The Home Study

I have been wanting to write an update, but this is the first chance I've had. We have been doing so much for our home study and have been so busy.

I think the last time I wrote, I had mentioned how we were about to go to our first meeting that was part of the whole home study process. We went to it and met our caseworker. She ran the meeting/class. She's really nice. She went through the whole process from start to finish; they talked a lot about openness in adoption vs. closed adoptions of the past; they talked about birthparents, etc. They sent us home with a huge binder of information, plus more forms to fill out. We had to have fingerprints done, and get physicals from our doctor. We also have to work on our profile. We had to write out a birthmother letter and then information about ourselves and where we live. They will have all of it printed professionally and we'll add our photos to it. You wouldn't think that would take so long to write, but when you want it to sound just right, it takes forever! Plus, I'll make a change and then Steve will make 5 changes...that's how it goes. :)

Tomorrow night we meet with our caseworker for our first interview together. The next Monday night we meet to have our individual interviews. After that, the caseworker will be coming to our house for the home visit to make sure our house is safe.

After all of this part is done, we will be in the "pool" of waiting families. There are about 100 couples waiting right now. It could take up to 2 years to be chosen (if we are ever chosen, because some couples aren't chosen...I hope that doesn't happen.) If a birthmother has an adoption plan set up with the agency, she looks through the profiles of the waiting couples and can choose one from them or from online. So, the agency isn't choosing you, the birthmom is. We just have to hope that someone will really connect with our profile.

On top of all of this, it has been very busy at my school. We've had so much going on, including state testing. I worked late at school, too, because I had volunteered at one of our festivals in the evening.

We celebrated our 9th anniversary this past week, too. We went out to dinner together and tried to keep our eyes open since we were so tired!

I guess that's everything for now. We're both excited to be putting everything together - I think it makes us feel more hopeful than we've felt over the past 2+ years.