So far, my activity has gotten me precisely nowhere. I will get on the internet and find a sibling group which catches my interest. I'll inquire... and inquire... and inquire... seriously - getting information is like pulling teeth long distance. And the system is... not efficient. After a month of trying to get info on one particular group of children, I finally got word that their status had changed and they might be going back to their birth family instead being adopted. Great for them if it all works out -- not so good for them if it's just game-playing and they end up right back where they started.
Anyway, I found out that there really isn't a good way to find out what children are waiting for homes. Yes, you can go to adoptuskids.org and find a number of children, but the children on there aren't even the tip of the iceberg. For example, if you do a general search on the website of children from North Carolina (where we live) you will find (today) 134 cases. But there are over 10,500 children in foster care in NC, about 1/3 of which need adoptive homes. That's a large number of children looking for a permanent family.
So, I did what any person who likes to be active and hates waiting would do. I made up a flyer telling about our family and showing a couple pictures of us... and I e-blasted it out to all 100 county DSS offices along with our info and our social worker's info. (I'll be she just loves me now, right?)
Long story short, I did that yesterday -- and yesterday our social worker got a call asking if we would be interested in adopting four boys. Aaaaand... we can't. First of all, because I value my husband's sanity - and secondly because we traded in the Venture (which would have seated that many children) for a Saturn Relay (which only has seating for 7). This effectively limits us to adopting a sibling group of three at the most. You have no idea how happy my husband is that he bought me that new car right about now!
But now, once again, I wait. And with nothing to do. Because I can hardly e-blast those poor people twice!
