KimI

The obstacles I found with my homestudy were: 1) Getting a doctor's visit for the physicians report. It took a few months to get into the doctor. I wish I made my appointment before I started the homestudy. 2) Starting the homestudy before orientation. In my state, homestudies take at least 2 months to process. We were ready to go, but completion of our homestudy made us wait. Good luck!

Zinnia, My husband and I share a similar story on how quickly we moved to adoption. We investigated treatments, but really believed that adoption was our journey to take. We briefly thought of trying both infertility treatments and adoption at the same time, but many people discouraged this. I’m very thankful for that advice because I couldn’t imagine going through both (I stated this here because you asked this question on another post). Actually treatments didn’t appeal to me at all. We wanted to have a family; we really didn’t need our family to be built the more traditional way. Adoption, to us, was just another route to parenthood. We are fortunate that both our families are very familiar and comfortable with adoption, so it wasn’t unnatural for us to go this way. I am so sorry to hear that you are not experiencing the same support. I too get some uneducated comments. Maybe some of the comments you have received are purely based on ignorance and not cruelty. I know some people’s comments to me were not meant to come across the way they did; they just didn’t know any better. I wish you strength and peace in bringing understanding about adoption to others. I’m glad that you have found this forum and Abrazo. Just remember, with adoption you will have a family…. You will continue to SMILE! Peace - Kim

Hi Christina, Congratulations of getting your paperwork in the mail!! I know that is a huge step. I was so happy the day we did that. My husband and I attended the April 2003 orientation. There are so many happy families from our orientation already! To answer your question... the book that you should read before orientation is the "Open Adoption Experience". I bought two books for both my husband and I to read. I thought I'd read it quickly, then hand it over, but that didn't happen. It is full of information!! Also, if you are doing a lot of reading now, you might want to prepare a write up on the book. Texas requires waiting parents to read adoption related books and submit a book report on them. You might also want to start collecting pictures of you and your hubby. If you don't have a lot, keep a camera with you and start shooting! Have fun and really, enjoy this time!! Cheers, Kim

Hi - Congratulations to the happy family from The Great 8 orientation. I can only assume who it is and it gives me a huge smile!! Hugs, Kim