When you’re a kid in elementary or middle school, you just want to get to high school. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel when you’re in high school; school is almost over! When you actually get to high school, you just want to get to college. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel when you get to college; school is almost over! When you get to college, you just want to stay there forever. School is almost over and that train at the end of the tunnel is barreling down on you.
I’m assuming at this point you are sitting at your computer asking yourself what this has to do with adoption. Earlier this week I participated in a 5-hour training on infant adoption, and at one point my mind drifted off back to elementary school and how I thought school and learning ended when you left high school, or maybe college.
I have been at Adoption STAR for just under two months and I am so grateful for this position, and the outlets it has given me with the blog and Facebook and everything else. Working in the adoption field has broadened my horizons and continued my education, which I have now learned will continue throughout life.
The Infant Adoption Training began with a test (another thing I thought I was done with after college) on my knowledge of adoption. I was proud of the fact that I knew that the correct term for a birth mother relinquishing her child was “making an adoption plan” and not “giving up her child” or “putting her child up for adoption.” However there were many questions that I just did not have the answer for… yet.
What I took away from the class was how important education is when making such important decisions such as whether to adopt, or make an adoption plan. The professionals who help you through this process, whether it is an Adoption STAR employee, social worker, therapist, nurse, or someone else, have been trained to listen to your feelings, your hopes and your fears, and educate you about your options without passing judgment. This is a skill that can help everyone at some point or another, and is definitely a skill that most of us need work on from time to time.
I have learned a great deal about the adoption journey my first two months on the job, and I can’t wait to see what will come next.