It's Official

Today it hit us that we are really starting on an adventure to get our child. We turned in the first set of documents required for our application and paid for our initial deposit and home study. We also attended a meet & greet session at Gladney in Forth Worth. We got to meet some of the staff that will be helping us over the next few months/years, as well as hear from a panel of 6 families that have recently adopted.

It was absolutely incredible to see these families and the love they have for their children. There was at least one child from several of the countries Gladney works with: Russia, China, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. We also got to meet other couples that are ready to embark on the process like we are.

After the larger group meeting, we broke out into smaller groups based on the areas of the world we were adopting from. In this smaller group, we met a couple that is going through the process of getting their 3rd child from Russia. They were so incredibly helpful, and had plenty of stories to tell us. We exchanged information and I am sure we will be contacting them on numerous occasions to get more inside info on this whole experience.

Next up for us, we still have quite a few documents to put together to send to Gladney over the next 2 weeks. We also will probably have our home study schedule over the next month or so. Essentially, our home study consists of a social worker coming out to our house, checking out where we live, and asking us a ton of questions about ourselves and why we are adopting.