Our Adoption Home Study

We were understandably anxious to get our adoption application finished, so when Emily (our caseworker) called and said she wanted to come the next day, we were so excited!  Then we hung up the phone and started to panic.  We had heard many horror stories about caseworkers coming in with white gloves, checking the house outlet by outlet, making sure everything was perfect.  We weren't quite sure what to expect, so we spent that night organizing, cleaning, baby-proofing (despite already having two babies--we thought they would be a bit stricter than we were), and making sure all the safety features in our house worked.  (Special thanks to Denise for coming over last minute and watching the kids.  You rock!).

Emily came the next morning, and sat down on the couch.  She proceeded to then ask us a few dozen questions as follow ups to our application.  What we didn't realize is that the home study is actually more psychological than physical.  She asked us about our relationships with our family, with each other, with our children, parenting philosophies, religious and political beliefs, fears, coping mechanisms, etc..  It was actually quite in-depth, and definitely more personal than I was planning on getting that day, haha.  We then had individual interviews of about 1.5 hours each where they asked us more questions one on one.  My whole day was made when at the end of our home study Emily said "You know, I really might have you guys come to the agency and teach a class.  You're really good."  Yeah, our marriage rocks.  If you want to know why, just ask :)

The funny part was after all those interviews and questions, Emily literally walked around the house once, and then left.  She later told us that she puts very little emphasis on cleanliness and safety in the home when it comes to the adoption home study.  She can walk into a home and tell by the state it's in, and by the spirit of the home whether or not it is safe for a child.  We did all that organizing, and she didn't even care, haha.  At least it got me to unpack the last few boxes!

We also found out that our home study was much more complete than we had originally realized. We are now not only approved for infant adoption, but also for fostering children, and adopting foster children.  We've seriously considered adopting a sibling group out of foster care.  We'll see what comes of it.

In the meantime, thank you all for sharing our profile (nearyperfect.weebly.com)!  We've had 1000+ hits on our website.  It's been great!  Now comes the most difficult part for us--the waiting.