A week or so after our home visit I spoke with our social worker. I had to drop off a couple things she needed for the home study. She had just gotten back from the hospital. They had gotten a hospital call. That's when they are contacted by a birthmother who has just given birth to a baby and decides at that time to place the baby for adoption. If we wanted, we could have our profile shown for that baby. Of course this baby would be only 13 1/2 months younger than our daughter (which is actually how close my sister and I are). She said she wasn't sure if this was too soon for us. I said I wasn't sure either, but that for now we would take it on a case by case basis. She said that in that case she wouldn't give me info on it now, but would wait until the birthmother was ready to look at profiles. She asked when our profile would be ready, realistically. I said in two weeks.

We never did hear more about that baby. I assume the birthmother decided to parent, since the baby can only be placed in interim care for 30 days. It's been more than 30 days now. I'm not disappointed; it really was too soon for me.

I got our profile turned in two weeks later. At that time our social worker said that she would be starting to write our home study the following week. She said that all we have to do is complete four more training hours for our foster license before a baby is placed with us. All we have to do is attend a parenting conference, read a book, or watch a video. That's not too difficult.

A little over a week ago, I called our social worker to ask about an adoption conference coming up, and she told me that she was finishing our home study that day. She said that they are working with some birthmothers, but no one is looking at profiles in the near future. She had just shown profiles for an infant due in December that doesn't match our criteria.

Wednesday we got our official approval letter in the mail stating that on October 16 we became an official waiting family. With our first adoption we waited nearly seven months. I wonder if this one will take more or less time. Will a baby come before May, or after May? Will it be a boy or a girl? We shall see.

One thing I know for sure. Waiting for baby number two will not be nearly as long as baby number one. That whole journey - trying on our own, trying with medical help, and trying to adopt - started in September, 2000, and ended in August, 2005 taking nearly five years. I can be patient knowing that this journey won't take five years!!