[MatthewS]

Dear Collective,

I have just registered at the forum here. I figure that the resources here will be of help as my wife and I traverse through adoption.

I am 36 and my wife is 34.

In March my wife and I decided to attend orientation and adoption classes from our local social services. Since then we have completed all our steps towards adoption including our home study.

My wife and I went to Halifax Canada for our 8th wedding anniversary in June and after a ridiculously late flight back home received a phone call early on June 30th from a case worker letting us know of a little girl who was available. We were going to adopt via legal risk, but it turned out that this little kid was free and clear. Good news for us, because the legal risk risks had us a bit freaked out.

Due to circumstances, the transition is being done slowly over a 6 week period with our daughter-to-be staying with us on weekends. We'll be seeing her every day pretty much because her foster family is in a completely different part of town and we've registered her for school near our home. We'll be driving her to school every day until she is with us permanantly. We also get two nights a week where she stays with us late to have dinner.

We've spent some time with her, she stayed at our home overnight this weekend, and things seem to be going well. We're not naive enough to think everything is going to be a walk in the park, but I am pretty confident that she's going to integrate well into our home.

Best,
MatthewS.