When I first wrote that my husband and I plan to adopt a child from the foster system, many readers requested periodic updates on our progress. I’d like to report that we’ve found a child that we are getting to know. However, these things move slower than that. The AdoptFlorida website indicates it can take up to nine months to complete all of the steps, but we have plenty to do while we wait.

We completed our required PRIDE classes the first weekend of August, which was a total of 4 Saturdays. The class was based more on fostering children rather than adopting foster children.

The class was designed to help potential foster and adoptive parents understand some of the issues that we might encounter with the children. We’ve since been advised that there is a voluntary class for potential adoptive parents which we will attend.

In the meantime, we are preparing our house. We currently have the requisite unused treadmill and exercise equipment in one room, which we are going to donate to the  Salvation Army.

Our office furniture and equipment is currently in one of our bedrooms. Once the gym equipment is gone, we plan to move the office furniture and computer equipment into that room. We’ve already purchased a matching desk for our future daughter that will fit into the new office. I’m still toying with the idea that we may need a bookcase.

We’ve moved all of our chemicals to a locking storage cabinet, as the state requires chemicals, medications, etc. be locked. None of us want curious children to be poisoned, and some of the older children could be into huffing.

We’ve organized the linen closet, as well as the closets in the two spare bedrooms. After being married 34 years, some of our bedding needed to be replaced, so the closet is partly empty awaiting the arrival of new mattress pads and sheets. I managed to get blisters sweeping out the garage this past Saturday. How does one collect so much junk, but still fit two cars in a garage?

We have donated a lot of clothes, bedding and a variety of other things we do not use. And we’ve thrown out a bunch of belongings that weren’t fit to donate.  We have a big walk in closet in the room that currently contains the gym equipment. I’m dreading that closet, as it might take the next two weekends to clean and organize. I hope not, but as I mentioned it is a big closet, and I’m certain there are things in it that we no longer need. However, finding them will require us to take everything out separate it between the keep, but organize pile, the donate pile and the throwaway pile. We need to create room in that closet to transfer the items we kept from the two spare bedroom closets.

Ultimately, we are making room for our new daughter, once we find her. We want her to feel like she actually lives in our house and has a space she can call her own. If our belongings are in her bedroom or closet, that won’t be the case. We still need to move the top rack down, as the height was installed such that my husband’s suit jackets would not bend and wrinkle, but our daughter will not be able to reach the top rack unless she is already basketball player height.

We will buy new bedroom furniture for her, but plan to let her choose her own bedding and pictures to decorate the room. And we want one spare bedroom in case we have guests. Or, you never know, we could end up with our new daughter’s sibling if they haven’t been separated yet. We don’t want to be the ones who rip siblings apart. That spare bedroom may actually end up being used by a second adopted child. Right now, we just have to wait to find out.

Throughout this process, I keep thinking about my children’s book series, The Mystic Princesses, and how one of the main characters could be considered a foster child. Perhaps next week I’ll compare and contrast Harmonie’s life to that of a foster child.

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