There they were, at the adoption center. They had all of the papers with them, and they arrived in time for the orientation. There was a surprisingly small amount of people there. The room it was taking place in was fairly large with a podium and screen at the back and rows of chairs set up going to the back of the room. There were about 200 chairs, but not even a quarter of them were filled by the time it started. No one sat near anyone else.
Gregg leaned over to Angus and whispered to him, "Is this seriously everybody?"
"So it would seem."
"That's really sad. There are all of those kids without homes, and almost nobody wants to help them."
"We almost didn't come here, either. Most people would rather have biological children, and most people don't have to go through what we did."
"Why did it have to happen to us, then?", asked Gregg bitterly.
"I don't know… At least we're going to help some other child, though."
"Yeah, I guess…"
Someone walked up to the podium and did a mic check. This grabbed everyone's attention and brought it to them, a middle-aged woman. She was a red bird. As she looked out at the pitifully small crowd, her eyes became weary and filled with disappointment.
Taking a deep breath, she started, "Hello, everyone. I'm glad you could all be here today. I'm Ms. Perna, and I am here to tell you all about the adoption process. I'm sure many of you are wondering what exactly goes into adopting a child."
There were a few nods from the audience but nothing more. Everyone wanted to save their questions for later, including Angus and Gregg.
Ms. Perna cleared her throat and continued, "Well, I guess we'll jump straight in then. Now, does anyone know what things one must do before adopting a child?"
A man up front raised his hand. Perna pointed to him, "Yes?"
He stood up, "From what I understand, there are classes you need to take beforehand, and you need to do a home study."
"Yes, those are both things you need to do to make sure you can properly raise an adopted child. They are mandatory. You can't adopt until you do those things."
"Could you explain exactly what the classes are?", asked the man.
"Sure. Over the course of 10 weeks, you will learn not only basic parenting skills, but also the intricacies of raising an orphan. We'll teach you about how to handle things that you wouldn't find in normal children most of the time. A lot of these kids have been abandoned, and some have come from broken homes, and that can leave the child with some lasting issues that you will need to deal with. Of course, we can't cover everything that could ever happen, but we do provide you with general tools and strategies that can apply to a wide variety of situations."
"Thank you.", said the man, sitting down. He turned to another man next to him and began talking quietly to him.
"As long as we're explaining things, I'd like to take a moment to go into more detail about the home study. Now, the home study is an integral part of making sure that we're giving these children proper homes. During the home study, an agent will come and examine your home and ask you questions about yourself. You'll be asked about why you want to be a parent and what makes you qualified. We'll ask about your daily routines and past experiences with parenting, if any. Of course, we will also do background checks on the parent or parents. It may seem like a lot, but it's worth it if we can keep children from going into bad homes."
No one seemed to have any questions past that, so she decided to continue.
"Now, as for the adoption process itself. If you haven't yet, there are papers you need to fill out to register for the adoption process. You can contact us and have us email them to you, or you can pick them up at the front desk when you leave. You will need to fill them out and hand them into us here when you're ready to begin. Once that happens, you will take your training classes and do your home study. Once that's done, we'll process you and decide whether to let you adopt. If we decide that you're fit to be parents, we will introduce you to a child based on your specifications in the documents you hand us."
A woman in the back raised her hand. Ms. Perna pointed to her and motioned for her to stand and speak.
"What sort of specifications are there?"
"You mean for the children? Well, we'll need to know what special needs you feel you'd be able to effectively deal with. Don't feel obligated to say you're willing to take anyone, but also be open to the possibility of not getting exactly what you ask for. Tell us about things that maybe you have experience with. Also feel free to tell us about things you aren't prepared to handle. We'll look more into exactly what your strengths and weaknesses are during the home study.", Perna explained.
"Um, another question. What are 'special needs' exactly?", asked the women.
"Ah, yes, we get this question a lot. Many people think special needs only applies to debilitating mental or physical conditions, but that's simply not true. Many things could qualify as some form of special needs. Different ethnic backgrounds, older age, children that need to be adopted with other siblings, those could all fall under special needs. Does that answer your question?"
"Yes, thank you." The woman sat down.
"Now, on to the next thing, matching your family with a child. Once your paperwork is filled out, you'll get a caseworker. They'll handle the home study as well as many other things in the adoption process, including this. They will come to you with records of various children who best matched the specifications you listed in your original adoption forum. You will get to search through them and you will be able to send in an inquiry for anyone that you think suits your family. This is the hardest part for some. It will be a while before your inquiry if either denied or verified. I'd say expect to wait around a month. If at any point you want to ask about the inquiry, you should feel free to contact your caseworker."
Angus took out his phone and went to his notes app. He started typing in the important things about what she was saying.
"Once a child has been matched with you, they will be placed in your home for a period of anywhere from 3 to 9 months. During this time, your caseworker will visit every 30 days to see how things are going. Once the period is over, and you've been shown to be a good parent for the child, we can finally have it legalized. The child will finally be a permanent member of your family. Now, I know that this all seems like a lot, but I promise you that it's worth it. Are there any questions that you want answered?"
