5.5 down, 4.5 to go!

I took last Monday off to do some fun stuff with my friends. Kim is in nursing school and it was her spring break. We decided to have a massage at the Greenhouse Day Spa in the Summit. It was the first massage that I have had-- and believe me, it won't be the last! It was great! After our massage session, we met Tiffany and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Again, it was great! It has been a long time since we've seen each other and it was fun to get together without the pressure of eating and getting back to the office within an hour!

When I returned home, I was very relaxed and ready to do some adoption training! Well, not really, but that is one of the things that we have put off doing, and it has to get done to move on to the next step. So, I sat for a few hours in front of the computer and learned all kinds of adoption stuff.

The first class that we did was Bonding and Attachment. It gave some suggestions on how to bond with the baby when we meet her. It was interesting. I never knew adopted babies go through so much and have such difficulty trusting and attaching to their new parents.

The next class was Your Child and Emotions. I feel like this class dealt with parents who are adopting older children, rather than babies. But, it is a requirement regardless. It gave suggestions on how to positively address feelings of the adopted child. Most of it seemed like common sense, but I suppose it will be helpful in the long run.

The last class was Medical Issues. It gave some general information on medical issues that are common in orphanages and then specific information for each country. Again, a lot of the information was common to us because that is what helped us make a decision on where to adopt. One reason we chose China was due to the health of the children, but we have to be aware of the conditions that are most common in the country.

All in all, we have completed 5.5 hours of the 10 hours of required training! I have taken today off too, since I had over 25 people at my house for Easter lunch yesterday. I felt like I deserved another day this weekend to clean up and relax. The plan for today also includes completing the other 4.5 hours of training. Aren't you jealous?!