How's the Adoption Going?

"How's the adoption going?"

This is a question I'm frequently asked so I figured I'd address it here.  The answer has pretty much stayed the same since we first got approval on our home study:  we're just waiting.  

With domestic infant adoptions, the birthparent(s) chooses the adoptive family so there really won't be any forward movement until we get a phone call from our case worker informing us that someone would like to meet us.  We are fully prepared to be in the waiting period for awhile since our agency's average wait time is a little over a year.  Currently, there are 32 waiting families with our agency.  I met one couple who has been waiting for 4 years.  It could be that this couple is extremely specific as to what kind of child they would adopt (specified gender, race, health, family medical history, openness, etc.).  The more that you are open to, the more likely you'll get faster placement.  Or it could just be a bigger picture timing issue.

Whatever the case may be for them, this got us to talking a lot about how long we are willing to wait.  We're definitely in it for a year at which point we would need to renew our home study.  This doesn't involve nearly the time or expense that the initial home study required but we would have a fee involved.  At this point, we'll re-assess where we're at after the 1 year mark.  We definitely do not want to wait past 2 years.  If we have not gotten placement by then, we will stop the process and focus solely on Shay. We do not want to be in a constant state of uncertainty for too long.  So we're just taking it one day at a time and trusting that God has the perfect timing & plan.

The great news is that we are truly happy either way.  While having another child would be amazing, being able to put all of our time and resources into Shay would be a different kind of amazing too.