I'm Back!

So it has been al ong time since I blogged, kinda been out of the loop on it. So I will fill ya'll in about the adoption:
Sam and I went to the orientation and it was awesome. There were 5 couples there and two of them had adopted before and were coming back for thier second child. Thier expereinces were invaluable, since they had gone through it. One couple had also adopted from Lutheran and another from Catholic Charities and was now going with Lutheran (we never found out why they switched by the way) They gave us a ginormous binder filled with things to read which we went over in the orientation. We also watch a film about multi- cultural families. We played a game that helped us become aware of our surroundings and how diverse it was or was not. It was intersting. It surprised me because Sam and my world was not as diverse as I thought. They had just hired a new social worker, so this was her first time doing this orientation and it went well, I thought. We all got to ask a lot of questions, which was good. I was surprised the group was small, but then Sam and I figured out by the direction of the orientation that this must be the group that said yes to a child from a different race/ethnicity. Along with this big binder, came a big fat application. It took forever to fill out. In fact it comsumed my life, hence why there was no blogging. They ask many personal deep questions (including our sex life....woah, woah!) We even had to do a floor plan drawing of our house. Dad helped with this, since I have no skills in that area. I took off a week and so did mom and dad just so we could clean the house and stage photographs of all the living spaces, kitchen and bedrooms in our house. It was intense, but we got through it.  The application is now in. We have been fingerprinted which is being sent to Protective Services and the FBI and then back again. We are waiting on one more of our friends to come through with their reference and then things should be good...hopefully. They sent us the financial agreement which read like a contractual binding agreement. According to my lawyer sister it is; do not let semantics fool you. I have asked the social worker to clarify many points on the contract and she has been great on answering. My sister thinks that getting all this in a rider would be a good idea. I will ask and see what they say. Oh, I forgot the staff switched mid-stream during all this. Ahh! The gal we met with when we were first thinking about Lutheran went on maternity leave and the social worker at the orientation left for another job. The new social worker has been here for about two weeks, but is already on top of things, which is a good sign. So in the meantime, I need to be working on my "dear birthmother" letter and scrapbook....This is what the birthmom will see. No pressure. Only the most important letter and scrapbook of my LIFE!