Agency Number One - The Call

We just had our first call with our first adoption agency. Because this is a public medium (the blog), I am going to refrain from stating agency names. Know this though, we are only looking at agencies that are approved by the Human Rights Campaign. And of all the ones they approve, we narrowed our choice down to two. Neither of these agencies are located in MN.

Due to the limited appointment times, Jon and I had to take an appointment in the middle of the work day. This meant we both had to call from our jobs and couldn't even be in the same room. Thank God for our iPhones which allowed us to easily conference call the agency.

Imagine if you will, those first terrifying seconds as you load into a huge roller coaster, snap your seat belt, and then begin the slow, torturous ascent to the top of the first hill. Clink, clink, clink goes the chain below your seat as it hoists you to the top. And right when you reach the top and get ready to go over the top of the hill.....pick up the phone and try to have a conversation about adoption. That is the best way I can describe our emotion the one minute prior to the call.

Overall, the agency answered many of our questions, raised a whole slew of new questions, and left one huge dangling question unanswered: Have you ever placed a child for adoption in MN with a gay couple?

This is a HUGE issue for Jon and I. We don't want to invest our time or money into an agency that has not successfully placed a child in MN with a gay couple before. There are far too many other obstacles facing this adoption to add that into the mix.

We did learn one other thing that we did not know. Well, we knew it existed in international adoptions, but certainly not in domestic, open adoptions. ICPC (or Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) holds you in the state where the birth mother gave birth until they have cut through all the red tape with MN. This process can be fast or we were told to be prepared to stay in the state where the birth mother gave birth for as long as two weeks. Thankfully, UT and MS are out because they won't give babies to gay couples. Please God, can we avoid a state where two men and a baby won't be the weirdest thing people have seen in 20 years.....you know, like a Montana? Well, beggars can be choosers I guess. I would be a happy to go anywhere as long as we get a baby.

Agency Number Two will be contacted on August 3rd at 5:30 pm.