Edu-ma-cation...

Prior to taking the adoption education classes we were required to take last month, DH and I were referring to them as "parenting" classes.  For some reason, we were thinking they would be classes about how to be parents, and we made all kinds of jokes about how we were going to just bring DS and say, "See?  We know how to be parents!"  We quickly learned, of course, that the classes were (more appropriately) directed at the many different layers of being part of an open adoption and less about how to take care of a kid, but that still left me wondering . . . during which part of this process do we get to learn how to take care of kids?

I remember when I was pregnant with DS, I was pretty much inundated with information about how to take care of a baby.  We had been trying to have one for several years by that point, so I had amassed quite a collection of books on pregnancy and infant care.  I know I read every book I'd owned, cover to cover, at least 732 times each.  When we moved to Illinois in my 4th month (or so) and we were living a few blocks away from a used bookstore and I wasn't working at the time and the internet wasn't nearly as stimulating (or fast) as it is today, I went through a LOT of books.  Not only that, every time I went to the doctor, I was given more "light reading".  At my very first appointment, where all they did was confirm via a blood test that I was, indeed, pregnant, I was sent home with a diaper bag full of information and product samples.  And then, the mailings started coming in . . . I think I had enough samples and coupons to care for an entire litter of children, not just one.  And sure, a lot of that stuff was samples and coupons, but there was a lot of educational stuff as well.  But that wasn't all; when I got to about 7 months along, we dove into the world of prenatal classes -- not just Lamaze, but also how to care for newborns.  Neither one of us was was worried about not knowing how to take care of babies at the time, not just because I'd read so danged much already but also because both DH and I had done our fair share of babysitting during the ten years or so prior to having the boy.  However, we still took the classes, because (among other reasons) we knew that caring for our own baby would be a little bit different than babysitting for someone else.  

And then, in the hospital after we had him, we were inundated again with samples, coupons, and information.  I think we got another diaper bag then, too, and a folder chock-full of info (I still have that folder!) and even more mailings once we got settled in back home.  There were classes I could take while in the hospital with him, classes I could take afterward, videos I could watch while I was there, videos I could borrow and watch at home . . . it was just endless.  Now that I'm on "the other side" and working as an OB nurse, it blows my mind how much new parents are inundated (I like that word today) with information about how to take care of their new tiny humans.    And if the new mom (and dad) somehow missed out on all of the information practically shoved down her throat during her pregnancy, there's a list of things we as nurses have to cover with them before they get to go home from the hospital that usually takes the whole two days (or whatever) to complete.  It's all very, very important stuff.  From personal experience, even after going through ALL of those educational steps, the first thought I had once we brought baby DS home from the hospital was something along the lines of, "Oh my gosh, they actually let me bring this baby home?  I don't have the first idea about what to do next!"  (That did NOT go into the baby book.)

My long-winded question being, what kind of preparation for being parents of a newborn do adoptive parents get?  I'm not worried so much for our own benefit, not just because this will be our second go-round but also because I know where to get the information and refreshers we might find helpful, but what about other parents adopting their first child?  They don't get monthly teaching and information about childhood vaccinations and car seats and nutrition like pregnant women do.  Not that the pregnant women has to do anything with all of that information -- but from my personal experience, it would've taken more effort to ignore the information than it took to read through it all multiple times.  Likewise, it's not that expectant adoptive parents can't take prenatal classes or sign up for mailings and coupons and samples, but it takes a little more effort to do so.  

Maybe it's the nurse in me, always on the lookout for teaching opportunities and ways to get valuable information to people who need it most in the most efficient and convenient way possible, but I was thinking that it'd be nice to have "how-to" parenting classes specifically for adoptive parents.  You might not realize this, but a lot of prospective adoptive parents are various degrees of uncomfortable being around pregnant women and couples.  Especially if the prospective adopters are infertile.  Not that the teaching would be any different, but the learning environment would be.  

I don't know where I'm going with this, exactly.  I'm pretty sure I've identified a need, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to see that it gets "filled".  Then again, God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called...

I don't know.  It's an idea I've been batting around.  Maybe I'll act upon it once we get to The Waiting Stage . . . .

Anyway!  Well, we got our fingerprinting done a few days ago!  We ended up going to the county jail in a town about 20 miles away.  We didn't need an appointment and there were no extra fees -- we just had to wait about 20 minutes or so, but that was fine, we didn't have anywhere else to be at that time anyway.  I've never been fingerprinted in a jail before.  Actually, I don't think I've ever been officially fingerprinted before, either!  Fun.  Our adoption worker told us in class that we couldn't touch the fingerprinting cards after our prints had been taken, at least that's the message DH and I both walked away with, but the nice lady who did ours just handed us the cards back and said, "There you go!"  I asked if we were allowed to touch the cards, and she looked at me like I'd just grown a second head or something.  We mailed them right away and I came home and crossed that off the list.  :)

Luger's all neutered now, too, and I have both rabies certificates in my "adoption stuff" folder on the desk.  We'll get our health records filled out this week, and I'll get copies made of our 2011 tax returns as well.  We made a Menards run today and got new smoke detectors for the house . . . we do have some in the house already, but the state code has more specific requirements and we needed to do a little upgrading.  

So many things I want to blog about . . . I'll have to save the rest for later.

Until next time . . .