The Home Study Begins
Merry Christmas! Nicki and I have spent the past few weeks celebrating Christmas with our families. It was strange to think that next Christmas we may be celebrating with our kids and that all of the traveling, shopping, presents, services, and family time may be completely different. We are so excited for God to expand our family. We didn't send a Christmas card out this year so here is one we threw together for facebook.
Anyways, a couple of weeks before Christmas our Home Study officially began. The Home Study is exactly what it sounds like, a study of our home. This includes study of our physical home, such as, bedrooms, bathrooms, safety, and our neighborhood. But this also includes a study of our family life, such as, parenting styles, relationship health, past experiences, financial stability, extended families and support systems. The home study includes everything and anything that they need to know in order to place children in our home. The home study is a series of about 5 interviews with our social worker to discuss our lives and our home very deeply.
Well, one down, and about four to go (unless our social worker sees something we really need to address). The first interview was an interesting experience. We had an appointment setup for 8:30am at our social worker's office. Of course we wanted to portray that we are punctual and responsible people so we showed up no sooner or later than 8:25am. We went to the door and we were locked out. Which of course made us question everything about the time and location of this meeting. We waited until about 8:35am and decided to call our social worker to make sure we were at the right place. About a minute later, someone came out to open the door, escort us in and tell us where to go. Turns out this was our social worker, completely caught off guard and a little stressed.
As for our social worker, she's very nice, not too intense (which was our fear) but down to business. She seems very good at her job and understanding. This first interview was all business. We listened to her explain a lot of paperwork, asked some questions, and signed our names countless times. We didn't really get into any of the nitty gritty stuff with our first interview, but with our next appointment set up for the second week in January, and we are ready to dig in.
So, what are we doing until then? Well, we have plenty to do. We were given a huge packet which explains a lot of the building code requirements for adoption, such as smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, evacuation plan, emergency phone number lists, outlet plugs, as well as upkeep and maintenance to promote safety. Let's just say we have none of the listed things done. In fact, we actually have a list of projects that we have been meaning to do that were neglected while I was in seminary. This includes fixing a broken light in the basement, fixing a pocket door that will only shut half way, and I should probably organize my tools and such so that I don't have hammers and utility knives just chillin. These are things that we can live with but will be necessary to address before children. But guess what? I took the next week off of work so hopefully we can get some of this stuff finished..... That is, if we don't sleep until 10am every day, and decide to go cross country skiing every afternoon which has been the trend.
Anyways, a couple of weeks before Christmas our Home Study officially began. The Home Study is exactly what it sounds like, a study of our home. This includes study of our physical home, such as, bedrooms, bathrooms, safety, and our neighborhood. But this also includes a study of our family life, such as, parenting styles, relationship health, past experiences, financial stability, extended families and support systems. The home study includes everything and anything that they need to know in order to place children in our home. The home study is a series of about 5 interviews with our social worker to discuss our lives and our home very deeply.
Well, one down, and about four to go (unless our social worker sees something we really need to address). The first interview was an interesting experience. We had an appointment setup for 8:30am at our social worker's office. Of course we wanted to portray that we are punctual and responsible people so we showed up no sooner or later than 8:25am. We went to the door and we were locked out. Which of course made us question everything about the time and location of this meeting. We waited until about 8:35am and decided to call our social worker to make sure we were at the right place. About a minute later, someone came out to open the door, escort us in and tell us where to go. Turns out this was our social worker, completely caught off guard and a little stressed.
As for our social worker, she's very nice, not too intense (which was our fear) but down to business. She seems very good at her job and understanding. This first interview was all business. We listened to her explain a lot of paperwork, asked some questions, and signed our names countless times. We didn't really get into any of the nitty gritty stuff with our first interview, but with our next appointment set up for the second week in January, and we are ready to dig in.
So, what are we doing until then? Well, we have plenty to do. We were given a huge packet which explains a lot of the building code requirements for adoption, such as smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, evacuation plan, emergency phone number lists, outlet plugs, as well as upkeep and maintenance to promote safety. Let's just say we have none of the listed things done. In fact, we actually have a list of projects that we have been meaning to do that were neglected while I was in seminary. This includes fixing a broken light in the basement, fixing a pocket door that will only shut half way, and I should probably organize my tools and such so that I don't have hammers and utility knives just chillin. These are things that we can live with but will be necessary to address before children. But guess what? I took the next week off of work so hopefully we can get some of this stuff finished..... That is, if we don't sleep until 10am every day, and decide to go cross country skiing every afternoon which has been the trend.
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