Spain Dad, a baby blog

Calendar by tillwe.Thursday: 1st Interview with social workerI’m a sensitive guy, and I left the interview wondering why everyone was being so mean to us. I just wanted one person to acknowledge that doing an adoption in Spain was a lot of hard work for us, and obviously we wanted an adopted child enough to [...]

The social worker greeted us with two kisses at the front door and showed us to her office. We sat down, folded our coats on our laps and watched as she shuffled through our paperwork before placing three pages on the desk in front of her. She studied the pages for a moment, then leaned [...]

“I’m finished,” I said, collapsing on the bed next to April, who was propped up against the wall with a pillow typing on her computer. I took one more look at the adoption questionnaire in my hand, cocking my head to read what I had scribbled up and down the margins on the first page, [...]

The social worker placed a laminated card on each of our desks. She explained that on the card were photos of thirty children for adoption, each with a number. Our task was to identify the child we most wanted to adopt and the child we would find most difficult to adopt and then to write [...]

Classroom Chairs 2 by James Sarmiento. While the social worker handed out the worksheets, we spread out around the classroom. I found a seat in the back corner and began to write. I had hoped that our adoption class would be mostly lecture. I wanted to learn about the process without having to worry about [...]

“Let me check to make sure we have everything,” April said, opening the binder with the word “ADOPTION” written in permanent black marker on the binding and flipping through pages of blood test results and tax records and goverment-stamped certificates. I glanced at the clock. “We won’t be late,” April said, trying to reassure me [...]

Our process of doing an international adoption in Spain came to a grinding halt last year when I found out I had lost my Spanish residency due to a miscommunication with one of the government agencies. However, as of two weeks ago, I am a legal resident in Spain once again, which is why tonight [...]

Back in May while we were in Iowa, April got a phone call from an adoption agency asking if she would be willing to work for them as a Spanish translator while she was in town. April agreed, and within a few hours was sitting in the home of Vanesa, a Bolivian woman, who had [...]

The first step in an international adoption in Spain is to attend an informational meeting, which in our case, was held by the Instituto Madrileño del Menor y la Familia (IMMF), the government agency which handles adoptions in Madrid. Both April and I were expecting the informational meeting to be, well, informative, answering some of [...]

“I wonder what it would be like to have a boy,” April said over her oatmeal yesterday. “I didn’t know we were going to adopt a boy,” I said. “Really? I guess I just assumed,” she said, “that since we already have a girl, we would want a boy next.” I nodded. “It makes sense.” [...]