[overflowing]

Hey all, I was just wondering who all the Southern California families are. We live in Placentia, next to Yorba Linda. Anyone live kind of close? -stacy

[dianeandkaren]

We don't live right next store, but we do live in the San Fernando Valley. Which agency are you using? Have you matched yet?

Diane

[LisaCA]

hi,

we're in glendale, a good drive from orange county, but we do make it to S. coast plaza every once in a while!

we've been approved and are waiting for the call to adopt a child of African american descent (we're same). We've had a few calls, but they were all problematic for us (timing, twins-eek!, profile not quite right, etc). We've filled the time trying to research everything, buy the best quality/least expensive things (scored major goods at garage sales and resale shops-we don't normally shop at these places, but infants never wear their clothes out, so the things look brand new and quite cheap). anyway, our latest problem is day care/ nannies, so if you guys have any info we'd love to hear it!

LisaCA (and dh, both early 40s,family includes three cats, two rabbits and a hamster)

[SheldeMuse]

We have recently joined the waiting... we live in Brea (definitely right next door!) and have just submitted the last bits for our homestudy. We have our foster care license, and looking for 1 - 3 kids, ages 3 - 8.

Because we have a wide age range, I haven't bought anything yet. I should make friends with someone close by who is up for the mother of all shopping trips to IKEA and Target when the time comes!

Shelley

[overflowing]

SheldeMuse-Wow, you are right aroung the corner. As far as IKEA and Target...I am so there My kids are in the age range that you are adopting.

LisaCA-I love South Coast Plaza...I haven't been there in a while. Are you adopting through the county or a private agency?

We have three children. My hubby and I are cc. We have a 6yr. old (almost 7yr. old) bio son, a 2yr. old (almost 3yr. old) daughter (our first adoption miracle, she's aa/cc), and our 10month old son (our second adoption miracle, he's 3/4aa, 1/4cc). Both of our adoptions are open adoptions with our daughter's being very open. Our children and how God has brought them to us have been the most amazing experiences in our lives.

I will be praying for you guys as you wait. The waiting is tough...believe me, I know. But God's timing is perfect...it's a good thing too because I don't know where we'd be if I was in control.

[LisaCA]

nice to meet you all. Overflowing-looks like you have a pretty full house:-). Must be kinda fun with everyone running about. We are using PACT in N. Calif. as our facilitators and Vista del Mar did our homestudy. I think the socialworker who interviewed us really liked my husband since he sounds absolutely brilliant and perfect in the report (i came across a bit less "brilliant"-no, I've let it go, really:-)) but we passed, so that's what matters.

sounds like everyone has been to IKEA or is planning trips. I love that store, couldn't function without them. Decorated nursery with some of their stuff. Just went there (covina store) this weekend and bought a few nursery things, for the umpteenth time. Need a freqent buyer discount:-).
shelley, you might want to just surf the as-is section every time you go. they have a ton of stuff that you might use to decorate the rooms that won't cramp the kids' styles (bureaus, desks, etc). Then they can decorate. According to the folks at IKEA, the next sale should be in july/august when they have a catalog cancellation sale (stuff that didn't make it into the new catalog or sell at the most recent sale). There's also a back to school sale coming as well.

Exactly how we lived without IKEA (and post-it notes) is beyond me:-)

the waiting isn't too bad so far. We're just viewing the time as our last few moments as a "childless" couple, going out to dinner at quiet restaurants, swimming in our pool whenever we want without worring about a gate, etc.
wanted to visit vegas for one last gambling trip, but don't know if we'll make it before Baby Day, whenever that is!

so what agency are you all using, or are you guys county?

best of luck everyone,

LisaCA

LisaCA

[SheldeMuse]

Lisa - we may not live close to each other, but we shop the same IKEA. I'm not even sure how many bedrooms to outfit and for how many kids, until we get a match.

So far I've bought a kiddo step stool, for using the bathroom sink. And that's it!

[LisaCA]

sheldemuse- I can't even begin to list all the stuff we've bought from Ikea for the nursery. We were quite excited by the inexpensive crib sheets, but these are out of stock. We bought the 99cent blue plastic bins for three white bookcases that we have for storage of kid stuff, we have an older Ikea red rug for the floor, blue curtains, and stuff for the closet. And we are scoping out a few bureaus for the kid room. We haven't committed yet, since we're looking for a used one at a garage sale, but we do have a few picked out. anyway, we are expecting the folks there to greet us by name soon:-). btw, do you know anything about the highchair at ikea?

so where are you located that you shop at the covina store? we travel there sometimes because they have an ikea and a babiesrus very convenient to have both there. and they have less traffic than the burbank one, which is frighteningly busy on weekends.

any idea of the wait for you?

LisaCA

[SheldeMuse]

The IKEA store is about 18 miles from home, but we can come home on surface streets if we have too much stuff strapped to the roof rack.

