BraimeeDotCom

Last night Aimee attended our second adoption educational seminar. The main topic of the night was bonding. We discussed ways to ensure that our adopted child bonds with us properly when he comes into our home.

One thing our teachers mentioned is that the child may actually “reject” his new mom and dad for a while, but connect easily with strangers. If that’s the case, we’re supposed to use a technique called “funneling” to help the child learn that mom and dad are the providers for anything he needs. For example, if our child really took a liking to someone we were having over for dinner, and asked that person for a snack, then that person would ask us for the snack and then we would give it to the child. By repeating this process over time, the child should eventually learn to come to us for any of his needs.

I’m just going to say right now that if our adopted child doesn’t think I’m absolutely the coolest person in the world within 15 minutes of meeting me, I’m going to have a hard time with that. If we have trouble bonding, I’m going to have a real hard time with that. And if the child doesn’t like computers, I’m going to hang myself. However, if the child hates me but likes computers, I can live with that.

Hi. I haven’t written much about this yet because I’m a bit cautious by nature. But I think yesterday makes this event in our lives about as official as it’s going to get: we’re adopting a child!

The who/what/when/where is a bit more than I have time to get into at the moment, but I’m a little excited so I just wanna pour some of this down on the blog for now, and get an adoption category started so I can keep this easily organized.

Aimee and I went to an informational meeting about a month ago and started the 6.8 billion pieces of paperwork we need to fill out. It makes the paperwork you sign when buying a house look like a joke! Not only is there a zillion contracts and forms to fill out, you’ve gotta get references from friends, neighbors, enemies, the police department of every county you’ve lived in, and a final seal of approval from God himself (that’s a tough one). I give HUGE props to Aim. She’s ripped through a ton of this paperwork like it was going out of style.

Anyway, recently we got to the point in the process where we qualified for a “home study” with a social worker, which was yesterday. Basically, her visit consisted of a nickel tour of the house, a “big picture” overview of the adoption process, and then some chit-chat time where she could get to know us better. I’m pleased to say it all went well. She did load us up with more paperwork and hoops to jump through, but I’d say yesterday was the “point of no return” (in a good way), and we’re absolutely psyched.