First Homestudy Visit

We spent the week cleaning and organizing.  Our house was clean but still looked like five young kids live here (and three 4-week old kittens). Our Social Worker arrived "late".  It wasn't until a half an hour went by that we realized that there is a time zone difference between where she lives and where we are.  Now we know that for next time ha ha!

The girls all went to bed late last night.  Dumb planning on my part.  I thought they would sleep in this morning and we'd have a calm start.  Well...that backfired!  They woke up grumpy and "pestery".  I was so scared that world war three was about to erupt while the SW was here.  Thankfully, some Lego with mom calmed them down.  They were all very excited to meet the lady and to have a movie and popcorn with their uncle.  I am so very thankful that my brother is staying with us for three months (for work) while we are having our visits.  God has fantastic timing!!!

Did I mention our SW is AWESOME!?!?!  She has to drive 5 hours to get here.  Yuck!! It is "cheaper" for us to pay for her travel allowance than it is for us to make arrangements for a sitter plus have both of us travelling 10 hours.  Our SW has family very close by and so she and her daughter have made today's visit into a social opportunity for themselves.  She will be reducing our visits from the proposed 6-7 (1-2 hours long) to 4 (3 hour) long visits.  Of those four, she is going to do one via e-mail to save on costs!!!  AWESOME!  The final one, the one where she shows us the home study report and has us sign it, she is going to swing by here while going to visit her family to alleviate even more of the costs!!!  Praise God!!!!  We are so very, very grateful!! 

So what did we do today?  We went over why we wanted to adopt, what our families felt about it, what kind of resources we have, experiences with special needs children, how we spend our time and how the inclusion of another child will fit in.  I also had my one-on-one interview today and Corey will have his the next visit. 

The one-on-one is a challenge because you have to talk about yourself.  What are your strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, what do you fight with your spouse about, how do you handle conflict, what does a good and bad day look like to you.  I wish I could remember the questions but the whole afternoon was such a blur.

When we were finished for the day, I asked her if she would be doing a walk through of the house.  She told me that she was basically looking to see that we have adequate room for another child and a play area for the children.  She said she had no concerns.  As she peeked in our family room, I asked her if she would like a tour anyways.  By golly, I cleaned the house up from top to bottom just for her I sure wanted her to see it at its best ha ha!!!  She seemed to love our house, yard and view as much as we did when we moved in.  Very good meeting today.

When she was packing up, my husband mentioned how we are thinking of staying in Paris for a couple of nights during one of the stop overs to our chosen country (to combine our 10 year wedding anniversary).  The SW indirectly told us to plan for our trip to Paris as she was leaving.  Ummm...I think she liked us!!!  Yay!!!  That 100% made me relax.  She was a great lady.  There is no denying that God's hands are in this adoption.

Friday night I also got a FANTASTIC email from our agency.  It seems they finally got their act together and partnered up with the association that provides the mandatory educational component to our home study.  The association is going to create an online version for our agency geared at international adoption.  I was soooo happy to get that email.  Now, let's see if they follow through and get it done in a timely manner.  Keep praying.  It seems minor, but to our family and other's in similar situations, this will not only be more convenient but also way more economical.

I am exhausted now.  The kids are all in bed and I am going to do anything but clean today!  I'm thinking a sappy movie may be in order!  Tomorrow is Mother's Day here so a very happy day to all the moms out there! 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  Some of you have been such rocks to us and we appreciate your love.  Please pray for us and this adoption journey.  Please continue to pray for the home study process and the agency that we are working with.  Please lift our family up in prayer.  We absolutely cannot do this without God.  Financially, we are not there yet either and we prayerfully seek God's wisdom and blessings for the funds to be in place for the adoption.  To God be the Glory!