Waiting...

Well, we have been waiting for 7 months now.  The time seems to just fly by as you continue to live life.  Our worker says that the average wait time for placement for most people is 1 to 5 years, I believe that now!

Over these past 7 months we have had the opportunity to get to know our worker more, read a few books, attend a few additional training sessions and learn more about the waiting process.

What I did not expect or maybe I should say was "not prepared for" is the emotional rollercoaster this process is.  One thing that community services does well is they do not sugar coat anything, they are upfront and real about wait times, and the chances of being selected out of a group of people who are all in the same boat.  A few months ago our file was put forward for a child, we were told that many files were being put forward and ours would not be selected but we went through the motions anyway, a month passed and we were notified that they were still trying to match and asked if our we would like our file to be put forward for a second time.  Immediately we went from being told that there was no shot to "your file may be looked at now", so we agreed and after another month we were notified that the child has found their forever home.  

We definitely rode the emotional rollercoaster in this situation but what we learned from that experience is that we cannot think that every time we receive notification that our file is being put forward that maybe this will be the time for us.  We have decided to just go with the flow and when the time is right our perfect child will be waiting for us!

It is almost Christmas and maybe next year will be our year!

Introduction

I started this blog because when my husband and I began this journey of seeking out adoption in 2010 there was not a whole lot of information out there in regards to social media for those looking to adopt in Nova Scotia.  Most of the time when you type in "Nova Scotia Adoption" you are pointed to the NS Community Services Website.  I probably should have started this blog back when we first typed those words into our own computer but hey, here I am now and its a long journey so it's all good.

Just a bit about us, we are young professionals, both 32 years of age who enjoy the little things in life.  We have been together for 9 years and married in 2009!  One thing that's a little different about our story is that we have known for years that we were not able to have children together due to my husband being infertile.  With that being said we knew we definitely wanted to have children but on our time and our way.  So like most couples we got married, bought a house and started to think about children.

We talked a lot about adoption and also the possibility of me carrying a child through artificial insemination, what we both agreed upon is that we liked the idea of providing love and a home to a child who currently does not have that.  So we started on our journey, we researched adoption options in Nova Scotia, made a few phone calls and looked at a few Canadian websites, all whom pointed us to NS Community Services.

The process of adopting through NSCS (Nova Scotia Community Services) is a long one, there are many stages of the adoption process and we were at the very beginning.

Just to short form it - these are the steps you take:

• Call NSCS
• Register for a PRIDE training course 
• Attend PRIDE training (ours was 9 weeks I believe)
• Fill out mounds of paper work including medicals, references, background checks, personal history
• Complete PRIDE training and receive certificate
• Your file is sent to an adoption assessment social worker
• Wait 1-18 months for a call from your adoption assessment social worker to start the home study process (I believe we waited 12 months)
• adoption assessment worker schedules approximately 6 home visits to prepare a home study report
• complete home study and be approved by adoption board
• file is then moved to an adoption placement worker 
• wait for that very important call! (this is where we are now)

As you can see there is quite a bit involved and don't get me wrong as hard as it was at times I know it will be worth it in the end.

My plan is to post often about where we are, how we managed through each stage of this process and just about this journey we are on.

We are now just waiting for that important phone call!!!