We have an adoption agency! We're in! I worried myself sick over that applciation and was concerned that we would be turned away. Every day that went by that we didn't hear from them, I would agonize over what their answer would be. Then they called us last night to discuss my heart surgery and told us that we would hear back from them either today or on Monday. Luckily, they e-mailed us this morning to tell us that we're in. My cardiologist will need to provide us with a letter stating that he supports our adoption and that I am okay now. This will not be a problem, because I already gave my doctor a heads up that we would need his help with this, and he was very supportive.
Next week, we'll receive a bunch of paperwork and a social worker will call us to get the homestudy rolling. Also, I did not send our INS paperwork in....thank goodness, because I would have messed it up big time.
Also, my INR went from 2.8 to 1.4. My blood thickened up. Darn it! Then nurse said that this latest turn is diet related. I have to start measuring how much vitamin K food that I eat, and try to eat the same amount every week. I'll get the hang of this eventually.
Vitamin K? Good lord, I wouldn't even begin to know what foods in my diet contain K. Special K? But I don't eat that stuff.
Congratulations on being accepted by the agency! And next... the whole homestudy thing. You will be asked to provide insights and information and details that will make your mouth sputter and your head spin. But know that they won't turn you down. They might say some strange things, or advise you to work certain things out (this didn't happen to us, but to others we know, and it's pretty maddening, to have "experts" tell you that you need to "figure some things out" before they'll grant you the right to parent, while junkies pop out the puppies unhampered), but in the end, they will say, with a patronizing sigh, "You're okay. We'll hook you up with a baby." I never believed it, though, going through the process. I always felt like I was just a whisper away from getting turned down flat. In the end, I don't know who they turn down, but it won't be you and your husband, so promise me this:
Don't go crazy cleaning the house for the site visit. They're just looking for people with that OCD problem who can't throw shit away, and it's all piling up to the ceiling, or folks who keep 127 "pet" rabbits or cats and live up to their eyeballs in feces. A few spots of spaghetti sauce on the stove and a dust bunny under the couch is not going to make it or break it, believe me.
All this from a woman who definitely had the house spic and span for the SW who came over. Yeah, the SW who then wrote up her report calling us "Dean and Laura" instead of "George and Mollie" (she'd just cut and pasted her other report into our file. Nice and personal!) and talked about how excited we were to add a second child to our family (we were childless).
Yes, you'll go crazy, thinking you've got to do everything just right, and believe me, the mistakes that will be the most glaring won't be yours.
Definitely get someone from the agency to walk you through the INS forms and other strange blasts of paperwork. No sense guessing, if they know exactly what the officials want to see.
Congrats again!! Don't let my sourpuss crap rain on your parade.
Posted by: Mollie | April 30, 2004 at 10:15 PM
I'm with Mollie - what the hell has Vitamin K in it?!
Sweet news on the agency!!! One more thing checked off the list.
Posted by: Julia | May 01, 2004 at 09:46 AM
Yay about the agency! Boo on the blood -- stupid blood. But because I'm a librarian and have a genetic urge to "look it up" I googled and discovered that "Vitamin K is found in cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, cereals, soybeans, and other vegetables. Vitamin K is also made by the bacteria that line the gastrointestinal tract." So, uh, eat a lot of cabbage?
Posted by: jen | May 01, 2004 at 03:50 PM
Yay! I'm so happy for you!
Posted by: maria | May 01, 2004 at 09:10 PM
Yipeeeee on the agency!! What an awesome time. Congratulations!
Posted by: Karen | May 02, 2004 at 07:34 PM
Yay!
Posted by: Eve | May 03, 2004 at 05:07 PM
WooHoo! Congratulations on "getting in"!!!! :-)
Posted by: Milenka | May 03, 2004 at 10:53 PM
YAY for adoption agency!
BOO for Thick Blood!
Posted by: Andreah | May 04, 2004 at 12:24 PM