Sunday, August 19, 2007
PAC - Pre Adoption Classes
Happy Sunday everyone! We had a good week in the Twin Cities. We had our training time and enjoyed being together as a team and seeking the Lord for the upcoming school year. I'm really excited about the ways he's working on our hearts and leading us in some of the same directions. Should be exciting! We finished out the week with our adoption classes on Thursday and Friday. They were really good and gave us some great things to think about. We're kindof going into adoption in a place where we don't know what we don't know - these classes definitely pointed that out. One section was on attachment - so helpful to think about how to build that bond with your child, and it even helped us to know that that could be an issue and signs to look for (they gave us a book title about attachment that I for sure want to read). Another really helpful session was on transracial/transcultural parenting - through that (and some of the other sessions) we heard story after story of children who were a different race than their white parents and the racism they experienced, even in Minnesota. It was so good to begin thinking through this area (and this would be the second book I want to read - a title they gave us about transracial parenting). It would take a while to explain all of this session, but I feel like it opened our eyes to a lot of unknowns and gave us insight in how to really support and value our child and who they are. Overall, I thought the sessions were excellent and really helpful for us as we continue to be in the midst of this process. We also learned about some of our next steps. I have 3 pages of questions, single spaced, that we each need to answer individually. I'll keep you posted, but I think it'll end up being 10+ pages to do... which we started and I'll be working on a little more tonight. We also have another couple sheet of questions that we need to answer together. Once those are answered, we'll meet twice with our social worker. I'm hoping we'll be able to get through these next steps in the next month? We'll see. We'll keep you posted on the process as it comes. Have a great week!
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3 comments:
Hey Heather,
Thanks for letting us in on the adoption process. It's nice to be on this journey with you. I'm sure it will help others, especially ones who want to know what adoption intails before they decide. Good luck with everything. We are thinking and praying for you. Have a good start of the school year too! Love ya!
Is MN pretty diverse? I ask b/c you said "even in MN." I'm aware there is a pretty good Hmong population in MN&WI. I can imagine the cities being the most diverse area, and probably Rochester.
Shawn and I have talked about attachment disorder. It was a topic on the FOF Adoption radio series. Its especially a problem with older kids. So tough. But then I think of the many babies in foreign orphanages&hospitals where there is little staff to stimulate the babies. Our GM leaders recently took a trip to a Romanian orphanage and child-rearing center where this was the case. www.touchedromania.org.
Sherrie B.
Side note to Sherrie... Minneapolis is what is considered a "gateway city." Much like San Fran, NY and Chicago were historic destinations for aliens, the federal government has now appointed Minneapolis as one of those destination cities. There's a lot of various Africans, Thai, Indians, and Latin Americans here.
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