Forward We Go!

A few posts back I wrote about the counseling session and what the counselor said about us not adopting. That has been bugging me, so when I took Kayla today I asked the counselor to talk to her first. I asked if she'd talked to adoptions, and she said no. I told her that I somewhat regret giving them her info because I'd thought she would tell them that we have parented multiple children with issues, so we have some experience with it. No real answers, but experience. I told her that the stress level at home is fairly low on a day to day basis, and that if we wait until Kayla consistently makes good choices, we may never adopt again.

We are not child collecting, we have not adopted in over seven years. It seems like we are missing one last child. A boy 12-15. There are not a lot of people asking for them, and it may be some child's last chance.

Well, her response today was totally different. She said it was not her place to say whether we should be approved to adopt or not. She said she would say we are a loving family who supports their kids and has consistent boundaries. And that we get our children the help they need. But she said that she would also have to say that we have a very manipulative child, and she does not want to see an adopted child get sabotaged by the manipulation.

It turned out that we had a short notice second visit by the adoption worker today. He said they had talked to all but two of our references. He did not mention the counselor. I did not bring it up. He took a video of our house with the kids narrating for him. Then he asked about each child and asked what behaviors we absolutely could not accept in an adopted child. I will write more about that in a later blog post but I am interested as to what you the blog readers would say to that question.

The kids played Disney Princess Uno during part of it but had to leave the room while we talked about them. After he left we had supper and strawberry short cake. Now Ty and Jasmine are trying out a used juicer I got for $2. They are mixing carrots, celery, pears, strawberries and Granny Smith apples. No recipe, just random choices. Any suggestions?

In other news, we are having a blast with the shop we rented at the local flea market. More about that later.