Almost There - Adoption from Application to Waiting Family!

As I write this we are two days from joining the adoption pool with our agency. Our best friends we started this process with entered the pool a couple weeks ago and it is awesome that we get to share in this entire experience together, and just a little bit of competition. I want to take this time to run through our journey and I hope this gives people a good idea of how easy it really is, relatively speaking, and considering they are making sure you can take care of a defenseless human that cannot even support their own head.

1. Introduction meeting (March 2019)

2. Application Start (January 10, 2020) - delayed by 5 months as we had removed ourselves from the list

3. Application Finished (February 22, 2020)

4. Home Study Visit 1 (March 3, 2020)

5. Home Study Visit 2 (March 30, 2020) - delayed a month due to Covid

6. Home Study Visit 3 (April 6, 2020)

7. Home Study Finalized (May 4, 2020)

8. Class 1 (June 5, 2020) - delayed 30 days due to Covid

9. Class 2 (June 12, 2020)

10. Officially a Waiting Family!!!! (June 12, 2020)

There was a total delay of about 30 days due to Covid meaning that in a normal situation from the moment you are able to apply you can get through the process and become a waiting family within 5-6 months. In our case, it was still completed within 6 months. This is, of course, based on our specific agency and some are faster and some are slower. Some do not have an initial waitlist, like ours of about 6 months, and others have even longer waitlists.  

It has been a very positive experience throughout, with moments of stress completely overshadowed by moments of absolute joy and hope. Our next step is the dreaded wait, which we hope to make the most out of. If you are out there reading this and considering adoption, just know the work is worth the outcome.