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There are many roads that lead one to adopt, but whatever that road is, the first step is knowing if you are ready.
How do you know if you are ready? These are the 5 steps that we followed to get ourselves prepared on all levels to adopt!
- Communication
- Information
- Training
- Financials
- Planning
COMMUNICATION
Whether you are planning to adopt with a partner or independently, communication is key. Communicating to one another, or with yourself. All parties involved need to feel safe to express their concerns, expectations, fears and doubts without judgement or fear.
Ask yourselves…
- What are my expectations?
- What are my fears?
- What are my hopes?
- What role will I play?
- How can I help?
- How do you feel?
- How does your partner feel?
Being able to openly express your feeling and open up about such a big decision will allow you and your partner to be on the same page and have a good foundation of communication moving forward.
INFORMATION
Look around your area for adoption resources or companies. You can find agencies though search engines such as Google or even social media pages. We found our agencies through networking among family and friends. We talked to other families in the area and found a local company and then branched out to a company that was over 1,500 miles away! Find as much information as you can and reach out to people!! Get copies of contracts, rates, testimonials! Do the research! It’ll pay off!
TRAINING
Look for trainings! We found an amazing training presented by Building Arizona Families and it literally put our adoption journey on the right track! We traveled an hour to attend a free training and left with soooo many of our questions answered and settled a lot of our nervousness. There are also a lot of free adoption seminars online and free trainings through different agencies. Take advantage of all the resources out there!
FINANCIALS
Adoption is unfortunately expensive. You can set up different fundraisers or a GoFundMe account to raise money for expenses but making sure you know where your finances are before starting the journey is recommended. You can use this FREE financial checklist form to help create an organized list of your finances. Depending on the agency that you chose to work with, you will be asked to present a copy of your financial records. This printable can give you an idea of how much information you may have to provide.
Planning
Once you have gone through these steps you can begin planning. I highly recommend keeping a large calendar posted somewhere in your home for the household to be able to see important dates such as trainings, appointments and home study dates. Also, a personal planner and journal. You will need to keep track of personal appointments, dates and goals and a journal to document your feeling and the beautiful journey! These are my personal favorites for organizing!