God is really serious about teaching me about waiting for His timing. Like, really serious. I was again waiting, waiting, and waiting for our last step, the home study. As I mentioned in my last post, literally waiting in the waiting room at my doctor’s office. If that doesn’t say WAIT, I don’t know what does.
Once that last piece of paper was turned in, we were told we would have to finish those last three classes before we could begin that last step. But we had an unexpected blessing and the agency allowed us to start the home study process while taking the classes because we had turned everything else in! I was so pumped (particularly about NOT having to wait) and it made getting that last piece of paper even more pressing.
Our agency assigned us a social worker, Jessica, and we could not be more blessed to have her! We scheduled our first home study session as soon as she had a free moment. The home study process consisted of three visits including interviews and the inspection of our home. Remember all of that paperwork we had to do way back at the beginning? Well that came back to haunt us (wink, wink).
In our first session, Luke and I had an interview with Jessica at our home. We talked through the first packet and went over general life information together. It wasn’t invasive or uncomfortable. That interview lasted about an hour to an hour and half. I would say it was a nice time (at least for us) of Jessica getting to know us and who we are as a couple.
In my head I was planning out when we would have each session and I wanted it to be every other week. I probably bugged Jessica a bit during this process, trying to schedule these meetings, but she is so nice I doubt she’d say if I did! I was racing a clock in my head all the time! It was crazyville. Very shortly after our first interview we had our second. This one was a LOT more awkward and my overshare-r came right on out. In that meeting, we had individual interviews with Jessica and went over the dreaded Packet Two. Jessica made it as painless as possible. She was very easy to talk to. My individual interview was almost twice as long as Luke’s, as expected, at least by me!
The last session of the homestudy includes the social worker confirming she has all the information she needs and checking the house to make sure it meets all of the laws and requirements. This includes things like: having a fire extinguisher, locking up all cleaning supplies, hazardous materials, and medications, having a first aid kit, baby/toddler proofing (if you are taking this age group), working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and having rooms prepped for children (more info on this later). If you have a pool or two story there are added requirements. This isn’t an exhaustive list…I’m sure I am missing things.
Side note: Don’t stress by thinking, “what if something is missed or forgotten!?” Not to worry! While we were still in the paperwork and classes stage, our agency sent out Barb, an amazing helpful woman, who went through our home with fine tooth comb. She told us all the things we needed to do. So we had a much, much smaller list of things to accomplish, and we knew exactly what we needed to do before the home study.
We prepared the room with a twin and a crib because we imagined we would probably be getting siblings. We were open to a sibling set. P.S. if you are willing to take children ages two and under you are required to have a crib ready to go.
Once Jessica went through our house and checked off all of the things on her list, we were DONE! Our part was complete. We turned in every paper, checked off every box, completed every class and interview.
All we had to do was… you guessed it WAIT.