Orientation

     Yesterday I went to the orientation session at the adoption/foster care agency (it’s called CHOR). I was buzzed in the front door by a very nice older lady. I let her know I was there for an orientation and she asked who I was seeing. Well, Consuelo only told me I would be seeing her co-worker, she never gave me a name. So, the receptionist called one of the potential staff members and she had never heard of me. The woman looked at me perplexed and asked, “Are you bilingual?” This seemed like an odd question to me, but she proceeded to explain that Consuelo works with another woman who does the orientation in Spanish. I said that was fine. The woman (who butchered my last name each time she tried to say it) explained that she expected me to have a thick Spanish accent, to which I replied that Spanish was not my first language, but I was relatively fluent due to living in Nicaragua and being married to a man who primarily speaks Spanish. She sent me to a “waiting” room, which seemed more like a cluttered storage room than a space to wait comfortably. Books were strewn about, in boxes, on shelves, piled haphazardly on tables and floors. Random children’s toys were also scattered through-out the books. An window air conditioner blasted semi-cool air into the tepid room. I sat down and grabbed a magazine to flip through, as I waited. On the window shelf behind me potted plants in large plastic tubs numbered 2 and 5 waved lazily in the blasted air from the air conditioner.    
     Soon a small woman dressed very casually stopped by the door and called my name. After introducing herself as Susanna, she said to me in flawless English, “I usually do the training in Spanish, is that ok?” I said that was fine and followed her through another set of locked doors to a large room that appeared to be a class room. Rows of small tables with four chairs each and a block with yellow pencils sticking out in the middle, faced a large white board. She mentioned for me to sit down at the first desk and proceeded to tell me about the foster care system and the adoption process. As Consuelo had predicted, I had already heard most of this from her in our first phone conversation. It was nice to hear it again (even if it was in Spanish!). One thing that struck me, was that Susanna said most babies that are adopted come in a sibling group – in other words there may be 2-3 siblings that they are trying to get adopted together. She asked me how we would feel about that and I said it was not something we had considered, since we really didn’t know it was an option. I said that we did want more than one child, but I would need to talk about it with my husband, although I suspect he would be ok with it. I asked some questions I had, handed in the completed paperwork and in little less than an hour, I was on my way home.     
     Our next step is the training in August and September. We will have to take along a lot more information, like our W2’s, driver’s licenses, and we will get forms to do our physicals. I feel like things are underway, even though we are still rather stagnant right now. We have started some projects to prepare the house and a room for the child. In my mind, we are expecting. The baby might not arrive until next year this time, but we are still expecting a child.