Are We Home Already?!?

Today saw us running back and forth from work; we both had to report for duty before Mark came by the house this morning. I arrived back home first, and Sandi managed to beat Mark here by a good margin. Watching her was a little cute, because she was outrageously nervous beforehand. She was less anxious for our home study interviews, if you can believe that. Once Mark got to the house, he got the grand tour of all six (count 'em, six) rooms before we went over our openness questionnaire. We are glad we had the chance, since we have changed our minds on a few things we had written waaaaaay back in March. Now for the good news -- our home study should be approved by next week! To make the situation even crazier, we found out that Mark has already shown our profile to a birthmother. This is obviously not standard procedure, but the situation looked like a good match, and our home study could be completed on the quick if the need arose. In the end, the birthmother chose none of the families she saw, but this new development was a revelation for us. You can most likely guess how Sandi felt, whereas I found the news a little sobering. We are no longer in the realm of theory; all these shenanigans are really coming to fruition.

This evening, we drove out to Gray for a waiting families meeting. We were pretty happy about the location, as it saved us three hours of drive time from our usual monthly sojourn. Moreover, we were fed, and we were able to assist by contributing some drinks left over from my departmental dinner last week. Tonight's guest speaker, Ruthie (apologies if this is misspelled), has experienced almost every type of adoption imaginable. She and her husband have adopted both internationally and domestically; they have a biracial child; two of their adopted children are biological siblings; and they were on the receiving end of what can only be described as an 'unplanned adoption.' Once again, I find it interesting that their birthmothers are older women, while most of us tend to assume that teenagers are the ones placing children for adoption. We also got fliers for the November meeting, which will feature a researcher from Emory University who specializes in the effects of substances on children in utero and afterward.

I think that has covered all the bases. Sandi will let me know tomorrow if I left out anything. Take care, everyone!