Verified!

I got an email from our adoption worker today, all it said was: You're verified!

When we arrived in Texas a little over a year ago, Joe and I started getting serious about our desires to adopt. We started our application process with LDS family services right away. We filled out the mountain of paperwork, and attended hours upon hours of "training". It took us only a few months to get everything done, and by January we were waiting. By the time April hit, we had reconsidered our options. We felt that since we already have 3 children, we would let those couples without kids, have the opportunity to adopt the much sought-after newborns.

I started researching Texas foster care adoption. Instead of going straight through CPS, we decided it would be better to choose a private agency to do our homestudy. It turns out, that the private agencies have much more time and less of a case load. I first emailed Pathways at the end of April. I signed up for their 5 full days of training immediately. We took our training in June. In the beginning of July, we had our homestudy. From this point on, we had done everything in our power and all we could do was wait. Our worker told us that the homestudy would be written up in July, and that we should be verified by the end of July, or at the latest the first week of August. I guess several people went on vacation in August, which is why we are just now, the first week of September, verified.

Now the real waiting begins. We have no idea how long it will take before we get a call with a potential placement. It could be tomorrow, or in 6 months. We are pretty age specific (under 1), but are very open to most other aspects (gender, race etc). Most of the time I am very patient, but then I have a weak moment once in a while, when I can't stop fantasizing about what kind of child we might be able to care for.