Debra said that in the world of adoption, there are busy periods, and there are very slow periods. I remember when we were first applying with the agency, they were really busy. It seemed like every time I called, they were at the hospital with a birth mother. And then the past two years have been super slow. They've had a lot of women calling for information, but rarely do they follow through with adoption. She said in talking to other agencies, they are experiencing the same thing. It's kind of frustrating, but I know that it's all in God's timing.
She also talked to us about a couple of other options that we have. We can use multiple agencies in hopes of a quicker match. She also recommended that we let everyone know that we are hoping to adopt in the event that someone we know knows someone that is considering placing their child for adoption. She said it was actually quite common that people find a distant cousin in a different state, or a friend of a friend, and they do an independent adoption, which is actually considerably cheaper because you don't have the placement fee, which is the big fee. If we were able to do an independent adoption, that would save us about $12,000. Basically an independent adoption is where you adopt from someone without the agency as the go-between. There are risks involved in that, but it is usually quicker, with most families finding a child within the first year.
We've been working on our fundraising. We are doing that primarily through my Etsy shop. The summer has been really slow, but I'm expecting it to pick up in the next couple of months for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year I stayed busy from October to December, so I'm praying for another busy season. I had the baby room all set up for a while, and I've been using it as my sewing room. I've been running out of room, so I took down a lot of the baby stuff. I was surprised because it made me a little sad. The room has been sitting there for a year and a half, and so it was practical to put it to good use, but I feel like I had worked so hard, and she's still not here.
We did adopt a cat a few months back. I have been begging Cory for years to let me have a cat. He finally gave in, and I found a hypo-allergenic Balinese cat (related to the Siamese). He wanted to try it out first to make sure it really was hypoallergenic, so we told the kids we were babysitting him for a little while. After a couple of weeks, we decided to keep him. We sat the boys down and told them that Wyatt had a family that couldn't take care of him anymore, so we were going to adopt him, so that he would become part of our family now. They were so excited! He's really a beautiful cat!
In other news, Chase is going into third grade, and Ryland is starting kindergarten this year! What??! We need a baby now, because his baby status is expiring in like two weeks! It's going to be really strange with him not around. He's my sidekick. He loves to go everywhere with me, even the grocery store. Every morning, we have "coffee snuggle time" (yes, I let my 5-year-old have coffee, although it's mostly milk). I'm sure when I get used to it, I will really enjoy my kid-free time, but for now, the thought of it makes me a little sad.
