have plenty of friends North of 40 years old, SOMEBODY WOULD HAVE GIVEN ME A HEAD’S UP!!! Doc didn’t even have the decency to buy me dinner first and you certainly wouldn’t want it afterwards…
Aug. 12th & 13th, 2010 - 2 day class (Parents In Progress, sections 1, 2, 3, and 4) in Omaha at the Holt offices there. Stayed with my brother Steve, his wife Kathy & their son Tim in Council Bluffs. Learned some good things during this class and got to hear from a mother who had recently returned from Honduras, I think… She had some stories that give you goose bumps! We met some good people during this class.
Sept. 24th, 2010 - got word from Holt that our background checks came back from Oklahoma. We lived there for 3 years back in the musically challenged 90’s and apparently the Okies are diligent about background checks. Well, it’s either that or they don’t care about them and push you to the back burner, because it took a while.
Sept. 30th, 2010 - Date assigned to social worker, but of course, we don't know it yet.
Oct. 4th, 2010 - got a call from Angela Stark about scheduling our first home study. We decided on Oct. 13th. Pretty exciting and scary. Exciting because things are actually moving and scary because it's a home study by a social worker.
Better get cleaning...
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