A woman raised her hand, "Is there anything we could do while we wait through the adoption process that might help with the adoption?"
"Well, there are a few things you should definitely do. Get a decently-sized bed. That's very important. I've seen too many people have their home study conducted, and when they get asked where their new child will sleep, they realize that they forgot to get a bed. Usually, this isn't too much of a problem, as you can get a bed later, but it would help your image if you were prepared for this stuff beforehand. Also, if you think you're getting a younger child, get some toys and such. We'll provide you with what we know about their hobbies in their case file. Chances are, they don't have much in the orphanage. Things like that will go a long way toward building a good relationship with the child."
The woman looked shocked. It seemed she hadn't even thought about stuff like that. "Uh, thank you." She sat down. Angus realized he hadn't thought of that either.
"I guess we're buying a bed on our way home.", said Gregg, laughing nervously.
"Yeah…", said Angus, thinking about something. He was forgetting something. Then, it came to him, "Wait. Did Mae and Bea ever get rid of their extra bed?"
"I don't know. Honestly, it'd be weird if they kept it for over a year, so probably not. I could check, though." Gregg pulled out his phone.
"Yeah, do that.", said Angus, tuning back into the conversation that was going on.
"…So, no, previous parenting experience is not required. That's part of the reason we do training classes."
"All right, thank you.", said the man that had apparently asked a question.
"Okay, anyone else?", asked Ms. Perna.
There was a period of silence. Then, Ms. Perna began to speak, "Alright, then. If that is all-", her eyes locked onto the space next to Angus, "-Oh, yes, do you have a question, sir?"
Angus looked over, and Gregg had his hand raised. His head was lowered, scared and even a bit ashamed. He stood up. It took him a moment to ask his question.
"…Is it normal to be terrified by this?"
There was a pause before Ms. Perna answered, "What exactly are you terrified by? This meeting? Is it how intense the process is?"
Gregg cut her off before she could guess again, "The adoption. Raising a kid."
She seemed to immediately understand, "Right. That. Well, of course, it's normal. Everyone feels terrified by the prospect of raising a child, especially their first one."
"What if we're not ready?"
"That's why we have the classes, the home study, the time you spend with the child before they're legally yours. It's all to make sure you are good parents for that child. If you're really not ready, you'll have ample time to realize it before anything permanent happens. Personally, though, I don't think anyone is 'ready' for their first child, but thinking that you aren't might be a good thing. It means that you know that raising a child isn't easy, yet you're still here, ready to do all of this so you can have one. I wouldn't worry about it too much."
Gregg smiled a bit, "Thank you. That's all." He sat back down. Angus looked at him, but he didn't look back. Gregg's phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and looked at it.
"Wow, they actually kept it! Looks like we've got a free bed!" Gregg went from scared to jovial in mere moments. Angus was almost weirded out by it, but he had gotten used to it by now.
The meeting didn't last much longer. Nothing else very important was brought up. Gregg and Angus went up to the front desk afterward.
"Yes, is there something I could help you with?", asked the receptionist.
"Yes. I'd like to hand in our adoption papers." Angus handed them the papers, and they looked through them.
"Okay, I see you'll be going through our adoption training course. The next round of classes starts next Tuesday. They'll be every Tuesday and Friday from 6 to 9. Is that okay with you?"
"Yes.", replied Angus.
"Also, we need to set a date for the home study. How does May 3rd sound to you?"
It was currently April 13th. That gave them a few weeks to prepare.
"Yes, that's fine."
"Great. I'll get you down for those dates. That should be all."
"Thank you very much.", said Angus, beginning to walk away. Gregg followed him. They went out to their car, and Angus started driving them home. Gregg was playing on his phone, so there was a period of silence.
"Gregg?", said Angus.
Gregg looked up from his phone, "Huh?"
"I just wanted you to know that I'm scared, too."
"What? Oh, right…"
"Everything's going to be fine.", assured Angus.
"I know, I know, I'm just worried for no reason."
"I think we've done a bit too much worrying lately. Just think about how amazing it'll be once we finally have a child! We'll get to be there and watch them grow up! Think of all of the great memories we'll make!", said Angus in an attempt to get Gregg's mind off of his worries.
Gregg seemed to take the bait, "Yeah. It'll really be great, won't it?"
"We'll make sure of it.", said Angus.
As intended, Gregg began to get caught up in the fantasy that was having the perfect family, "We'll do all sorts of stuff together! Hopefully, it'll still be summer when we get to start taking care of them. We can go out and have so much fun and stuff! We could go to an amusement park, or we could just go to a normal park, or we could…" Gregg began launching a torrent of potential activities at Angus.
Angus simply smiled and listened to Gregg's excited ramblings. He was happy to get his mind off of everything for a bit. Hopefully, Gregg wouldn't get too caught up in the fun times they'd have with their child. Being a good parent means being there for your child through everything, both good and bad. He was sure Gregg understood that, though, so for now, he let him indulge in the fantasy without putting a damper on it with responsibilities.