Home Study

Well, we officially have our paperwork completed and have our home study on the calendar! The home study is one of the most important parts of the adoption process--we can't proceed with anything until we have it completed. A social worker will come into our home, take a tour of our house, gather all of our important documents, and interview us. Then once she makes a write-up (which could take a couple of weeks, depending on how busy she is) and everything is approved, we officially start waiting to be matched with a birth family! Our home study is scheduled for next Monday (as in 4 days from now)!!

In case you are curious, here are some of the documents we needed to gather:
-copy of most recent tax return
-copy of drivers licenses
-copy of marriage certificate
-copy of birth certificate
-verification of insurance
-letter of good standing from financial institutions
-proof of employment (mine is funny since I'm self-employed)
-medical report from physician
-4 personal reference letters
-child abuse/neglect screening and police check
-FBI fingerprint check
-proof of last will and testament
-proof that our dog is current on her shots

There are times when we've been frustrated to have to go through all of this to prove that we will be good parents, but in the grand scheme of things, it's easy and well worth it. And if I was giving my child up for adoption, I would want the adoptive parents to have been fingerprinted...This process is just forcing us to be responsible parents/adults, which is never a bad thing.

I'm sure in these next couple of days I will be running through answers in my head to potential interview questions (they ask a lot of personal questions like "What would you change about your spouse?"), cleaning behind the refrigerator, baking lots of cookies, and doing other silly and pointless things to "prepare." But when it comes down to it, I have faith that no matter how eloquent we answer the questions, the social worker will see that we'll be great parents!

So this is a major step toward getting our baby. Now all we have left to do is make our profile book--another extremely important step. This is basically a photo book of our family with a letter to the birth family, and it is basically how we will get matched. My book designer self is excited about that part! But first things first...home study!