- July 2022 - September 2022
- On July 29, 2022, I received an email from our placement specialist, Jazmine, that DeAndre’s case worker and team wanted to set up a Zoom interview with Will and me as a potential adoptive family for DeAndre. This was exciting because I had been emailing the case workers in Texas for several weeks for updates about our status.
- Our first interview meeting was scheduled for August 12, 2022, at 2:30 p.m. This meeting included all the workers in DeAndre’s case, plus the workers from the Children’s Home Society. I remember the meeting going fairly well. We learned about DeAndre’s past and we also talked about our lives and why we were interested in adopting again.
- Later that same day I received an email from Jazmine stating that DeAndre’s team made the decision that they would love to move forward with our family for DeAndre! I was very surprised that they made a decision so quickly. Little did I know that it would be a year later before the placement would become final.
- August 15th, 2022 - I received an email from Jazmine indicating the next steps in the process:
- DSS (Dept of Social Services) will send DeAndre’s redacted case file to NC
- A second official "Yes" from Will and me will be needed from DSS to move forward
- DSS is requiring us to come to Texas to visit to meet DeAndre
- September 1st, 2022 - Will and I went to CHS to review DeAndre’s case file. The case file was HUGE, several thousand pages. Jazmine was only able to print out maybe half of the report for us to read. Maybe just the important parts. I remember a lot of what was in the documents was repetitive. There were also a lot of reports of child neglect, abuse, and emotional trauma. After reading the report, we still decided we wanted to move forward with the placement.
- September 14, 2022 we had our first Zoom visit with DeAndre while we were on vacation in the Outer Banks. From what I can remember, the call went very well. My first impression was that he was well-spoken and had a sweet face. Jameson was overly excited of course and could not sit still 😂 After the Zoom call, his case worker sent me a text that stated, "After the call yesterday the first thing he did was run to tell foster mom "'They found someone for me!'" This made my heart melt 💓 Shortly after this conversation with DeAndre's initial case worker, Makala, she told me she would be leaving the case and another case worker would be taking over.
