Yesterdays Meeting...

So we met with Rhonda at the CCH yesterday afternoon. The meeting went so well!! She said they don't get very many moms that come in to make an adoption plan, but they do on occasion so that could be a possibility. She is going to get us approved for adoption and at the same time we are going to get qualified for foster-to-adopt. When we looked into Summit County for foster-to-adopt, there was a minimum age range of 0-5 years that we had to be ready for (buying beds for the different ages, etc), and they were kind of rude. We just didn't feel that Summit County was a right fit for us, which is why we were sort of glad that we weren't able to take the classes through them last year. For CCH, there is no minimum age range that we are obligated to choose. We can select the age range that we are comfortable with and when they receive a child that fits what we are looking for, they will call us. Of course, the greater age range we are able to accept, the more quickly we will get a call.

On our way home we talked about what we were both comfortable with and we decided that we would be willing to accept sibling groups, up to 2 children, no older then 4 years old. That way we have a greater chance of getting called sooner, but they are still young. We can also request that one of the siblings is still an infant. So maybe we will be going from 0 to 2 kids in the same year...that would be exciting! :)

Since we might be taking on more then one child, we are looking for a bigger place! We only have 2 bedrooms right now, which is ok, but if we can get moved before we have to do the home study, that would be better. Otherwise, there are parts of the home study we would have to repeat. We would like to have at least 3 bedrooms and a dining room, so we can all eat together as a family, instead of on the couch in front of the boob tube. We are looking in Wooster (preferably), but we are open to Orrville, Smithville, or Dalton as well. Please let us know if you know of anything that would fit our needs!!

We will be starting our pre-service classes in march, then we will move on to the home study. We both feel that this is where God wants us to be right now. We are continuing to pray for his guidance through this whole process and that he will lead us to the child or children he has already chosen for us! Your continued prayers are always appreciated too!

Todd and Megan

Update...

Well, sorry we haven't updated for a while but we have sort of been on hold for the last few months. As I said in our last post, we were getting ready to start the foster-to-adopt training classes. Well we never did get a chance to start for a few reasons. I was going to start them without Todd, but my car wouldn't start and I missed the first class. Something else happened (I don't remember) and I missed the second class. Then we had a conflict with Todd's work schedule. We were told that he would be able to be home for the Saturday classes, but when it came down to it, they made him leave on Saturday afternoon and he would have missed the class. So we haven't been moving forward at all.

Last week, I was looking on the Christian Children's Home (CCH) website to see when their next foster-to-adopt classes started again, since no one has gotten back with me yet. I happened to stumble upon something that said they have a private infant adoption program. I was so excited! I knew they had an adoption program (without having to foster first), but I didn't know that adopting privately and being able to choose just an infant was an option.I sent an email right away to the person in charge of that. Surprisingly she got back with me the same day. She sent me some information and we set up a meeting with her for this coming Friday at 3:00 so she can answer any of our questions and talk to us a little bit more about the program. We are so excited! Maybe God didn't have "public adoption" in His plans for us at all. Maybe He only led us in that direction so we would discover this program at CCH. I don't know, but we are praying that this might be what He has in mind for us, and if it's still not it, that He will light the way and guide us to where His plans are taking us.

We appreciate all your prayers as we continue down this long, frustrating, and emotional road to add a child to our family!

Megan