Expectations vs. Reality

When I decided to start this blog, I told myself it would be full disclosure. That being said, I've been procrastinating on this post. It's been about a year since we decided that we wanted to adopt. At first, people were really excited, and now, when people ask how the process is going, they seem disappointed or almost bored when I tell them that we are still buried in paperwork and awaiting the actual start of our home study. Yes, the same one we were wanting to start in August, and September, and October... I get comments like "You still haven't done the homestudy? What's taking so long?" Or even better, "Oh, you're still going through with that?" Going through with it? I'm not attempting a hostile government take over (yet) or donating my right leg. When I try to explain to them where we are in the process I watch as their eyes glaze over like mine to when my husband starts telling me about the newest sports record to be broken, or how much he enjoys reading Winston Churchill's autobiography. Well, I'm sorry I don't have better news for you. Really I am. Don't you think I'd like to have the process hurrying along as well? Let's face it, my birthday is in two days and I'm not exactly feeling like a spring chicken here. For those of you who want to know, here is where we are:
We have paid for the homestudy. We completed all of the paperwork for it, or so we thought. Once we had everything submitted and did our happy dance, the agency came back and told us that they were going to combine our homestudy and formal applications to allegedly hurry it up on the back end. Well, with the combination of applications came an influx of more paperwork. New, longer, more detailed autobiographies, online classes, infant CPR (is this where I mention that Shaun is a licensed EMT?), medical records, recommendation letters, and more. The rubric for the autobiographies is about 8 pages. I, for one, am not eight pages interesting. I'm more like 4 pages of interesting with maybe a little comic strip or something. I blame my parents actually, normal middle class upbringing. Nothing crazy (minus this one aunt). Nothing to "overcome" or use to pad my autobiography. Nope. Loving parents, little brother, cat, dog, occasional fish tank. Summers with mom, beach vacations, you know, the typical Lifetime Movie Network movie without the horrible twist. Not that I'm complaining, I prefer the normal upbringing, honest. I really do. After all, I'm not the one who has to read my super exciting autobiography!
Whew...sorry about that. Back on topic now. Really.
Full disclosure...here goes nothing.
A few months ago, we got super news. We secured a loan that would completely fund the adoption. Anything we didn't raise would be covered by this loan. (Insert happy dance here.) Well, like all good things, or chickens counted before they were hatched, we discovered that Shaun would be taking a pay cut with his job starting in April. Nothing that will hurt our daily lives, but would make paying back the loan significantly more difficult. I'm hoping that my Jamberry business continues to grow and will make paying back any adoption loans as easy as applying a set of nail wraps (see what I did there?), but until that happens we are going to be applying for as many grants as we can get our beautifully manicured hands on. Should be easy right? I mean, all you need to apply for adoption grants is a completed homestudy...
So there you have it. I will try to update more often. I will try to be transparent with the process. I want this to bring awareness to adoption and the process as much as inform you about our journey.