We have the official homestudy

We received the signed homestudy in the mail this weekend. It is kind of anti-climactic, though. Obviously now the agency can now show our profiles to potential birth families, but it is like "now what?". We have given lots of family and friends copies of the potential birth mother letter to give to whomever they wish, so that may spark something. Also our lawyer will have copies to give to any cases that may come her way. But it is really out of our hands and in God's. I loathe waiting, especially when there is not a whole lot I can do to produce results.

But they do say good things come to those who wait!

It's Done!

Our last homestudy visit was the easiest one. We really had no changes for Lettie to make, so we just talked for a bit and she was on her way. The best part is next time she comes will be for our post-placement visits once we have the baby!

I really can't imagine having a better social worker to work with. Her middle son wants a Jeep and I think that Dave scared her out of getting him one with all of the 4-wheeling stories! We have lots in common with her. She told us she really hopes we get our baby very quickly! So do we.

We will have our paper copies of the homestudy next week. So that really means it could happen anytime!

Final Homestudy Visit!

We have a copy of the homestudy in our hands. It is just the draft, but it looks really good. Well I am guessing it looks really good, I have never seen a homestudy before.

Lettie is coming for the final homestudy visit on Thursday. We will just go over the written homestudy. Then we are done with that process!

One step closer!

Slight Delay

Tonight was supposed to be our last homestudy visit, but Lettie has been sick with the flu....so it is rescheduled to next week. Still think we will have the documents in our hands by the end of the month. Just ready to have the visits done, so I don't have to clean my house so much! Even though she only sits on the couch for an hour, I still feel the need for everything to be spotless! I guess that is a good thing overall.

Still working on the profile for the agency. I have to get a few pictures of our house and we need a good picture of us for the cover.

Meeting with Agency

Today we drove to Maryville to meet with Pam, the director of our agency. We had an informational, informal type of meeting. She gave us an overview of what happens if they match us with a birth family. The wide range of situations that arise and the wide variety of birthmothers.

Apparently we are an extremely attractive couple (she told us this like 5 times!) and are they age most birth mothers like to place their child with. Right now they have about 12 couples looking to adopt, but several have some restrictions on children (only girls, only African American, etc). We are a bit more open so that helps!

We will start making a profile book that is like a birthmother letter, but bigger and in a book form. Planning on using iLife to create a digital book and have it printed. It will be a great keepsake too!

Visit 2 of 3

We met with Lettie again last night, and now have only 1 visit left! Thankfully she actually walked through the house this time, and she thought everything was beautiful. We talked a little more about child care and about each other, but nothing crazy! She had Kyle & Kristen's and Melody & Jeff's letters, which she thought were just terrific! Thanks guys!

She comes back on March 11th, but will email us the draft of the homestudy before then so we can look over it. It will be 8-10 pages of typed "stuff." Jeez!

Next up is tomorrow when we meet with Pam at the agency.

Guessing we will be labeled as "paper pregnant" by the end of March which is soooo exciting. Because basically at that time we could have a baby any day after that!

Homestudy Visit 1 of 3

Our first homestudy visit was last night! We have 2 more to complete, with the next one next Tuesday and the last one probably 2 weeks after that.

Lettie, our social worker, was so nice. We were halfway through the visit and I kept thinking, "when are we going to start?". It was more of a conversation with a friend about camping, running, a little about growing up, and the only direct question was about discipline. She didn't even go through the house, which was very clean I might add!

The biggest annoyance to us were the dogs! Of course they acted afool, but she likes dogs and assured us they weren't bothering her. At least next week they will still be tired from being at Camp Ruff-n-More this weekend!

The last visit will be a little ways out so she can write up most of her report and get the reference letters some fabulous people wrote from Pam. We will get copies of the homestudy then to proof. After that she sends it to Pam to make sure all the required material is in place and then it is sent back to Lettie for her signature and to be notarized. We will get 3 originals in the mail.

So I think in the mean time we are going to start sending out our letters to friends and family.

Lettie said the last couple she worked with had their first homestudy visit, found a birthmother who was almost due, got their homestudy in their hands, and their baby was born the next day! If only it worked out that easy!