Thank you to those of you who prayed for us during our orientation meeting with Lilliput! We were given A LOT of information last night and we're still processing it all. We talked some things out with Zach's parents who attended the meeting with us and we took a detour on our way home to Big Spoon Yogurt. We felt a little dessert would make the decision making process a bit easier. :-)
The "reality checks" we heard at the event last weekend were confirmed at the Lilliput meeting. The entire process from start to finish could take up to 2 years. We were made very aware of the risks we would take in adopting a 0-12month old. There is a good chance the child's birth parent(s) will fight for reunification and they will have 6-12 months to do so, even after the child has been placed in our home. The thought of bonding with a sweet baby only to have them taken away from us is almost too much to handle. It is also mandated by the state that we arrange regular visits between the child & their birth parent(s) during the fostering period... we're not entirely comfortable with that. We also learned that when adopting an infant there is a VERY good chance they have been exposed to prenatal drug or alcohol abuse which results in health problems.
These are all things we will be willing & able to take on if the Lord leads us to, however we feel it's best to see what our other options are before committing to such a difficult journey. We were referred to an independent adoption agency called "Little Angel Adoptions" here in Sacramento. They set up adoption with pregnant mothers who are relinquishing their baby-to-be. The chance of having an unhealthy child is greatly reduced, and the adoption is finalized the moment the child is placed with us- so no temporary foster care. The big risk, of course, is that the birth mom could change her mind at any point during her pregnancy. This would be difficult, but at least we won't have bonded with the child yet, so the burden would be lessened. We'll set up a meeting with Little Angel Adoptions and make our decision after that.
We're a little disheartened as we were hoping to have a clearly known path after last night's meeting. We feel it's important to take our time in making sure we're choosing the best fit though, and God will get us through it!
