Adoption Update 9/26/08

A number of people have been asking for a status report on the adoption process...

Two weeks ago I emailed my caseworker to find out the status of the home study. It often takes about 5 working days for her to reply to an email because she's often in the field. On the 6th working day, a week ago today, I called to follow up. She went on vacation that very day and won't be back until Monday, September 29.

It always takes time to catch up at work after vacation so I'll give her a few days to get back together. I'll call her late next week to follow up. (Plus I'll be doing night and field work the first half of next week anyway.)

I know that some of you are a bit anxious about this process and the length of time. Please know that I am not. God has this all under control. The children will be here soon enough. Any process goes through times of waiting because of personnel and project schedules. And remember, I only started this process in February and didn't start classes until April so it's been less than 7 months. Pretty short, really. If I were waiting to give birth, it'd be an other 2-3 months. Please be patient.

Also, please honor this request: I do not want to hear derogatory remarks regarding the length of time it takes for the county or the caseworker to get back to me on anything. Statements like, "This is ridiculous. They need to let you know what is going on..." or the like are not OK. The fact is that the county has a lot of children to protect and provide for. They have a lot of families to work with both on the foster-care only end and on the foster-adopt end. While it is natural for people to think that one family or another should be first priority, that's really not the way it works. It is not honoring or kind to the people who are currently caring for my children or the people who are managing their care for any of us to have this type of attitude. The other thing is that when people in an industry are subjected to this type of attitude, they often become stressed out and the quality of work degrades. Let us not be contributors to degraded quality of care for needy children.

Thanks for your prayer and support.