Various Updates

I spoke with Barbara both yesterday and today. Yesterday was mostly just sharing what I discussed with Thorn's foster mom. Today I called to see if there were any new bulletins. As hopeful as I am about Thorn, I need to keep going with other possibilities just in case. Otherwise, I think I'd feel even worse if it didn't work out.

There was one boy who was, sort of, added to the list today. A 7 year old named Austin. Funny story about Austin. Back when we first started looking at kids, we put in for a little boy, but committee families had already been selected for him. His case worker, though, after looking at our homestudy, said that she thought we'd be good matches for a boy named Austin about whom she was going to release a bulletin. So, she sent the pre-bulletin (no picture) to Barbara for us to look at. We were quite interested. He seemed like a good match. Over the course of months and months, Barbara tried to get more information, but to almost no avail. She did have one phone conversation with his case worker, which was relayed to us, but that was it. We finally gave up. Then, today, all of a sudden, there he is with a real live bulletin (which is a little different from the first one we were sent). So, we're putting in for him again (sort of).

Barbara also told me that Tanner, the boy who's foster mom we spoke with a couple of weeks ago, is not moving toward committee at this time, after all. There was just a trial for him/his mom and it turns out that Mom is making progress in her treatment. It had been previously expected that she would relinquish rights voluntarily, but now it looks like he'll probably be returned to her at some point. I hope that works out for him. If bio parents can get their act together, I do think it's best for the child. It's a big if, though.

I'm not feeling too disheartened about that, though, because I'm still feeling really hopeful about Thorn. I asked Barbara today when we might expect to have committee for Thorn. She said that his committee will be held here in the Portland area, which means it might be scheduled quickly. She said that the scheduler is waiting for two paperwork items, which are our updated homestudy (get on it, Barbara!) and Thorn's updated adoption child summary (which is done, so I don't know why the scheduler doesn't have it). Barbara speculated that his committee might be as soon as a few weeks.