A little curve ball . . .

Life is always interesting. By the time the 2011 school year started on the 17th of January 2011 I had made up my mind to get my name onto `the list` at Child Welfare as soon as possible. I had been told on the phone that the process included an interview/screening, workshops and a home visit. At the same time I had been `chatting` to friends of friends who had gone other routes in order to compare the time-frames, processes and costs. A woman who went through Procare said she had paid upwards of R30 000. I started saving immediately. On the second day of school I happened to meet a woman who was pregnant. I soon learnt that she was considering giving her baby up for adoption and that the prospective parents had fallen through. You can imagine what was going through my mind when I heard she was having a baby girl. But this opened something I had not even considered before . . . It would be an open adoption. After speaking to a various important people in my life whos perspectives I respect and an informative phone call with the social worker involved I decided that an open adoption was not for me. The social worker I spoke to worked for a private adoption agency and she said screening was R5000 and then you could be on `the list` for up to 5 years. 5 years!!! I am already 40 . . . I can`t wait 5 years!! So my focus moved back onto Child Welfare . . .