Active Waiting

"What have I been doing these last 9+ months on the wait list", you might be asking? Actively waiting! In preparation for becoming parents, I've done a lot of research, homework, and learning. Here's a sneak peak.

• Read Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections. It's a 500+ page "textbook" on all things adoption. It was amazing. A great resource guide that I'm sure we'll come back to many times once the kids come home. Required reading by our agency.
• Completed watching a 5-hour DVD on Ethiopian adoptions. It was provide by our agency and required learning.
  
• I'm obsessed with Ethiopian adoption blogs. I follow over a dozen blogs of families from our agency and others. It's so comforting, encouraging, inspiring, and educational to journey with other adoptive families.
  
• I'm more obsessed with "Gotchya Day" videos. These are the videos when parents meet their children for the first time. They are guaranteed cry for me, but are so nourishing and healing. They paint a picture for me of our "one day".
• Read The Connected Child. Such a fantastic book on building trust, attachments, and bonding with your adopted child. I posted some learnings on my blog HERE.
• We've been preparing the kids' bathroom and bedroom for them to move in. We haven't decorated their room yet because we don't know if we'll get 2 girls or 1 of each gender. But the room previously known as Matt and SB's room turned guest room turned "catch all" room is currently being cleaned out to make way for the kids' to inhabit. The bathroom currently has paint samples on the wall. We're deliberating between spring green and orange slice.
• Currently, I'm about halfway through reading Toddler Adoption. It's the leading book on what to expect when adopting a toddler. I told Brian that I'm so grateful that we're adopting a toddler because of what I'm learning about their needs, but I literally want to SOB my way through this book as I consider the loss and grief that little ones experience before their even able to go to school. It's so sad how much they've lost in just a few years of life.
  

STILL TO DO...

• We also still need to complete our 10-hour online required Hague training. Not sure what to expect here, but I'm sure it's great.
• We also need to complete our "Support System Plan", another required resource from our agency. It's a 7-page document with dozens of questions about potential questions, issues, situations, and needs we will have once our kids come home. We haven't completed much of it yet, but we've had so many parenting conversations, that I'm sure we'll officially get through this document soon.
  
• We've also signed up for a webinar by Adoption Learning Partners called "Conspicuous Families". It's for families who are adopting children from other races or countries. It prepares us to handle the odd looks, questions, and insensitive comments about our kids not looking like our kids. It also will be a guide for encouraging diversity and cultural awareness. I'm really excited for this 90-minute course!
• I still want to read Attaching in Adoption. It was another recommended resource for building attachments with your kiddos.

As you can see, we haven't been sitting on our hands! We've been actively waiting: thinking, praying, planning, and learning so we can be as ready as possible to become their parents.