Home Study Visits - One & Two

Well, we survived our Home Studies.....both of them.  The process was significantly easier and less stressful than either of us imagined.  Tuesday night while both Jon and I were on our knees peeking out our bedroom waiting for her to pull in the driveway, we were hot, sweaty, emotionally unstable messes.  And now looking back, that behavior seems incredibly ridiculous considering how easy the process really was.  I am not going to say this is how it is for everyone, but it was for us. 

Day One- Tuesday, October 5th
She came over to our house, we showed her around, and she gave us literally zero feedback as to whether she found our house suitable or not for a child.  We know our house is suitable, but there are some dangers mainly including a set of stairs on every level of our house.  I mean we know how we will circumvent this, but we still expected her to ask us how it would be done. 

We then sat down at the table and she asked us zero questions about ourselves and proceeded to talk and talk and talk for the next two hours.  Don't get me wrong, almost everything she said was valuable and aimed at exposing us to all of the possibilities we might face based on the age and race of our child to dealing with the age, race, mental and physical condition of the birth mother.  She also talked about the perceptions of the rest of the world on adoption. 

She told us very detailed stories about her three children - all who are adopted.  She then told a few pro-gay antidotes which let Jon and I know she was most definitely on our side and then as fast as she came into our house, she was gone.  She said the appointment would be two hours and I literally believe she walked out the door at the 1 hour, 59 minute, 59 second mark. 

Oh yea and I have to mention that our dogs behaved like little angels!

Day Two - Thursday, October 7th
This was supposed to be our interview portion and last for two hours.  She asked us some general questions regarding our intentions for discipline, religion, decision-making processes, etc.  Jon and I answered those questions thoughtfully and purposefully.  And after about 20 minutes or so, the questions ended and the talking began......again.  For the next hour and forty minutes, Jon and I just listened to her talk.  And again, this was not a bad thing.  She has such valuable information to give and this time was aimed at being honest about adoption with our child and not hiding anything about the process from them (I think we have a good head start with this blog).  She talked about the emotional process that almost all adopted children will go through in their life.  And then, she asked if we had any questions.  We asked one or two questions and then she said "oh, in case I forgot to tell you, you are approved!!"  She told us our home study write-up would be done in about 2-3 weeks (right in time for our visit to the adoption agency).

This is a HUGE milestone for Jon and I and puts us literally within a month or two of being in the pool of candidates to receive a baby!!  It suddenly made this process feel all the more real.