Matt and Suzanne Adopt: Adoption Education Seminar aka training day

We had our training day on Saturday, August 18.

There were 6 other potential adoptive parents in our training group and 3 women from the agency (a 4th, an intern joined us after lunch). We were seated in a U shaped table set up with place markers.

We covered adoption policies, open adoption, the birthparent experience, grief and loss, and trans-racial adoption.

I really appreciated the information about the birthparent experience. Even though I do consider the sadness that a birthmother goes through, it was really eye-opening to watch videos of birthparents speaking about their loss. In fact, the speakers really emphasized that the adoptive parents, adoptees, and birthparents all experience loss in some way. They emphasized that adoption is a life-long thing that doesn't end when papers are finalized. We will all be connected forever, which is a pretty precious thing.

The information about birthmothers last year was really interesting. The majority of the adoptions last year were with birthmothers who were age 22-25, and there were zero birthmothers under 18 years old. Also, in case you were wondering, the racial demographic was split almost equally between African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian mothers.

Oh, and we got Jason's Deli... don't you just love a good turkey sandwich on a croissant? I do! I digress...

The agency brought in an adoptive couple and their child that they adopted a year ago. They talked about their experience, and they are about to start the process to adopt their second child! Very fun!

After all of this, we were shown a ton of different examples of real adoptive family profiles from the past. They were all different, unique examples of the way we can make a profile. That was one of my favorite parts of the day.

We also learned that the longest current "waiting family" has been waiting since MAY! Can you believe that?! How exciting! Once we have all of our paperwork submitted and our home study approved, we will be a waiting family.

We were done with our training around 3:45pm which was early, so Matt and I decided to go to this fun shopping and restaurant area near the agency. We thought the training was going to take until 5, so we had already planned to eat over there to celebrate this little milestone.