[pveazie]

I haven't seen much activity on this forum and the previous thread has many subtopics on it, so I thought I would start a new thread with a roll call to start some discussions:

(1) Are you in the process of adopting, have you already adopted or both?

(2)Domestic or International?If domestic, foster care or newborn?. If international which country and age/gender?

(3)What state do you live in?

(4)Did you use Catholic agency for any part of the adoption?

[mckenna]

1) Are you in the process of adopting, have you already adopted or both?
my son's adoption will be complete on 12/5 and his baptism is on 12/7

(2)Domestic or International?If domestic, foster care or newborn?. If international which country and age/gender?
my son was my foster son since 3 months of age and he is now 2 1/2

(3)What state do you live in?
missouri

(4)Did you use Catholic agency for any part of the adoption?
no - dfs

[pveazie]

I will start with my answers:
I have 2 kids(bio) and in early stages of adoptive process-picking agencies.We will start homestudy in Feb 2004.

We are adopting internationally from Moldova(Eastern Europe) and are requesting a toddler boy.

I live in Indiana.

We are probably going to use the local Catholic Charity org for our homestudy. Our placing agency will be out of state since Moldova accredits agencies and therefore is only a short list of agencies which we can use.

[bocefus]

(1) Are you in the process of adopting, have you already adopted or both?

Wife and I are in process of adopting...have homestudy done waiting for about 5months now.

(2)Domestic or International?If domestic, foster care or newborn?. If international which country and age/gender?

domestic

(3)What state do you live in?
OR

(4)Did you use Catholic agency for any part of the adoption?

Working with Catholic family Charities...highly recommended

[Makareina]

It's so fun finding out where everyone on here is at with reference to their adoption journey... these rollcall's are great!!

(1) Are you in the process of adopting, have you already adopted or both?

We are actually at the very beginning of the adoption process... for the third time. We have two incredible children whom we adopted from birth... completely open adoptions with loads of contact (until we moved to the US from Canada that is), but we are still in contact via phone and e-mail and snail mail! Looking very much forward to getting into this incredible journey...

(2)Domestic or International?If domestic, foster care or newborn?. If international which country and age/gender?

We will be adopting domestically in the US and aren't sure as yet whether we'll be blest with a newborn or a foster/adopt child. We are looking forward to having a second son (we have a son and a daughter), and we're thinking for age up to 14 months or so... depends completely on the situation!

(3)What state do you live in?

Washington State

(4)Did you use Catholic agency for any part of the adoption?

When we adopted our son and daughter, we used Catholic Social Services. For this adoption, we are using a private agency called Antioch Adoptions. They are amazing and incredible... they truly do great things in the realm of adoption!!

Thanks for letting me spout off... it's so great to be able to have a venue where sharing is looked forward to and encouraged. This truly is an incredible journey, and though we all walk our own walk... the fact that we share the quest, the quest to be parents (whether for the first time or for the third or more...) connects us, I think that's really special.

God Bless each of you in your lives and in your quests...

"... God, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, to change the things I should... and please lead me to the wisdom to know the difference."

[pveazie]

Welcome Makareina!
Great to hear your story. I look forward to sharing our journeys and hearing your sage adoption advice for us newbies to the process

[kcurran]

We are adopting a 7 year old girl from disruption. We live in TX and did not use any of the Catholic services. We are becoming rather disillusioned with the Church though this whole process.

We are not sure if she has been baptised in any religion and she is in the second grade we were hoping that since she has missed out on so much in her life that it would be nice if she could make her first Holy Communion with her class. But since she wasn't in religious ed as far as we can determine last year she will miss out on this too.

I understand the rules but we offered to do extra "homework" and they would not agree to that either. It just seems a shame that a child who has been through so much is continued to be put aside. I had hoped that the Church would have showed some compassion at least.

Has anyone else dealt with anything like this? How did you cope?

[qs mom]

What fun!

(1) Are you in the process of adopting, have you already adopted or both?

I'm single and brought my little son home in July 2003.

(2)Domestic or International?If domestic, foster care or newborn?. If international which country and age/gender?

International, Bulgaria, 2 year 10 month old boy.

(3)What state do you live in?
New York

(4)Did you use Catholic agency for any part of the adoption?

My homestudy agency in associated with my parish, both were founded by the same priest, (who is on his way to being a saint, by the way).

[pveazie]

kcurran and q's mom,
Thanks for posting! I knew there were other Catholics that have adopted or are in the process!I look forward to seeing your posts throughout the forums.

kcurran, sorry to hear that your daughter will not be allowed to be included with the Communion class. I don't understand that either,especially since you were willing to go the extra mile in catching her up with the religious ed. Will they make her go through OCIC (the RCIA program for children)?

q's mom: Congrats to you! What a great 1st Christmas you will have together.We looked into Bulgaria as well, but since we have a boy and a girl already, it didn't seem like they would accept us into their programs.

[taggrr2]

Hello all!

I'm not sure how wide spread this in known but I wanted to share just in case you don't know. We have 2 adopted children, one just last month. Our agency does a placement ceremony. In doing some searches I found that the Book of Blessings has a blessing for parent and an adopted child. It is a very cool blessing and particularly for older kids who may have already been baptized there is a part where they can affirm their desire to become part of your family.

Just wanted to pass along!

[Peggy]

KCurran,

My daughter was adopted from Fostercare and moved in at age 8. She could not be baptized until the adoption was final (age 9), and did not recieve First Communion, and classes until the next year. She additionally had tutoring the first year in CCD, because after age 5, the child has to consent to be baptized. Pretty odd to me, because that is still very young, and she was dealing with even accepting me, let alone being baptized. It all worked out in the end. She really liked the one on one teaching she got for baptizm, and even though she recieved First Communion late, there was another little girl her age that was also recieving at the same time. Actully We used the same dress for baptism and her first Communion. She still went to her age-appropriate CCD classes. I also had the same teacher help her prepare for her First Confession, because of her past I felt it would be a very tricky concept for her to grasp, and I did not want her blaming herself for her past. In that case, rushing the classes would have led to a lot of confusion.

[HuntersMom012]

(1) Are you in the process of adopting, have you already adopted or both?

We have already adopted.

(2)Domestic or International?If domestic, foster care or newborn?. If international which country and age/gender?

Domestic/Newborn -- Hunter was born on 1/29/03 and baptized in the Catholic Church on 9/23/03.

(3)What state do you live in?

Louisiana

(4)Did you use Catholic agency for any part of the adoption?

No, our adoption was done privately. We were introduced to the birthmother through her sister. A total miracle!! God is Good!!!

[AMB012345]

(1) We are currently in the process of adoption. We submitted our inital application July 2003 and are scheduled for our home visit January 7, 2004.

(2)Domestic - Healthy Caucasian Newborn

(3)New York

(4)We are using Bethany Christian Services in New Jersey.

[djp03]

(1) Adopted our son in June 2000. Waited 2.5 years. Currently waiting for baby#2, at 2.5 year mark. Went through 2 disruptions with our son, 3 disruptions with our second wait.

(2) Domestic: drug and alsohol free Caucasian infant

(3) Minnesota

(4) Catholic Charities.....the wait is WAY too long. Found our son via our own networking

[Scarlet]

1. We are just starting our process. Still seeing the Dr. but not liking the options he has given thus far so we are looking at adoption.

2. domestic, newborn

3. Iowa

4. We have recieved information from Catholic charities. Waiting for them to get on the ball and schedule an orientation meeting. They told us December, then when I called mid-December they pushed it back to March. I have contacted Bethany as well I am waiting on their info. They have a meeting on the 21st of Feb.