A journey of a thousand miles...

Rob and I went to our first meeting tonight about adoption. It was an orientation meeting at Commonwealth Catholic Charities in Richmond. We met with the sweetest woman who knew about the process not only from a professional standpoint, but also a personal one, as she adopted her own children from Korea. It just so happened that we were the only couple that showed up to the orientation session, so I was free to totally monopolize the discussion and ask all the questions I wanted! :)

After information gathering for months, we are pretty sure that we are leaning towards domestic adoption. In the end, the deciding factor was age of the child. In my work as a children's therapist, I have seen firsthand the impact of poor attachment, and quite frankly, it scares me. I want my baby to know me as his/her mommy as soon as possible. (Actually, God, if you're reading this blog or hearing my prayers tonight, you can tell my baby right now how absolutely thrilled I am to meet him/her.)

Anyway, the next step would be for Rob and I to complete our application. This is relatively short (compared to the other paperwork that surely awaits us) and will ensure that we are placed in the "pending" applications file. I know, I know...pending what you may ask?? The agency holds onto 13 adoptive parents' files at a time for review by birth mothers. We will be the only ones in the pending file at this point, so will probably be moved to the Lucky 13 within a few months.

Making any guess as to length of time we may be expected to wait seems totally pointless, given the unpredictability of the process. Two years is possible, though unlikely. We were told that our age is a definite plus for us; birth mothers apparently prefer younger looking couples that they can more easily relate to.

I don't know how I expected I would feel after taking my first steps into this process, but I sure wasn't expecting this overwhelming sense of relief and hopefulness. I'm thrilled to know that I will be a Mommy someday; it's not an "if" anymore, but a "when".