Full Disclosure And A Visit!

For those of you who were dying to know how the meeting went, I figured I should sit and write all about it...both for your sakes and my own with my memory.  It's funny, people say that when your first child comes around you document like crazy.  Everything is going in the blog or scrapbook and not an iota of a detail is left out.  Then, when it comes time to have a second child, all that kind of goes away.  Sure, you update here and there and you have a scrapbook potentially set aside just for them, but the same urgency everything was done with for the first child has changed with your second.  I swore this would not happen to me, but then I look around and realize it has.  Oops.  I just want my girls to know that I love them both very much, in spite of my documentation abilities.  

So back to what's really important...the full disclosure meeting.  We got started late as we all had to cram into a tiny office as there were no conference rooms available.  I would venture to say the office was not much bigger than my dining room and part of my kitchen combined and we had ten adults in there with a large desk and tiny round table for us to all "sit" around.  We were then handed copies of the child study, which is a document similar to what we have on us but it outlines traumas, foster homes, and the like.  The majority of the child study was from 2009 and was rather lengthy.  When we finally got to the current one, it was almost two hours into the meeting.  Our girly girl's file is much shorter than our kiddo's file, and we did not even open it until it came time for us to receive it.  I have it sitting beside me as I type this and am astounded at how little it holds comparatively speaking.  

After we received the file, the topic of visits was up for discussion, as now they have to report the visits to the judge.  Everyone agreed that we should go ahead that day and have a visit, so one of our girly's girls foster parents (who was in attendance at the meeting) made arrangements with us to have a late lunch (because by this point it is going on 2:30pm!) so we all could visit.  Our wonderful adoption recruiter came with us to ensure everything was good.  We had the best time!!!  Lots of smiles and laughing.  When it came time for us to part ways we picked the next visit for Sunday (yes, tomorrow!) at a place that is closer to us than they usually are, so we are going to be hopping in the car and taking a drive to meet for dinner, but I think it will be one of my fondest dinner memories to date (the other fond ones being our kiddo's birthday dinner when she turned 17 at Carrabas (yes, that I still remember vividly)).  All three of us are going, as are both of our girly girl's foster parents, and of course the girl of the hour!  We are so looking forward to this visit.  For those of you following along on facebook, look for some pics! :)  

Catching Up

Much has happened since my previous post...We decided against going forward with the previously mentioned child, our case worker decided to stall our process until mid-May, and we have since found (thanks to a dear friend and former case worker of our kiddo) a child that seems to fit our family to a tee. Oh, and our kiddo moved back home. It's been an interesting, fun, and occasionally frustrating rollercoaster, but isn't that how life always is? 

Now that we have our completed home study and match staffing (when they cross examine us about why we would be a good fit for a specific child) behind us, we are ready to move onward to the full disclosure meeting. During this we get the child's file and hit the highlights with the folks who are involved with them. Fortunately for us, our kiddo and I have already met this child through a stroke of brilliance on the part of the adoption recruiter. Unfortunately Mama S had to work the day we met the child and so she will have to wait until our first official visit, which will hopefully be soon. Until then, we just have to be patient and wait, which is much easier said than done.

We have not yet announced on Facebook who the child is other than that they are a teenager, so those of you following our process, stay tuned because mums the word until our first visit. I can hardly wait to share that part of our journey, but it needs to wait until we are certain that this child will not only fit with our family, by that they are interested in being part of it as well. Until then, be well every one! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we have the full disclosure meeting this Thursday. Thank you for your love and support!