Update!-- Contact Made!!!--The Ball is Rolling! :-)

July 20th, 2009---

OKDHS contacted us,but we were not home! :-( , but we were advised to return their call
Wednesday from 8am-10:30a.m.

July 21st, 2009
8 a.m. SHARP! :-)

I contacted OKDHS and spoke to our supervising caseworker and she reviewed the OKDHS requirements, and she did advise me that most of their children are ages 6 and up whose parents have permanently terminated their rights to them, however they do have sibling groups in which a child is younger, but sibling groups are as they are, and they do not split these group, GREAT! I am so happy, I love when siblings remain together! :-)
There is an application packet and process that we will go through that includes:
--Physical/ Mental Exam
--FBI/ Local/ State Background check
--Attend 27 hours of pre-service training
--Meet other Bridge Resource Family Requirements
*such as the age requirement of 21yrs-55 yrs of age
*OKDHS Record Search
*Legal Oklahoma Residents
*Vehicle + Telephone
*Family Assessment
* Other things may be found at the OKDHS website


Our training will be in the Sallisaw or Poteau, Oklahoma area, and it is normally an accelerated course which is 41/2 hours on Saturdays, or it may be 1-2 nights per week in other areas.

Pre-interview/ Safety Check--
Our supervising caseworker will come to our home and inspect our home, meet with my husband and I, give us a preview of what People, Inc, will will be looking for, and want, and she will tell us what we need to do to prepare for our home study. This is also known as a safety check which will be completed during our home assessment.


Home Study--
The adoptive assessment may take 90 days at max to complete, the company who completes the adoptive assessment is People, Inc. It may be completed in a speedier fashion if both prospective adoptive parents are at home at the same time for the home assessment/interview; 6 References are needed and they need to make sure they are available so when the People, Inc. call to verify our references, it will be recorded, and completed much quicker, so we need to make sure our references will do the best they can to ensure they are available to answer any request or verify any questions about my husband and I as prospective parents. This will help People, Inc, speed things up quickly!


Norman, OK--
In Norman, Ok our supervising caseworker said she will go there once the month and review families ( finding families for children), what they do is... they assess a child by his or her needs, and the age of a child to find a family for a child.
Six times per year they hold Oklahoma Adoptive Parties which allow prospective adoptive parents and families to meet, greet, and speak to the adoptive children, their foster parents, and the OKDHS staff. This party allows the adoptive parents to learn more about the child and understand the child since it may be scary to read about a child on paper, after meeting the child, it helps adoptive parents to be assured and notice this is a child who needs a loving home.

Oklahoma DHS has several areas, and in my husband and I's we are in Area 5.

Selection Process--

An OKC social worker will make the decisions on finding the families for the children. We need to make a wider acceptance of age that means we have more of a chance to adopt, but it is suggested to ensure that is what we want since we know what we can or can not handle. Pre-service training helps adoptive parents to learn more about what is expected, parenting classes, and how to cope and assist with children with special needs.

Thus Far--
All we need to start is the application packet ( which the supervising case worker placed in the mail today, and we should receive it by next week.)
1. We will complete the Application
2. Background checks ( FBI, Local & State Fingerprints)
* Tip*--We learned that the electronic prints are a lot better than paper and will scan quicker and does not decline as quick as the paper fingerprint method.
We will travel to Sallisaw, Oklahoma, which is 30-35 minutes away from our home for our background checks.
3. Our area provides us a voucher to pay for the background checks.. Yay!!! but since the people who issue the vouchers are in our area today, Yay!!!, but they are in a meeting, our vouchers will be mailed to us by Friday at the most.

So that is it all in a nutshell!


We will keep you all updated with new posts as we complete everything! Yay!!!!
The ball is rolling!!! Contact was made! We made the first step!!!
( Well it may not be the first step...but we made contact :-)

Second step...complete application and BKG(background)checks.

Romans 8:28 (New International Version)
More Than Conquerors
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=8&verse=28

More to come later!!! :-)

Be a blessing, be blessed, and love one another as Christ has loved us!!!

In Christ,
Blessed Hannah