The Interview

Matt and I had grandma scheduled to watch B while we went to a "meeting".  I wasn't sure what we should wear- I didn't want to look like we dressed up to not look "normal" but wanted to look like we cared about what we were doing!  I settled on a new pair of khaki pants and a cute denim looking shirt from Tar-get with my favorite red shoes.  Hubby wore the standard khaki and black.  I felt comfortable with our look.  It was nice-casual, not looking overdone but still simple.  It worked even better because my purse was cute as can be with the outfit.

Our meeting was scheduled for 4:30.  We arrived about 4:20 and didn't get called back until about 4:50 by the adoption supervisor.  It was nervous idle conversation in the waiting room and Matt started to get a little annoyed with the wait.  No one bothered to tell us anything about no one coming for us.  I started to wonder if they had forgotten about us!  I knew we were the last appointment of the day (actually, the last of two days!) so I figured they were just running behind.

Finally, a door opened and here came a cute little couple (total competition) and the lady called us back.  She apologized for the delay and I offered if she needed to take a break/ use the rest room etc. since she was obviously going straight into ours.  She declined and we followed her into her office.

After several interruptions by people trying to leave for the end of the day, we were able to get started.   Her name was M and she was very nice. She is the adoption supervisor.  She started by asking if we had any questions from our informational meeting (we didn't) and she was looking over our profile.  She liked that we were from Iowa (she was from *.*.) and I also slipped it in a little later that Matt was a PO there.  She shared with us that her cousin (her dad and his dad are brothers) was a Sargent there.  (one of the guys who helped hubby with the hiring process).  Good start..

She outlined the process for how they select families again.  They have about 18 interviews and only 6 spots.  ( We can't remember the exact number now that she told us).  She said that was the bad news, but I told her it was actually good news because it was more spots than I thought.  For some reason I was thinking they had only 2 spots.  After the interviews, if they don't see any red flags, they sort all of the families into demographic groups.  She also told us a little later in the interview that this time around they are looking for families that are more on the East side of the state (we are so far east we are west) and for families with children!  Yea!  Two points for us!

The categories they sort into are:
*Age (all of us were mid 30s she said)
*Race (all of us are Caucasian  she said)
*Location (they serve the whole state and look for families to be spread all over the state- lucky for us, our area is currently low in adoptive parents)
*# of children ( some birth parents look for a family with children already, some with no children...lucky again, she said they are looking for ones with children)
*both parents working (some want to place their child with a stay at home mom)

The discussion was very laid back and comfortable.  We had some laughs,. we all shared some stories, and I felt at ease.

Even though these were on the application sheet, she asked us for more details on how we go to where we are, our thoughts on open adoption, and what scenarios we were open to considering. 

M told us that she would be in meetings tomorrow and Thursday they would begin to sort the family profiles into groups.  She said she did not want to guarantee that we would be accepted into the program but that she liked our answers and thought we had a good understanding of openness and fit the demographics well.  She has another meeting on Friday morning but that she will begin making calls on Friday afternoon.  She asked what number she should call and since Matt has to work, we told her to call my cell.

Cross your fingers that we make it in- I'll be back on Friday to let you know!

Enjoying dinner together after the interview so we could talk things over.  

Appointment call

I was just saying to husband this past weekend that we haven't heard anything from the agency yet regarding calls for interviews.  His response was something like, "well, that's nice".  I told him it was okay though because they said they wouldn't even start looking at them until the end of August.

This afternoon I saw I had a voice mail on my phone and finally got around to checking it.  I don't know when I missed a call, but that happens frequently.  It was the agency calling to set up an interview time!

One of the biggest stresses with our situation is that husband is in a new job and his time off is not that flexible right now.  He went from being a teacher to a police officer and is currently in the Field Training Officer program (FTO).  What this means is that all of his days are scheduled to line up with his training officer and he can't do a lot of requesting time off since he is so new (even though this is SO important!).  My job is pretty flexible so at least that part is less to worry about.

Husband has his schedule until the end of the year so when the receptionist called to set up interview dates, I was praying we could make it work.  She gave me two choices (a Monday and a Tuesday) and the Tuesday date husband has off.  (YES!!!)  We set the appointment for 4:30- 6 PM.  This lady on the phone was so nice, friendly, and helpful!  It took me a minute to figure out what appointment time I wanted (early or late) because that happened to be one of two days of the month that it is a little bit harder for me to flex my schedule. 

I also asked if they had the dates set for the training days yet in Sept./ Oct.  One of the requirements with this agency is that you must attend 4 days of all-day training.  Once again, another stress with hoping it would be able to work out schedule wise.  After you interview, you only have to attend the training days if you are selected to be in the program.  If they do not choose you at this time, you can stay in the pool and re-interview in 6 months when they accept new families again.

If you make it through the interview and are invited to join the program however, you are in! The only thing you have to do is be selected by a birthmom.  (well, a thousand other things like the training, documents, home study, etc.  but you know what I mean!)

Getting on with this story, the training dates for September- Husband works nights both of the days but has the previous two days before them off.  If he can't make it work to switch shifts (and his FTO switch as well) he can at least make it work by staying up for days in a row on almost no sleep.  He has those two days off before and 2 days off after, so he has the time to catch up on sleep.  It will just be 2 stinky work shifts with no sleep.  Not the best for a police officer or someone trying to listen in to training.  I guess that is what they invented energy drinks for!

The October dates are awesome!  Already has those two dates off.  Thank you, God!  I feel like this is working out so well.

We both switched jobs this year into something different than where we were before and things are really looking good for us after a stressful past few years.  I made the comment to a couple close friends but thought it to myself many times that life is going so well, the only thing that could top it off would be a sweet little baby for our family.  How I hope this comes true.