Second and final home visit!

This week we completed another huge step in our adoption process! We had our second and final home visit with our social worker for our home study. This means we are {pretty much} home study approved! I say pretty much because our social worker still has to finish writing our report, and then she has to pass it along to her supervisor. However, we have done everything we need to do, and she told us at the end of our visit Saturday that we are approved! The rest is just crossing the t’s and dotting the few remaining i’s.

I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it was when our social worker spoke those three words to us, “you are approved.” I think I must’ve been feeling more stress about it than I thought because it felt like this HUGE weight had been lifted off of me. It feels so good.

The second home visit was a bit different than the first. We spent the first portion of the visit receiving some adoption training from our social worker. This included information on grief/coping with failed adoptions, a bunch of books, websites and other adoption resources, lists of community activities adoptive families can take part in, information about how adoptive children process adoption and at what ages they will experience various stages of processing, medical information for children exposed to drugs or alcohol, the legal documents that will be filed throughout the process, what the process will look like from here on out and much more. It was very insightful to talk through these things with our social worker. She has experienced so many different situations in her career, and she was able to give us real and practical information.

After we completed our training, we did the walk through of our home to make sure all of the safety requirements were met. If you were wondering, yes, we locked up our knives and medicines and changed our child locks. We bought fire extinguishers and that earthquake kit we’ve been meaning to purchase for four years. If nothing else, Travis is grateful this home study forced him to finally prioritize buying that kit.

After the inspection {which we passed with flying colors}, we moved on to individual interviews. This was the most in depth portion of our interview process. Prior to our first visit, we had filled out a series of questionnaires. These questionnaires covered a multitude of things from family history to how our parents raised us to what our relationships with our family members are like to Travis and my relationship with each other to how we parent our children. At our first visit, we turned these questionnaires in to our social worker. Since then, she reviewed them, and during our individual interviews we addressed any questions she had about our answers as well as filled in any gaps that were unclear.

This was the portion of our home study that I felt our social worker gathered the most information about us. We knew that the homestudy would take an in depth look into family history, but we were surprised to find out how extensive it was. She were very thorough finding out information about our family members and extended family members. This information spanned from medical history to lifestyle choices to illegal activity. I think the point of it all is they want to know who our child will have contact with when he/she is a part of our family. Nonetheless, we were caught off guard how far outside of our nuclear family she gathered information and how much time we spent talking through all of that.

After we finished our interviews, we turned in our last few remaining items of paperwork. We talked through what the next steps in the process would be. Then our social worker uttered those sweet, sweet words, “you are approved!” {Praise the Maker!}

SO, what happens now? Well, the home study was probably about ⅓ of the entire adoption process. Now that we have that done, we will start submitting applications for grants and loans in order to finance the rest of this process. Then we will start applying to agencies and presenting our family profile book to birth moms which will {hopefully} lead to a match sooner rather than later!

AGH!! Things are getting real! And it’s SO exciting!!! {and a little bit crazy}. Please keep praying for us as we continue to move forward. It feels like things are moving fast, but we are trusting the Lord's timing and that He will sovereignly work out all of the details. Also, please be praying for our baby and birth mom. We don't know who they are yet, but there is a good chance that by now our child has been conceived. Pray for their hearts, health and safety. We treasure them so deeply and pray the Lord's protections over them everyday. We can't wait to know them.