First Home Study Visit Complete
We've finally had our first of three home study visits.
The level of excitement and anxiety I had this morning was almost unbearable. I ran about my house frantically all day trying to make it presentable. The morning started with making a list of what I needed to do and making a shopping list. To say I didn't get close to completing either list would be an understatement. No matter how much I did it just wasn't happening fast enough. Everything considered, the house ended up being presentable. The rest of my lists will be saved for our second Home Study Visit.
Before the visit, we were emailed a document and a video to look at in preparation for our Home Study. They are both very informative. I've included them at the bottom of today's post in case you are interested in them.
Overall, I feel like this visit went very well. She was impressed with many of our answers to her questions and she wrote down two and a half pages of notes on us. Unlike our experience with our previous contact, this lady was not pushy at all. She simply explained to us how the state looks at our completed home study and how other case workers will look at it. She helped guide us to the answers we felt we could handle and made sure we didn't settle. She also made sure that it was both of our decision and not just his or mine.
The vast majority of the visit was spent going over our acceptance level for child characteristics. I couldn't find an exact match to the list we went through online. However, this list includes everything we went over and a bit more. Our list had a third category which said "willing to discuss". The Case Worker isn't even sure why they have that category since she can't submit a Home Study using that category. So, we had to go through our original list and remove all the "willing to discuss" answers. Absolute acceptance or denial isn't realistic and honestly hard to choose. However, we were able to go through and make changes to almost all of our "willing to discuss" answers. We originally submitted that checklist months ago so we were a bit shocked at how some of those answers had already changed.
Upon finishing the acceptance checklist, she toured our house to look for safety issues. Fortunately, the list she gave us is small. We had previously pictured the Case Worker doing a full home inspection. Instead, she just walked into each room to look around and only pointed out obvious safety concerns. Then she asked to see & test our fire alarms. One thing she pointed out that we hadn't even thought about was our fireplace tools. We have to store them somewhere the children can't get to them. That will be an easy fix.
Before she left, we scheduled our next two visits:
Home Study Visit # 2 is scheduled for Friday, October 19th at 2:30 pm.
Home Study Visit # 3 is scheduled for Friday, October 26th at 2:30 pm.
We have two weeks to work on the list of things she gave us to correct. Three weeks left before our visits are done and then we just wait for her to write it all up and submit it to the state for approval. We started this adoption journey back in May and it's now October. I can hardly believe it has been this long. I am hopeful she submits our Home Study to the State for approval by mid-November and that we hear back on our approval status by December. Once we get that approval we can start looking at and inquiring about sibling groups.
The Human Need for Belonging
The level of excitement and anxiety I had this morning was almost unbearable. I ran about my house frantically all day trying to make it presentable. The morning started with making a list of what I needed to do and making a shopping list. To say I didn't get close to completing either list would be an understatement. No matter how much I did it just wasn't happening fast enough. Everything considered, the house ended up being presentable. The rest of my lists will be saved for our second Home Study Visit.
Before the visit, we were emailed a document and a video to look at in preparation for our Home Study. They are both very informative. I've included them at the bottom of today's post in case you are interested in them.
Overall, I feel like this visit went very well. She was impressed with many of our answers to her questions and she wrote down two and a half pages of notes on us. Unlike our experience with our previous contact, this lady was not pushy at all. She simply explained to us how the state looks at our completed home study and how other case workers will look at it. She helped guide us to the answers we felt we could handle and made sure we didn't settle. She also made sure that it was both of our decision and not just his or mine.
The vast majority of the visit was spent going over our acceptance level for child characteristics. I couldn't find an exact match to the list we went through online. However, this list includes everything we went over and a bit more. Our list had a third category which said "willing to discuss". The Case Worker isn't even sure why they have that category since she can't submit a Home Study using that category. So, we had to go through our original list and remove all the "willing to discuss" answers. Absolute acceptance or denial isn't realistic and honestly hard to choose. However, we were able to go through and make changes to almost all of our "willing to discuss" answers. We originally submitted that checklist months ago so we were a bit shocked at how some of those answers had already changed.
Upon finishing the acceptance checklist, she toured our house to look for safety issues. Fortunately, the list she gave us is small. We had previously pictured the Case Worker doing a full home inspection. Instead, she just walked into each room to look around and only pointed out obvious safety concerns. Then she asked to see & test our fire alarms. One thing she pointed out that we hadn't even thought about was our fireplace tools. We have to store them somewhere the children can't get to them. That will be an easy fix.
Before she left, we scheduled our next two visits:
Home Study Visit # 2 is scheduled for Friday, October 19th at 2:30 pm.
Home Study Visit # 3 is scheduled for Friday, October 26th at 2:30 pm.
We have two weeks to work on the list of things she gave us to correct. Three weeks left before our visits are done and then we just wait for her to write it all up and submit it to the state for approval. We started this adoption journey back in May and it's now October. I can hardly believe it has been this long. I am hopeful she submits our Home Study to the State for approval by mid-November and that we hear back on our approval status by December. Once we get that approval we can start looking at and inquiring about sibling groups.
The Human Need for Belonging
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