The Income Issue

So in the fall, I mentioned that there was this big upset in our process because of a hard decision that had to be made. The decision was mostly on my part because it involved a choice that would affect our income for a period of time and therefore might become a problem with the adoption.

I am in my last semester of graduate school currently, but part of the requirement to graduate was to complete a practicum in lieu of a thesis or comprehensive exam. That means doing an internship which in turn affected my ability to keep my full-time position, which was paying pretty well. I needed to complete a certain number of hours in one semester at the risk of losing my benefits with my job (like health insurance) if I dropped under 30 hours a week. Two classes, an internship and trying to work 30 hours a week? Talk about exhaustive.

Advertisement

Focusing on the Good

Once again, we have come upon delays in our adoption process. Our home study originally scheduled for two weeks ago was cancelled at the last minute. By us, not our new social worker or agency, for some very sad circumstances. Right now, D and I are trying to adjust to a new normal that has suddenly been thrust upon us. We are very lucky in our chosen agency and how much they care for us even before we have brought a child home. Our social worker has given us our space while also listening to our wishes that we want to continue with our adoption process.

Our adoption was always a source of hope and happiness even when the paperwork path got a little overwhelming, and it is more now than ever before. Admittedly, both D and I would have loved to schedule a home study immediately, but I’m glad we were encouraged by our social worker to leave a little space for us settle in back at home and at work. We’ve already rescheduled our interviews, which is a great source of relief to me as we inch into month seven of this first step of the process.

What is good right now? We have loving family and friends checking in on us. We have the funds to move forward with the adoption no matter when we are matched. We have been put in contact with local families also adopting from South Africa. We’ve already started collecting paperwork for the dossier since we are so close to the end of the first phase. And our childrens’ room is now under way.

There are bittersweet moments in life, but I am glad for each and every day.

Home Study Hullabaloo

One recommendation I do have for anyone thinking about going through the adoption process in the future is that you will have to let go of your established timelimes. If you are an obssessive scheduler like me, this will make you break down on occasion. Or maybe more frequently.

I have said before on this blog that I had expected to be done with this portion of our adoption process so many, many months ago. Seven weeks earlier I was telling myself there was absolutely no way we would not be done with our home study by early January and working on our international dossier.

I laugh to keep from crying at my continued naivety.