Third adoption

As I said in my last post we are beginning the adoption process again. We have hired the same worker to do our new home study update that did the first home study and second update. We are planning on being approved by the end of April or beginning of May. Really the hold up right now is that we just went last Friday and got our finger prints done. The results of these can take several weeks to get back. We are also working on getting local police checks, employer reference, and statements from the girls and our primary physicians. We also have to have three references fill out what seems like a book about how they know us, how we parent, and if they think we would be good parents for another child. Since all of the health issues have come up with Tatum we really aren't in a huge hurry but want to be approved if we were to find out about a situation that we are interested in. Since the waits for our first two adoptions were so short we really have to be prepared for anything. A couple months ago I contacted the social worker who we worked with in KC for our second adoption just to let her know we were thinking about adopting again. In a matter of a week she told me about two different situations of baby boys that were already born. But at the time we weren't approved to adopt so there really wasn't anything we could do. People have asked if we want a boy and the answer is YES we would love to have a little brother for the girls. When we applied to adopt the second time we had actually specified that we wanted to adopt an African American boy but it seemed to get over looked and we are thankful it did. We were chose by Keely's birth mother to be her parents and feel her choosing us was just meant to be. We will specify again that we are hoping to adopt an African American boy and see what happens. For our first two adoptions they were agency adoptions which means we worked with an agency who coordinated everything. Agency adoptions can get very expensive so this time we are going to try and do a private adoption. Private adoption is when you work on your own to find a birth mother who is looking to place their child for adoption. Some people advertise in papers or online. We are going to first try and work with a couple attorneys. Attorneys are usually much more affordable than an agency since the attorney is the one you have to pay. Also attorneys sometimes work with hospitals, clinics, and high schools and when some of these places have someone who is considering adoption they will refer them to an attorney. Also when trying to do a private adoption it is a good idea to get the word out to anyone you know to let them know you want to adopt in case someone knows someone. So we are letting everyone who reads this know our intent to adopt again and hope you will keep us in your thoughts. If this process becomes too overwhelming or frustrating we would consider also working with the agency we worked with for Keely's adoption as they had very reasonable fees and were great to work with. I will continue to keep you all up to date on what is going on with the third adoption when something new happens.

On another note, Tate seems a little better today and has walked a couple steps holding onto something. I main problems seems to be her left leg. It's hard to tell if its in her knee or hip joint but it defienatly isn't right yet. Hopefully we will have answers tomorrow after the MRI or early Friday. Keely is doing great I am told and when I told Scott last night that grandma said Keely has been so good he asked "Are you sure she was talking about Keely?" Keely is so full of energy and ornery, she never sits still and is always just looking for the next thing she can get into. I think she is so good when she is away because she has no one to torment. We are very anxious to get her back and know that the grandma's will be needing some R & R after keeping up with her for the last couple days! I just have to tell you, this morning at breakfast Tate said "Lets go get Keely." I was a little shocked but just confirmed that the girls do love each other but don't always have the best way to show it.