So on Saturday, Brian and I attended our first adoption class with Project Star. To say it was a bit overwhelming would be an understatement. We were one of six families going through the training. 2 families were there for to be foster parents only and the other four were looking into adoption. The instructor, Bethany, was very nice and kicked the day off with an icebreaker. We were to think about being on a deserted island and say what person and what item we wanted to take with us. Brian and I managed to make everyone chuckle when we both stated that we would not take the other. Apparently we each think the other is a bit useless in the wild.
Anyways, on to the heart of the matter.... the actual class. This first class was split into four sections. First was titled "Who are the parents?" It covered why people foster or adopt, what you can expect from fostering/adoption, and many of the legalities that go along with it.
The second section was "Who are the Children?" Personally, this was the most depressing part of the class. It covered how kids end up in foster care and many of the issues they face. There was a video shown in this part that had me darn near tears. It was a very simple one of children describing the foster care process from their view. The whole section made Brian and I wish we could help more kids.
The third section was on child development. It was really designed to give people without child rearing experience an idea of normal development. We were put in teams in this part and had to draw a child of a specific age and write down normal developmental milestones for them. It was rather entertaining. Some of the people in our class are real artists.
The last section was a review of all the paperwork that will have to be completed. "OY VEY!" is the best description I have for this part. We at least have our beginning application done already, but I think the paperwork seems more overwhelming than working with the kids. We'll get through it all its just going to be very tedious.
So by the end of the day Saturday we had two brand new binders. One is 1.5 inches wide and has all of our class materials. The other is 2 inches wide and its just for our paperwork. I'm a bit afraid to see how thick it gets. This will all be a definite experience to say the least.
In house prep news, the puppies went for their yearly vet visit. They both were brave and did really well. The evil kitty goes to the vet in a couple of weeks. I'm sure he'll love me after that trip. We wanted to get all of their yearly stuff done before the homestudy officially starts. The other news on house prep is that we are working on the downstairs bathroom. Its getting a nice update. We'll post some pics when its done.
That's about all the news for now on the adoption front. We hope all are well and we'll post again after this coming Saturday and class #2.
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