Training, part 1

Jon and I had our first training class at Bellefaire today. It was a cultural class. It basically reminded us that our culture is defined by hundreds of different qualities that we possess and it can vary greatly between neighbors, close friends and even family members. We talked about how our culture will effect our future daughter and vise versa. The class was actually pretty interesting and it was great to meet a room full of people going through the same process, some for the second and third time.

We ended the class with a video called Eye of the Storm. It is an experiment a third grade teacher did with her students just after Martin Luther King Jr was killed. In a nutshell, one day kids with blue eyes were told they were superior to kids with brown eyes. Blue eyed kids got seconds at lunch, longer play time at recess etc. The next day she told them she lied and brown eyed kids were actually superior. That day, brown eyed kids got all the perks. It was amazing to see the results. Obviously the video is old, but I highly recommend checking it out. While it was clearly about racism and not culture, it was easy to see how the two can overlap and it gave us a lot to think about. Our little girl is going to face a lot of uphill battles simply because we will be her parents. This class was the first step in equipping us to help her win those battles.

Next weeks class is going to touch on culture and a ton of other related topics. We will be spending 23 hours in class next Friday-Sunday, but I'm actually looking forward to it.

Baby steps

We have officially been assigned a social worker through Bellefaire. She called me to introduce herself and schedule our information meeting. We wont be able to meet until next Friday, but I'm excited to have something on the books.

We have our first training class this Saturday. Its only 3 hours so it should be an easy day.

I'm still waiting on the e mail from Holt. Still praying for patience.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

I know its been a while, but seriously, nothing is happening. The last time I posted anything, we were waiting for a packet from Holt. I was hoping to have it the next day, but with the weekend and the holiday, it came 5 days later. The packet didn't really end up being a packet. It was a mini booklet about Holts adoption process/policies. It took 8 or 10 finely typed pages to say (in many different ways) adoption is an uncertain process and we can't hold them liable if Ethiopia changes their policies at any point in the process and we end up being delayed, disappointed etc. We had to notarize that and send it back. Once they get that, they will e mail the next steps to us. We mailed that in several days ago so I'm hoping to get the e mail Monday or Tuesday.

I finally talked to Karen at Bellefaire. She is the head person that was on vacation. She confirmed our training classes, answered some questions, took some money and then told us a one on one information meeting will have to be scheduled since we missed the last one. Guess what--she doesn't schedule them and the person that does is on vacation! Seriously?!?!? I'm hoping to hear from her tomorrow. They prefer to have the information classes done before training and our first training class is Saturday. Hopefully tomorrow will be a productive day for us. I'm still praying for patience, guidance, clarity etc etc etc...

Approved

It seems like we're doing a lot, but not really getting anywhere. We gathered a ton of information for our previous agency. We submitted an application to Holt and to Bellefaire. They all seemed to ask for different information so we've done a lot of digging to get the correct answers, but all we've done is apply.

I just talked to Holt. They have approved our application and have a packet out to us. Hopefully we'll get it tomorrow and start the next round of information gathering. Once they receive that, they will forward our information to the Ethiopia people and we'll go from there. I have a ton of questions for Bellefaire, but the person I need to talk to is out this week. We sent them our application today and now we wait until Monday to get some answers. Patience has never been an area of strength for me. Pray that God helps me out a little bit.

How about some more good news?

I let Andrea (the woman we've been working with at the adoption agency) know that we were switching agencies (see yesterdays post if you haven't already). I let her know about the website and the some of the comments we found and let her know that we just didn't feel comfortable continuing with them. She talked to the director of the agency who apparently talked to the agency attorney and they all e mailed me advising me they would be happy to refund our application fee (that was previously non refundable). While it is just a small step in the right direction, at least we are going in the right direction.

On to the new agency. We have switched to Holt International. They were one of the first agencies we looked at. They have a fabulous reputation and are well established. The only reason we didn't originally go with them is because they aren't local and I thought it would be easier to use someone in the same state. Through them, and our friends, we have found Bellefaire JCB. They are the local agency who will be doing our home study. They don't even know who we are yet (our paperwork hasn't even finished going through Holt yet), but have allowed us to sign up for 2 mandatory adoption/training classes in the next couple weeks so we can be in the same class as our friends. The classes sound like they will be a huge help in many areas, but one in particular is explaining to your kids why their new sister looks nothing like them and how to adjust to that. I'm looking forward to it, although in just over 2 days we have to sit through 23 hours of training. That will be a challenge!