Classes anyone?

We were scheduled to begin the state mandated pre-adoptive classes today, but we still have not yet received the go ahead to take the classes in my county. I have called the supervisor in my local child welfare agency and left messages for three weeks, but she still has not called me back! I needed her to contact the other agency she transferred our application to for verify if it was okay to take the classes or at least give us a contact person in the other county, but she has not responded to my calls. We don’t want to spend the next three Saturdays taking classes only for the other county to tell us that we have to re-take the classes in their county! The classes are all day (9-4 p.m.), so that is quite a lot of investment in time, if they don’t’ accept the classes. I am a bit envious of private adoptions since they have a much shorter training requirement. I wish I could do the class online! The next classes in our county are for September and we hope we will have been given the okay to take them here since it is 3 hour round-trip for three Saturdays to take them in the other county.

During our first home-study meeting, the social worker we had been assigned to advised us it was best to take the classes in the other county so we could meet and develop relationships with the social workers there. She said the social worker doing the "PRIDE" training would be the same social workers placing the children, and depending on our relationship with the social workers, this would determine how fast a child was placed in our home and the “quality” of the referral. What!!! So, the placement is based on favoritism and not the best interests of the child??? It was nice that she gave us this insight, but it left a bad taste in our mouths. I thought I was turned off by private domestic adoptions because you had to “sell yourself” so that the birth parent could "choose" you. Now we have to “sell ourselves” to the social workers doing the placements? How do they determine the “quality” of a referral? The looks? The age? The child not having been alcohol and/or drug exposed in utero? The gender? The race? What??? I pray I misunderstood her.