Home Study

So, I'm just now having time to update the blog..... still quite a bit behind. Hopefully, I'll catch up before we have a baby in our house.

On August 29th, Brent & I had our Home Study visit with our Social Worker. If you've ever watched the movie "Juno" & saw how Jennifer Garner's character prepared for the match visit, you will know what I went through on 8/28. Shannon came over & helped me clean the house from top to bottom. We worked for hours getting everything just like I wanted it. I couldn't have done it w/o her!!!! So much was going on that week - school starting, finishing profile, home study, & Kara's baby shower. I thought my brain was going to explode!

Once Friday got there, Brent & I went out to a nice, relaxed lunch w/ Mary to pass the time. We met with Jennifer at 2pm. I was very nervous about the visit, b/c essentially our ability to adopt a child depended on what she thought about our home & about us / our ability to be parents. I knew there was a lot riding on the visit. Plus, we had spent weeks preparing our written profiles (~ 100 pages total) about our childhood, values, parenting strategies, etc. Some of the questions on that questionnaire were CRAZY........ I mean, really, it's hard to know how you're going to discipline your child when he/she is 16 y.o....... That's a long time from now, & I'll be MUCH older!!!!

The visit w/ Jennifer went extremely well. It only lasted ~2.5 hours. She is pregnant with her 2nd baby, so I ended up feeling very comfortable talking to her about being a mom. The cats even behaved!!! Of course, Bowman had to come out & prance around in front of her so she would know he is the "king" cat of the house....... not for long though - he's going to have issues when the baby finally comes home!

Right before Jennifer left, she said good bye & gave us a big hug. She also told us "unofficially" that we had been approved. I was not able to finish the scrapbook profiles, so my goal quickly shifted to finish them so we could start being shown as soon as possible....... Things have gone so fast up to this point! It's exciting, scary, & fun all at the same time - WHEW!!!!