I haven't looked at their high chairs. We're looking for 3 to 8 year olds, so not likely in our requirements. I can tell you all about their Billy book cases if you need to make a whole wall of them!

I'm waiting to hear that our homestudy is done, I just turned in the last of my stuff. Then we are in Orange County CFS matching. I have heard from several sources that and there aren't a lot of families waiting, especially for sibling sets over 3. Some friends were matched in less than 2 months with a 6 month old.

I think that once we get matched, we will have 2 or 3 weeks to round up the stuff we need to move the kids in. Great if it happens over the summer, hubby is a teacher, and is now off until late August. Plus he REALLY loves going to IKEA, I'm the reluctant shopper.

[LisaCA]

Sheldemusewe're close to the burbank ikea and often do the city street thing with all the stuff in our truck:-). I am the born to shop spouse, dh is much more reluctant-he's a bit of a tightwad and would rather sit on the sofa and watch baseball. Still, he gets excited to go to Ikea-I think the vast amount of cheap stuff gets him going:-).

so how did you decide to do the sibling group? dh and I thought we'd go that path, but after doing some research we realized we were just clueless. So we'll start with a newborn and for the next children think about older kids. somehow a newborn seems physically fragile but less mentally so- and we both travel a lot for business and those attachment issues could come up.

lisaCA

[SheldeMuse]

Hubby and I are starting from no kids, and yes, it is insane to plan to take two or three of them. But not having any other kids, it seemed to be such a good fit... most of the adoptive parents we've encountered are looking for one.

Hubby is a teacher, and will have the option to take a long time off (unpaid, but with his job waiting) or work part time. I've switched to a job where I can entirely avoid travel for a while. We will juggle it as best we can so the kids don't need daycare.

I spend a lot of time anticipating what it will be like to learn to parent under the watchful eyes of two or three little people who don't trust me and can talk back. Fortunately I have lots of "special needs" coworkers to practice on.

Shel

[claschober]

Hello All....

Been lurking around reading the posts for quite some time and figured I should probably introduce myself.....I am 27 and hubby is 29, we have been wanting to adopt for sometime and have just finished our PRIDE classes and are in the process of finishing our homestudy. We are hoping to adopt a sibling set of two from the state as a fos/adopt situation. It would be nice to be finished with everything soon, but with the state who knows!

I have to agree with you all when it comes to shopping at IKEA...I could spend hours in that store and never get bored! I shop at the Covina store as well...

Right now I am trying to kid proof our home and make it kid friendly since we have no children of our own, unless you count our 2 puppies...

Looking forward to hearing from all of you about your adoption process and visits to IKEA,


Cindy

[LisaCA]

wow, you guys are much braver than we are! Welcome cindy!

the kidproofing thing is so difficult! we're trying to figure out what's the best gate for the bottom of the stairs-it has to keep the two rabbits downstairs and allow the cats to jump over, but keep a child safe-I think we're asking too much for a gate! since it's an irregular area, I think we'll have to have a gate custom made. the rest of the house is bunny proofed and kitty proofed, working on the kidproofing.

and cindy, you should count those two puppies. I always count my furry ones when folks ask if I have children (usually say no human children, 6 furry ones:-). Most folks who know us wish to come back reincarnated as one of our pets-it's a very good life.

btw, what are the PRIDE classes?

LisaCA

[SheldeMuse]

Lisa - if you get a newborn, the requirements for baby proofing may be less of an issue. Until they can crawl, you don't need to worry about them getting to the stairs. It may depend on your licensing worker, but you just need the "age appropriate" protections.

Then you have time to figure out how to segregate kids and bunnies, while allowing free-flow for cats. Our cat would be outta luck, she can only get to something 18" tall. Very short, rather round.

For anyone, I would just suggest making it easy for the worker to see you as responsible parents when they come out. Move the cleaning products to the cabinet over the fridge, have the hot water heater set to something below scalding, know where you would lock up meds when kids are in the house, and have things orderly.

We got our license on the first visit, and we have a machine shop in our attached garage.

[claschober]

Thanks for the welcome!

Well if we are counting animals as kids, then I have 4! 2 puppies, a cat, and a loud parrot.... Now we just want to add children to that list!

Out here in San Bernardino we have to take 30 hours of training/parenting classes and they are called PRIDE training. It was a great opportunity for us to learn new things as well as meet other people who are going through the same process we are.

As for the kid proofing, we too have to be careful when it comes to buying a gate because of the puppies. They need to be able to get out to their doggy door and putting up a gate would hinder that. We are looking to adopt 0-6 so depending on the age we may not have to worry so much about a gate.

Lisa~~ Do you let your bunnies roam freely throughout the house? And if so do you have them potty trained or is that even an option? I know strange question, but I had a bunny growing up and know what a mess they can make, so my curiousity got the best of me.

Have a wonderful rest of the day ladies!

Cindy