So it's just about been a year now since we received our adoption license, and we've really only been close to one group of kids.
We renewed our home study this past Friday with our worker, who really is great. I have no complaints about her in this process. At her counseling, we have decided to expand our search criteria a bit. We are now looking at either gender, any race, one or two kids, age 0-10. We have also included legal risk kids, age 0-1.
Legal risk is a specific group of foster kids whose parents haven't had their parental rights completely terminated, but are likely to have it done before too long. Most of the infants lie within this category because the parents have some time to get their acts together before the courts make their decision. However, she said that these mothers have prior rap sheets and most likely, the kids have been tested positive for drugs.
It's not 100% that you'll get to keep the kids, but I think it's worth the risk. These kids, aside from chemical dependency, will have less emotional issues in the long run. We're still willing to work through those issues with the right kids, but this group may help to speed up having kids. That also means that we could be called at a moment's notice to pick up a baby from the hospital, so we'll have to be ready for that.
I am still quite frustrated by the length of time it has taken, but we've had time to get some other things in order first. For example, we have paid off a lot of debt and can see the light at the end of that tunnel (it's still a small light, but it's there!). Hopefully we'll get our house in Florida listed and sold so we can buy a house here within the next year as well.
