Adoption Update #3

We had our "1st Interview" today with the Children's Home Society (the private agency). Our contact person from this point forward at CHS is Cameron Bradley.

I was so nervous about this interview because I was so afraid that Ms. Bradley wouldn't like us or that she would find us unqualified, but it turns out, I had nothing to be worried about.

This interview lasted about 1 1/2 hours. She sat with us and just asked us questions about ourselves and about our families and our childhood. We told her why we were interested in adoption and what kind of child we are interested in. We are working with CHS to adopt a child from the foster care system.

Our only issue right now is that Shawn is deploying in the next couple weeks and will be gone for 6 months. The paperwork that we completed today and a couple weeks ago is only good for 6 months. Ms. Bradley is going to check with her supervisor regarding this issue. It is unknown right now if I will be able to use a power of attorney to sign Shawn's name on all this paperwork while he's away. If so, we are going to try and Skype during our next home interviews so Shawn knows what's going on and is understanding everything while he's over seas.

We have a more positive outlook on things now. Ms. Bradley said that adopting through their agency is more expensive than going directly through DSS, but CHS tries to match every adoptive parent with a child ASAP. They do not like to have parents waiting for very long. She said the process can take as little as 3 months. We left the meeting with high hopes that we might have a child placed with us by next summer! (maybe not, but we can hope...right!) She also gave us hope that we would be able to adopt a child within the specific age group we are requesting!

Both Shawn and I really like Cameron Bradley and feel more comfortable with her as our contact person. She is very personable. She also mentioned that she comes from a foster care background and understands what it's like growing up in the system. She explained that she is fairly new to the adoption side of the business, but has many years of experience with prospective foster parents. She will also be one of the instructors in the classes we will be required to take.