Orientation

Last night was step on in our adoption process:  The orientation.

It was so nice to put a face to the names of the social workers that we will be partnering with in this process.  It also gave us so much information we didn't have before and gave us an opportunity to ask questions.

During this time they showed us a video about the children who are older who are awaiting adoption.  It just confirmed to us that we are on the right path.  Those kids no matter that they are older are still just kids.  One kids story in particular just hit home.  He was 16 and in the 16 years that he has been in foster care he has only celebrated 2 Birthdays and 4 Christmas with a family.  He stated that he really just wanted a family in order to have the emotional support that goes with it.  Another child  12 years old stated she wanted a family because she wanted to feel special.  That just made me want to take her in my arms and let her know you are special regardless of your situation.

The social workers reiterated that yes these children are older and they have some sort of trauma background.  But when it comes to it they are still children.  They need someone to love them for who they are and to help them heal.

It was just once again confirmation for us that we are on the right path.

Originally we thought that we would just stick with Pennsylvania.  However we found out this agency has access to the nationwide foster care network and if we choose to pay for the home study ourselves versus having the state pay for it we are able to adopt from out of state as well.  This is something we are seriously considering since this would allow any child who we be a good match for our family to be considered.

It's a lot to take in and a lot to think about but again we both feel we are on the right path and know that this is the direction we are supposed to go.