Information Meeting debrief

We have officially ticked off the second step towards adopting a child in New Zealand by attending the Information Meeting last night. It went for just over two and a half hours and actually covered a lot of the information covered in the informal session we went to last November (which was consequently step one). A lot of it was repetitive but it was a compulsory step and the paperwork side of it was elaborated on.

There were five couples present and three staff members from Adoption Services / Permanency from Child, Youth and Family. We all had to introduce ourselves and say where we were from (some couples had travelled to Nelson). There was no mention of whether anyone had children already or not. My guess is we were the only ones in the room who were already parents so I experienced some quiet guilt about that.

The next step is The Education Preparation programme. Once again, as per the Information Meeting, this cannot go ahead until they have "the numbers". If all of us choose to go ahead from last night then it is all go. But to get to this stage we need to complete an application form, undergo police and medical checks, get a couple of references completed and go for an interview if required. Last night they thought it could be about July that The Education Preparation programme takes place.

At the informal session it was said there were around eighty-something children adopted out annually in New Zealand. Now they think it's sixty-something out of a pool of three hundred prospective parents. It was estimated last night that those who go through the whole process will be in the pool with the other prospective parents about this time next year - April 2010 - waiting to be picked.

It's interesting that I'm in quite a different place around adoption than I was six months ago. We are going to be scrutinised as a couple - and rightly so. I don't think at this point in time we are good prospective adoptive parents. It's so obvious to me right now that my marriage is the most important thing of all to attend to. I know that adopting a baby is not going to make me happier in my marriage. That might sound so obvious but it took me a while to get here with that awareness.

Sigh. There are still financial worries hovering over our heads. I didn't get the librarian assistant job so it's back to the drawing board for me. I feel so frustrated that there are so many big pressures to deal and live with right now.

I'm off to the gym tonight. I haven't been since last Thursday so that'll be good to go and have some me time. Tomorrow is my daughter's last session at afternoon Kindy so we're going to bake something to take into Kindy. I continue to celebrate the milestones. They are going by so fast!