Our First Interview

Whew....we had our first interview with the adoption agency last Wednesday. It actually wasn't as nerveracking as I thought it might be. They asked questions about our hobbies and interests growing up and now. I had to mention playing with cows as a childhood favorite. :-) Since then, I've thought of at least 5 other hobbies that I forgot to mention like magic and balloon animals. Tim almost forgot to mention gardening as one of his. He is "Plant Man" so I'm glad we remembered to mention it. They also asked what words we would use to describe ourselves and about how we saw our relationship.

The bulk of the time though we talked about who our family members are and what our relationship with them was like growing up and what it's like now. I learned some very interesting things about Tim's materal grandparents like they used to shoot cigarettes out of each other's mouths. Now that's Alabama relatives for ya! With my very nontraditional family, it always takes a bit of explaining. I ended up drawing a flowchart to connect the many dots. There are even more dots with the introduction in the last 2 years with my birthfather's family. That added 9 aunts and uncles, six half brothers and a half sister. Ah well, such is the pathways that life takes sometimes.

I've learned over the years that family is not necessarily those you share DNA with but actually are those who love and respect you for who you are. I think we both feel that domestic adoption is a great option for us because of our experience growing up in families that were not the "traditional" 2 parent/2 children homes. Tim's experience knowing the care he had from his stepfather showed him that a man can love a child who is not his biological child. My experience of meeting my birthfather's family showed me the awe that lies in seeing people who look like you and also the value of being able to know one's medical history.

We are so excited to be adopting! Next up is our full day class on March 9 and then our home visit on March 14. The Monday after that if all our paperwork is in, we'll be "activated" and able to start being shown to birthparents. From there, it could be a week, a month, 6 months, a year or more...who knows..... We sure are hoping for sooner rather than later! :-) Oh my goodness! I've starting looking at car seats to bring our new little one home. Any advice is greatly taken!