[Leah]

Hi all!

DH and I have resently jumped from the talking/wishing/fear mode to attending an agency orientation. I have lurked on the adoption.com boards for over two years (you all have taught me so much, thank you!) and I've read up (much more to do) on attachment, RAD, etc. I've also worked as a therapist at an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Despite working with and researching children in the foster system, I know we'll need a lot of help to pull this off!!!

Which brings me to my first question: Would you please pm me about NE Indiana, NW Ohio, or SW Michigan agencies? I need to know who is great and who to stay away from! We live in NE IN but are within an hours drive to the other areas. For that matter, Indianapolis isn't too far either. You all probably know better than I if having an agency out of your immediate area is doable. So please, let me know what you think.

Also, I read a bit about the several visits before cross-state children visit the home, and are moved to the home. That's makes sense to us since we are asking children to accept us, strangers. In your experience do SWs encourage or discourage cross-state adoptions? For the childrens' sake, and ours I suppose, we want to avoid cross-race issues (only because we will already have plenty of issues to deal with) so we are hoping for latino or latino/cauc. kids, IN doesn't seem to have many sib groups with that profile. DH is Apache also, but not associated with a tribe so that is likely out of the question. Our hearts and heads are hoping for 2 younger sibs. We planned/plan to have no bio children.

Well, if you've read this far, THANK YOU! I look forward to interacting with you here.