Last week Mel and Nate made a very special trip, they went to the Broomfield Health and Human Services (HHS) office to drop off our paperwork, and get the approval process officially started. We are so excited. Next steps, Sherry, the foster care supervisor from HHS, starts the background process, we get fingerprinted and take the core training classes.

So, the paperwork .... well, this was no trivial task. However, it was worth it, and we have both done worse. This was nothing compared to some of the piles of paperwork we had to go through in the military. So what was the paperwork, well the normal stuff, tell us this, that, and the other about yourselves, where you live, how long you've lived there, how much money you make, how much money you owe, etc, etc, etc. We needed three (3) references each, two of which were not relatives, needed to sign a couple of things saying, essentially, all the information provided is true to the best of our knowledge, etc, and finally we had to each do a personality questionnaire. I think that was probably the most interesting, and hardest part to do.

The personality questionnaire was mostly multiple choice questions, but dealt with everything from how was your childhood, who raised you, what was the relationship like with your parents, to what's your spouse/partners way of dealing with x,y,z, how do you discipline your children, etc. It was interesting. Mel and I did our own, then looked each others answers over. Definitely learned a thing or two about how each other sees the other person, and themselves. It was an interesting exercise, adoption aside, I think every couple should do something like this, just goes over things that you don't always think of to ask.

Probably the hardest part for both of us was the 29 page state regulations document that we are required to read through and initial each regulation. I finally got through it, but Mel's still battling it, so-to-speak. It's pretty dry. Most regulations make total sense, and a couple it just breaks my heart they have to be written out. The one that I found the funniest, for lack of a better word, was the one that said "you must change the child's sheets weekly." Our foster/adopt child will have cleaner sheets than anyone in our house. LOL.

We originally thought we needed to complete the questionnaire before we turned in the rest of the paperwork, so I emailed Sherry, and she told me that it's important, but can do it over a bit of time, but she doesn't need it to get started ... so yeah. After I let Mel know that, he could not wait to get the paperwork over to Sherry. They took it over that afternoon!

Fingerprinting is scheduled for next Tuesday, February 9th, and core training is scheduled for March 12 & 13th. Gulp. I hear the core training can be rather stressful, and very sad. We'll hear stories of some of the worst of the worst that some children have endured before entering the system. I will need lots of tissues I'm sure, but I know I'll come out of there with an even stronger resolve to make this happen, and give some little angel a home.

We are so excited to meet the newest member of our family, whoever she or he may be. We know this may be a long journey, but a journey worth taking for sure.

So until next time ....
- Karyn