Our first home study visit went great. So far we couldn’t ask for better folks to work with.

We did a kind of meet and greet and walked our home as part of the safety check.

Since we already have kids we skipped the part where she introduces us to the concept of going weeks on end without sleep and adjusting to caring for the needs of a kiddo first… Any parent knows that these principles are universal, whether your kids are biological or adopted!

Anyway, we got back to work on our checklist (it’s very long).

We finished the petition, financial statement and logged our MCC–adoption speak for “medical conditions checklist,” where we let our agency know exactly which medical conditions we have researched, are prepared for and, ultimately, are comfortable with.

The list takes awhile to complete. There’s a lot of research involved, even if you’re in the medical field. Many of the conditions on the MCC are not common in the US. Others are common, but not often seen because of medical access.

Club foot is one such condition. Sometimes an orphan’s special need scares away prospective parents. And sometimes this is alright, since not everyone is cut out to be a special needs parent, just like others aren’t cut out to adopt.

Different strokes for different folks.

But, often a special need stigmatizes the child; the fact that they are special beyond their “special” need is sometimes lost on society. I wonder how many of these children have grown up to change the world?

If you want to know more about special needs, there is a lot of information out there. Start here.

There are also people doing something to help special needs children (in China). Start here and here.

I think in the end, we all want a sure thing. Don’t we?