Adoption: The Paperwork

In 2007, shortly after realizing that we were most likely not going to conceive without medical assistance, we contacted some family friends. These are people that my in-laws have known for YEARS, who are foster parents and they have also adopted a few children. I inquired about adoption, and they directed us to our local DHS: Child Welfare office. I contacted this agency and after a short (lunch-break) phone conversation was sent a "packet" of paperwork, which I was instructed to fill out and return for another "packet". Now I want to make sure that "packet" is a term I would give to an elementary school kid's homework assignment, this was no packet. This was a novel...background check forms, income statements, family history, and blood-samples. Okay, I am exaggerating at the blood samples, but it felt like they wanted BLOOD! I proceeded to fill this paperwork out, and somewhere in the midst of figuring our our household income vs. our debt (think buying a house), got overwhelmed. The packet was set aside and left. This was for the best as during this time we were leasing a house that needed a lot of work...really, it was not a place to bring a child into (I don't know how we end up committing to OLD houses that are falling apart, each more-so than the last!). In addition to this we were renting our condo to a family, and that situation took a lot of work. I had also taken a promotion with my company, that was not conducive to my lifestyle. To say that we were ready to adopt at this point would be a lie. Honestly looking back, we were not in the right place to be parents, especially parents of foster-children. Not saying that we couldn't make it work, but we had so much other "stuff" going on that it would've been a stressful experience. I believe that there is a purpose to my life, and at that point we were not ready for the responsibility of parenthood. So, we tabled, or burned the "packet". By this point I didn't feel like it could be turned in anyhow, it was half filled out in black ink and half filled out in two different shades of blue ink. Yeah, it was not ready to be turned in.