Must Not Feel Overwhelmed

Keep repeating that, Erin, or you may end up running, screaming, through the neighborhood while wearing only your penguin slippers.

We've been mired in adoption paperwork and plans lately. Sunday was the first part of the adoption preparation seminars. It was a lot of fun--we met another couple who's adopting a toddler from Ethiopia, as well as a lot of other nice people. We didn't take a whole lot away from it since it was mostly geared towards first-time parents. This was a little ironic, since there was only one first-time parent couple who was there. The rest of us all had at least one child already, some biologically and some through adoption. Most of it was about not trying to shoehorn your child into a specific role and being flexible. Since J and I have always tried to read P's signals and adjust as needed, we're already used to being flexible. I think we'll get more out of next week, when it focuses on transracial parenting.

We've got most of our paperwork close to done for the homestudy. I feel like we've really made a lot of progress. Our first appointment with our social worker is this afternoon. I'm excited and nervous. I can't imagine why we would fail a homestudy, but it still kept me up worrying for part of last night. Naturally, I'll update you all.

We've also got the next packet of information from our adoption agency, and it includes how to get started on our dossier. We can't officially do it until our homestudy is approved, but we can start collecting documents and paperwork now. J's got a notary at his office (he can't notarize his own forms), so that part will be easy and free. We can get our photos taken and do a lot of the paperwork. And, since we got our application in early enough, we avoided the $1000 increase in Ethiopia program fees that our agency is implementing!

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Erin is one of the contributing editors for International Adoption. She writes daily at PCOS Baby where she chronicles life with her children and parenting after adoption from Ethiopia.