Matthew and I are in the process of changing the age request identified in our homestudy from 0-10 months to 0-3 yrs old. This has been a decision that has been in the making for quite some time now. I think our initial reason for choosing 0-10 months was mostly out of fear that we may struggle, or our child may struggle more adjusting if he/she was a bit older when coming home. With all of the time we have spent waiting since then it has given us an opportunity to read about toddler adoption, talk to other families who have adopted older kids, and as a result our feelings about it have changed.Yes there will be different challenges to face (the book above is really good at outlining what they may be), but I am confident with the right support and resources families created trough toddler adoption can be very happy and well adjusted. We met with our homestudy practitioner about a month ago and she helped us submit a request to change our age range to the Ministry. I just found out last week that the document is now sitting on someone’s desk at the Ministry and they expect we should hear back regarding approval in about a week.
I am just finishing up this book today. It was one of the few books I could find that is only about toddler adoption (if anyone has heard of any others I would love to know). So when our referral comes now it will be a really big surprise because it could be a boy or girl, a baby or a 3 year old – wowzers!
11 comments:
That is so exciting! Congrats on your new decision... :)
Woo HOO! As the mom of a 4 ish year old, I think it is wonderful. Get the Patty Cogen book too, "Parenting your Internationally Adopted Child." :)
I know that when I adopt it'll be an older child. I just know. There'a 5 year old boy with Down Syndrome listed on Reece's Rainbow that I would take home tomorrow if I could.
You will probably get a referral faster now right?
oh, and also Woohoo!! I can't wait to see who your child wil be!
Great news! I'm so happy you sound so confident and joyful about your decision :)
Wow, what a decision, what fun that will be when that referral comes. How long will it take for the approval of the change?
L
thanks for the comments! I'm not sure how long the approval will take. We met with our social worker about a month ago, and we have been told the ministry approval should only take 1-2 weeks (but I have heard some horror stories of it taking months).
That's great Shannon! Congrats!
Hey that's great - and you are right that the challenges aren't necessarily more, just different. The Hopkins-Best book is a good one, partly because even on bad days you can think, well, it's not as bad as some of THOSE stories!
Hopefully your Ministry approval will be quicker since it is just a change and not a whole new homestudy!
This is exciting - what a wide range now. Cool! I hope your ministry approval goes through quickly.
Very exciting news! When we changed our age request the approval only took 1 week.....it is usually faster!!!
Steph :-)
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