So Wednesday, we had our third meeting with the adoption specialist. Yes, that’s the final 2-on-1 meeting with her, and yes, it’s the one where she came to the house. The house visit is like any other visit, in that we sit down and discuss our lives so she can evaluate our suitability as an adoptive family, but unlike the other visits, we get to show off our beautiful house to her. Technically, she is there to make sure the house is a safe environment for us to raise a child in, with enough space for the child, though in our case it was more of an opportunity to show off the house, since there really was no question about the safety of the house. Thankfully, our new sofa for the den arrived Tuesday, so we were able to show off the completed den as well!
Our discussion this time focused mostly on the community we are living in. What do we like about it or not, what kind of people are in our neighborhood, what options for diversity are there, etc. The meeting started at 9am, and we wrapped up around 12:30pm. I’m not sure if all people’s meetings with their specialist are as long as ours, but Kristina and I are talkers, and very proud of our lives thus far, so enjoy talking to other people about it. Then we went back and wrapped up loose ends — questions she didn’t get to in prior sessions. (For example, we had discussed my job at length, but not Kristina’s, so we went back and talked about that).
She also confirmed for us that our paperwork is all in — thanks to our letter writers for getting your part in! So, we have two things left that we have to do, and then she has to write her evaluation up, and then we’ll be on the list. The two remaining things are (1) a pre-placement info session where they educate us about the process between now and placement, and (2) attending an education information session. The first is Tuesday next week, and the second we are attending on June 27th. Both are in Indianapolis at the agency office. There are actually educational sessions about once a month, and we can attend as many as we want, but are required to attend one before our profile can be shown. The one on the 27th is about transracial adoption, which is potentially important for us since we are open to adoptive children of many races. So we had thought we would be done on the 27th, though our specialist told us she won’t be able to get the report done before the end of the month, so realistically, we won’t go on the list until early July.
We asked her how we would know we were “approved”, and she reminded us that not only would we get a letter from the agency, but that at that point we are to pay the “advertising” portion of the fee, so of course we’ll know. Then it’s mostly a matter of waiting and praying. Our adoption specialist suggested that we take this time to do the things we can still do as a child-less couple.