PS-MAPP Classes - Or to those who are new to this, Parenting Classes

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay in posts, we are quickly finding out that the adoption process takes up a lot of your time... time you would normally be spending doing things like, oh I don't know, writing a blog, or maybe eating a sandwich. I have just a few moments before I am off to class tonight, but I wanted to touch base with you guys and let you know what has happened since orientation.

Jessie and I have started our PS-MAPP training, which is a 6 week course that we go to every Monday and Wednesday night from 6-9pm. We have been to five sessions so far and find them incredibly informative and enjoyable. These classes are used as an information and selection process, and are not only providing us with all of the tools we will need to become prepared and effective parents, but it is giving our social worker the opportunity to sit with us twice a week and see first-hand how we deal with a full spectrum of emotions. Along with our social worker, we are also trained by a fellow resource parent who has been through this process before, and also a college rep who is incredibly knowledgeable on the process and what is expected of us.

Our first class, which was on April 6th, did not start out as a stress free experience. We had received our pre-registration e-mail the day before class started that stressed, in bold lettering, that simply registering for the class did not guarantee placement. The facilitators needed at least 20 people in attendance but no more than 25 to hold a class. The letter also stated that there would most likely be a line and that only the first 25 people in the line who had correctly pre-registered would be allowed admittance and registration started at promptly 5:30. Well, as you can imagine, Jessie and I took this very seriously. We know how much we want this dream to become a reality, so we figured that it would be a mad frenzy to get a spot before the class was full. This created a bit of stress for me considering that A: I work in Santa Ana, B: Traffic on the 405 is extremely unpredictable, and C: the letter almost made it sound like we should have been camped out the night before.

Somehow Jessie and I managed to get past any hurtles we had imagined would have made us late and arrived at the school at 4pm. To our great surprise, and relief, we were the first ones there. Now, with two hours to wait, we started to realize that we had made for a very long afternoon. Luckliy there was a small cafe close by which served rather tasty chinese food and we snacked on that while waiting for other prospective parents to show. At around 5pm a group of men started setting up in the conference room that had been designated for our classes. Once confirming with these men that they were not there for PS-MAPP (they were setting up for a police academy training), a new wave of panic set in. Was there a way that we had been waiting outside of the wrong conference room? Was there a huge line of parents waiting outside another door, claiming our spots in this coveted class as we sat there twiddling our thumbs? OH THE STRESS!!! Luckily for us, I still had the number of the woman who registered us for the class, so I called her to make sure that we had the location correct. She confirmed that we were in the right place and that the room had been double booked which apparently happens often. Soon enough the trainers arrived and pre-registration started... however at this point, there were only 7 people waiting including Jessie and me. As we sat there discussing how this day was already stressful enough without the class being cancelled and us having to start this entire process over again, a few more people staggered in, bringing out head cout to 11. Not until 6:03 did the 20th person sign their name on the sign-in sheet and Jessie and I gave a mutual sign of relief.

Since the first class, which had a final total of 21 prospective parents, our numbers have dwindles to just 14. This class is effectively executed and makes you really soul search to find if this process is right for you. Jessie and I, as I'm sure is no surprise to any of our friends and family reading this, are still VERY sure that this is exactly how we want to start our family, but I must admit that we have had several serious conversations about what exactly we can handle, what our true expectations are, and how we feel that this will change us forever. I affectionately call the MAPP classes "parenting boot camp" but only because they are an extremely emotional journey that force you to evaluate who you are and how you can help a child. I just wish everyone who got pregnant had to take these classes. If they did I bet there would be far fewer children in the system waiting for adoptive homes.

Our next leg of this journey is the homestudy, which will be starting shortly since Jess and I have already submitted both the state and county applications. We'll talk about the joys of preparing the house and the challenges of making sure everything we own is locked away, padded, or flame retardent. Thanks for reading and we'll try to be better about keeping you guys updated.