And this is how it will happen

Our social worker knows of 2 kids for whom we might be a good match. One is a little boy who was born in March 2006, and the other is a little girl who was born in December 2004. Additionally, there's another little girl (age "1") on the MARE website for whom we might be a potential match. Ms. Stork thinks all this is very encouraging.

We just went from "yay, our homestudy's done!" to "hey, there are a couple of possible matches for us." Holy shit.

With one of the kids, the earliest we'd be considered as a preadoptive family would be January, and with the other, it sounds like it would happen sooner than that. Ms. Stork sent our homestudy to that child's social worker, and she's hoping to get back to us with more information about that child before Thanksgiving.

One of these kids might be our Hester, but I doubt it. I'm not getting excited until I hear more details about the kids and their circumstances. But until then, I'm beginning to understand that this is how this will happen, that a social worker will tell us, "I have a kid who is ___ months old with ______ special needs. Here's the tiniest bit of info about her/his birth family and placement history. Interested? Send me your homestudy." And that shady, sketchy introduction will be the first time we learn about our son or daughter.