John and I finished Group A, B and most of our Group C paperwork last night. FINALLY! John is picking up his notarized medical forms today and then I'll mail the paperwork and a check for $4500 to Gladney. I will be so glad to drop that sucker in the FedEx box. Whew!
Last night as we were finishing up the paperwork, we had to fill out our child preference profile. We have decided to accept up to two children. We are open to either boys or girls (I hope it's one of each) and twins would be WONDERFUL. We want at least one of the children to be under 12 months old but would accept a sibling up to 2-years-old. Does this make sense??
It was so hard to fill out the child preference profile when we started going over the long list of possible medical conditions. John and I are willing to take a child or children with a correctable medical condition. John and I would adopt a child with a few of the listed medical conditions because we felt like we could handle them as first-time parents. We specified that we were willing to discuss several of the other medical conditions listed.|As we read through the list, we felt guilty putting no on some of them. It's hard to mark "no" when you know that those children need a home and a family too. It's hard to mark "no" when you know that you wouldn't have a choice if you gave birth to a child with medical problems.
But we had to be realistic. There were some medical conditions that we couldn't say "yes" to because we don't have the financial resources that would be needed to care for a child with those conditions. I think the one thing that comforted me through the process was knowing that God is ultimately in control. He already knows every detail about the children who will join our family. I also believe that He will not give us more than we can handle. The child or children we adopt will be a perfect fit for our family. A few "yes" and "no" answers will not alter God's perfect will.
One thing to keep in mind is that when referrals happen, some of the medical info may not be known. You will be presented with a photo of a presumably healthy child. Then your agency will have their doctor run medical exams. At that point if a medical issue comes up you can choose if you are willing to accept or not accept it regardless of what you have said today. It happened to us. After a couple medical exams Eli was diagnosed with a mild case of hydrocephalus. We felt God telling us he'd show us how to parent this child even if there were complications. We still accepted the referral and God chose there to be no complications as a result of his diagnosis.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice Krista! It helps to know that.....
ReplyDeleteGot your Christmas card in the mail...super cute!