The Saga Begins...

The Social worker (who I will refer to as "Racy") who had been meeting with the birth family that wanted to meet us called and we set up a meeting with the birth family.  A few days later we found ourselves at the agency's office with the birth family!  The meeting lasted about an hour and went very well.  After the birth family left we took the opportunity to ask the social worker a few more questions.  My biggest area of interest was how much counseling the birth mother had and, how prepared she was to give her baby up for adoption...I wanted it to be the right decision for everyone involved.  I asked "Racy", has birth mom received a lot of counseling?..her reply was, Tons!  Then I asked her the most important question..Will she be getting post partum counseling?  The answer  was Yes!...We had a few more exchanges, and then headed home waiting to here if the birth mother was still interested in placing her baby with us.  About an hour later we got the call,..birth mom wanted to go ahead and place her baby with us! 

Now we had lots of preparing to do as we only had about a month before babies arrival!  It was so exciting!  All of our family and friends were so involved and excited for us, it was a true blessing.

We had 5 days to sign the contract and send a non refundable deposit of $3000.00 to the agency.  Just a note that the 3000.00 is for birth parent counseling, advertising, office equipment, staff, answering phone calls, local travel, and follow-up work (that's what the contract states).  I want to note that in the contract it also states... "Birth parent counseling AFTER placement to resolve loss and grief will continue for an estimated 5 hours.  If additional counseling over 5 hours to the birth parent(s) is required, the agency will ask the adoptive family to pay for these services.  The same rates apply as prior to placement."  So as you can see one would assume that the birth mother was going to be receiving counseling after the baby was born. This was one of the most important requirements to us.  Keep in mind that I do understand know that no matter how much counseling a birth parent receives, that does not mean they wont change their minds or have second thoughts.  However at least then you know they have had professional counseling services that may help them sort through feelings they maybe having.