HOMESTUDY UPDATE

We had our social worker over to our house on Thursday at 1:00pm and the homestudy went awesome!! I am so glad that meeting is over, and I am very glad about how sparkling and uncluttered my house is! Lance and I took the opportunity to purge many things in the cleaning up process for the garage sale we had on Saturday, more about that in a bit. I wasn't too nervous about meeting our social worker, because I have met her twice before. I may or may not be that crazy lady, who wouldn't put forms she needed in the mail, knowing she wouldn't get it until tomorrow, when i wanted it in her hands today. So I would drive them to her home office instead. It was wonderful to see her again. 


We started with a walk thru of our house. She needed to see all the rooms and bathrooms and then requested to see the evacuation plan, which i posted inside a cupboard in the kitchen. She also checked to make sure we had our fire extinguisher, and in all my craziness didn't pay close enough attention to the "class" it needed to be, and bought the wrong one, bummer, have to go back to Walmart! Checked for first aid kit, and smoke alarms. Apparently you can't just have one smoke alarm outside of the all three rooms of our house (live in an older ranch style) they require you to have a smoke alarm in every bedroom a child sleeps. So we need to pick a couple of those up to when at Walmart, too. After the walk thru we sat down in the living room, signed many forms and then chatted about what to expect in the process ahead of us, which I think was so good for Lance to be able to hear it all at once and ask questions. I feel like I am consumed with the details of the process all the time because I am in touch with so many other mom's going thru it too, Lance doesn't typically have the same opportunity. 


It was more of an afternoon of conversation! Lance and I had each had about a 20 minute interview one on one. We went over with Bev, the part of the homestudy we wrote. I was surprised after my full on meltdown while writing the autobiography, because I had writers block, and felt like it was all choppy and hard to understand...apparently was just what she needed! She said I gave her a lot of information to work with. So, we have a couple to dos this week to get the final couple papers needed to her to be able to finish the home study. She is out this week, so won't be able to work on it at all (boo). She said that next week, she should have a draft for Lance and I to review before she sends it to Susan, our placing agency contact. So hopefully in the next 2-3 we can issue the homestudy!!!! I am learning that things always seem to take longer than you want...i just need to get used to it. 


So all in all the homestudy was great. I am relieved that part is over, because every step completed is one little step closer to Rush.


Next step on our plate is once we get the homestudy issued we will send it along with an application and some supporting documents to USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services) to be processed. This step will approve us federally as adoptive parents and allow us to bring an international child back as a US citizen. This step I have heard can take 1-2 months to process. Once processed you will get your "golden ticket" which is the approval form. While we will be waiting for our application to be processed, we will be gathering MANY documents that need to be signed, notarized, and apostilled (Secretary of State golden seal sticker that validates that the notary that signed your documents is a valid notary). Once we have all the papers needed and the "golden ticket" we will be able to send the packet to Rush's country to be processed and approved on that side as adoptive parents. Once they process that paperwork, we will get a date to go visit our baby girl!!!!!


Little baby steps closer, slowly knocking things off the list. I feel pretty good considering we are really only 5 weeks into the process!