Home Study Part 1

Preview :The nursery

This last Tuesday was part 1 of our home study with our wonderful social worker Amy. We met at Richland Hills Church of Christ for a 4 and half hour interview. It was very long, but at the same time seemed to go by surprisingly fast. She started the interview with us both in the room. We went over every detail from our paperwork regarding our future baby. She wanted to make sure that we really were ok with the things such as health issues with birth mom or birth father and things we allowed regarding the possible baby’s health issues. Nothing out of the norm, but she wanted to make sure we did not accidently say we were ok with a condition when we could not handle it. Jonathan and I are firm believers that God will give us what we can handle. I know sometimes He can give more, but we believe our baby is already chosen for us by God. So, why would we even but limits on what we can handle? Of course we had some limitations, but those limitations are private.

After we agreed to all those things she allowed some time for us to ask questions or talk through things we have been feeling. She asked us about our marriage and our families reactions to us adopting. We are also open to bi-racial children. She wanted to make sure our families were as well. Luckily for us, we both have a mixed family so it is no biggie. We have a niece, nephew, and a sister who are all bi racial and I am sure even more extended family who are mixed. In this day in age what is the big whoop anyway? Isn’t everyone a Heinz 57? If you can tell me you are 100% (insert your race here) I would probably say you are lying.

Then we split up for individual interviews. Each one lasted about one hour. Questions ranged and were exactly the questions I had posted about before. We went through our autobiographies and she asked us questions based off those. Then we talked about our marriage, our faith, discipline, strengths and weakness, and grants for adoption. The hour seemed to fly by and by the end of the day we were both exhausted. I think, for me, the hour wait while Jonathan was in his interview did me in. After the interview we both went home and were in bed asleep by 8:45. That is how exhausted we were. It was a great process don’t get me wrong, but we had been so stressed over it that we were tired.

On the plus side, Amy said that we should have NO problem adopting a baby THIS year. She says we are open to so much and it should not be much of a wait. Of course she can not be certain and can not predict this, but in her opinion we will not have to wait long. We let her know the nursery is ready for a baby. She said she could not wait to see it next Tuesday when the second part of our home study starts. She said not to go crazy cleaning and organizing because she is there to see how we live and make sure we do not have “giant holes in the floor”. Glad we do not even have small ones. ;)