Dreamy vs. Practical

I just finished another book on adoption: Adopting on Your Own: The Complete Guide to Adopting as a Single Parent by Lee Varon. It was an incredibly helpful read, as it is written for prospective single adoptive parents, by a single adoptive parent. There are about 1,000 references to helpful resources and foundations which I will start to look my way through today. I guess this is my version of What to Expect When You Are Expecting? LOL. Next, I will hit a new book, The Complete Book of International Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Child by Dawn Davenport.

I realize that this isn't the most exciting of posts, but my intention with creating this blog is to help others who may go through this process get both a realistic and real-time feel of the process. Right now, the process involves the mental preparation and creating a game plan. A large part of the game plan has to do with the financial aspects of it all. I have identified a couple of great fundraising ideas and will get started on those asap. With all of the fees and travel expenses, this adoption will cost $30,000-$35,000, which is apparently quite normal. There are things I could do to make this happen now, get the process started today, but it's important to me that I not tap into too many of the resources which I will need once the baby is here. And so fundraising it is!

As I write this, I am watching Adoption Story, a show on the Discovery Health channel which showcases the experiences of all kinds of adoption stories. I watch these shows and picture myself going through what they are going. What will it be like the day I pick up Lily? Will I be terrified? Will she like me? Kazakhstan requires a two week bonding period during the first trip to the country to meet the baby. So, hopefully, we'll have gotten to know one another a bit during that time.

I am proud of myself for thinking about all of these things and at the same time, it's kind of surreal. I try hard not to create a reality that doesn't exist, but to rather pay attention to all of the questions that pop up, write them down and address them when the time is appropriate and I have actual answers. Easier said than done because I also want to allow myself a reasonable amount of dreaming and getting excited. It's the dreamer vs the practical Andrea right now. And I'd like to keep it that way, in balance, as much as possible.

So, while there isn't a lot to report today, there's a lot going through my head, as you can see. If you have any questions or comments that you don't want to post, you can e-mail me at adoptinglily@gmail.com Thanks for reading. -Andrea