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Would you considering fostering first? Or maybe just "respite" fostering?
We did our foster-to-adopt training (32 hours!) and received our foster license late last summer. Since then we've done respite care for two different families (3 kids in each family) and it's been great!
First, it's short-term (usually a weekend). Second, we really feel good about giving good foster parents a break when they need one. Third, it's a chance to spend time with foster kids and see if we can handle adopting.
After all of this time, we decided that we could NOT handle one of the set of siblings who will be available for adoption next month. We wouldn't have known this without having them in our home several times! But we are going to try to adopt another sibling group.
And I can tell you that my husband wasn't totally behind the idea of foster care to begin with--he just wanted to adopt a single child, as young as possible. Once you experience working with the foster kids, it gives you a better sense of what they're going through, and it does often open your heart more.
Just a thought (respite, that is)!
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