We said I do...

To starting a family! What did you think I meant? Silly readers tricks are for kids. It is true. Once we got settled we decided to see what Nevada requirements were to adopt from the foster care system. Nebraska was not friendly, as many of you remember, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that Nevada is very welcoming to LGBT foster and adoptive parents. As an unmarried couple one of us will be the adoptive parent and the other will be listed as a second parent. This is the process for any unmarried couples wishing to adopt through the foster care system so it isn’t really that much of a hindrance. The agency has indicated that both adoptions can be performed on the same day just takes additional paperwork to be filed. So we are well on our way into the process. We decided not to share this information with the general public for fear that we’d get into it and have issues like we did in Nebraska. We are completing the same TIPPS-MAPP class that we did in Omaha. Sadly the state does not allow for transferring of the class credits. Here it is 10 long weeks of 3 hour class, versus 3 hours for 7 weeks before. We elected to do the Friday night classes to accommodate both of our schedules. Tonight we arrive for week 5. With two holidays we expect to be done with class December 12. After that we’ll have our final home study visit and hope to be licensed by January and starting to talk with adoption specialist about possible kids that are available. We did have our first home study visit last night. The licensing workers were very complimentary of our house. Considering we are renovating some of it ourselves and it was dirty they seemed pleased with the space etc. We do have a few things yet to get and some stuff to move at the house, but overall the house is fairly ready. As before all cleaning supplies have to be up high, all medications have to be in a locked cabinet or closet, pool safety items need to be purchased, etc. The only unexpected item from last night’s visit was them telling us that we could not store any pet food in the kitchen or feed the kids in the kitchen. We are challenging that decision as we recently added a cabinet in our kitchen with its own countertop to house and prep all dog related items. The only other sticking point is they are trying to say we cannot store cans of wet dog food in the fridge. We’ll fight that one too as one of the cans is 100% pure pumpkin and the other is one small can of wet dog food for Andrew (the princess has to be fed separately). The classes are ok, but the material is exactly the same. I will say that classes here are much more organized and they actually have us hand in our homework and review it each week. The licensing coordinator sits in on all of our classes and makes notes about the couples to get a better feel for them. Previously the class was presented by two case workers that rotated through teaching duties. No homework was required and it was extremely lax. I do appreciate the professional attitude of the teachers, but the class material is all a repeat. The most interesting thing about our class is that of the 25-30 individuals in their most are LGBT. The first night was kind of funny as one of the ladies asked if we were the only type of people to do this sort of thing. There are 4 straight couples, 2 gay couples, 4-5 lesbian couples and then 3-4 individual women. Last night the licensing workers indicated they’d just taken a LGBT inclusiveness training to better help and prepare LGBT homes to be foster/adoptive families. Then they walked into our class and were a little surprised. Evidently this is the first time they’ve had a class so skewed to LGBT. They actually seemed rather surprised and started to realize how much of their paperwork only says mom/dad versus other types of parenting mixes. However, they were interested to realize that many of the items discussed in the training are the exact items that the members of class are discussing. Overall our experience has been positive here. We really feel like we will be able to grow our family here and make a positive impact in a child(ren) life as well as our own. Peace, Love and Puppy Dogs, J