[anilorak13ska]

DH and I have been pursuing independent adoption for a year, with two failed matches (technically the second one could still decide to place when the baby is born in October, but we're not holding our breath).

We did our PRIDE training this spring and expect to be licensed fost/adopt any day now...

Meanwhile, we've been actively inquiring about kids on foster care photolistings. We've been passed over three times now, the jury is still out on one, and we're having our agency submit our HS to three more situations.

We only recently started to pursue "older" kids, one or two, boy or girl, up to age 4 (though one of the kids in one of the sibling pairs we're inquiring about right now is 5, but they're bilingual, as are we, and once I confirmed with our school board that she wouldn't have to go to Kingergarten right away, we went for it!). We're especially interested in kids who are Hispanic, Native American, or Multiracial, but we take it case-by-case. DH is Latino, I'm CC(Polish-born).

We hope to find a match before we get our first foster care placement call, but we are prepared to love a child temporarily if that's what it will take to find our forever daughter and/or son.

As exhausting as this process has been, with every new day I feel myself being drawn closer by God to the child meant for us. In that regard, it is exciting to wonder how that meeting will come about, and who our child is!

An old professor of mine (RIP) once told us that it is the custom among the Inuit of Alaska, when a child is born, not to ask "is it a boy or a girl" but rather, "who came?"
They believe that every child is a unique person from the get go, and the parents' job is to find out who they are and parent them accordingly. I love to think of this in light of adoption!