Homestudy progress

We've been working on the paperwork for our homestudy since our first visit a couple of weeks ago. This is a list of everything we have to get together to complete our homestudy:

- Official application for child placement
- copy of our marriage certificate
- copy of our current tax return
- financial statement
- letter from employer regarding job, salary, character reference and stability of future employment
- references from 5 non-relatives
- state criminal check
- FBI check
- local criminal check
- certification of state residency
- copy of traffic record
- medical release
- medical statement
- child care class
- infant CPR certification
- photo listing waiver
- questionnaire completed after reading adoption book
- fire inspection report
- assessment for child placement
- child characteristics form
- answers to questions about parenting
- child abuse clearance from all states of residency
- release of documents waiver

So you can understand why we've been so busy.

First home visit

The visit with the social worker went well! She started by saying that unless she finds something that legally prohibits her from approving the homestudy, she'll approve us. Then she did our joint interview and toured our house. We actually got a lot of good information about raising an adopted child. She also directed us to a baby care class especially for adoptive parents. This will be especially helpful because Papa_D and I don't know much about taking care of babies but I would rather not take the class in a room full of pregnant women. That's just too many questions to answer.

Now we have to fill out our paperwork, get our fingerprints done first because that takes the longest, and then schedule our second visit. After that the social worker will write the report and then we are good to go!

First home visit tomorrow

Our first visit with the social worker is tomorrow. I think she will do our separate interviews tomorrow because she mentioned if one of us had to be late it wasn't a problem. The visits (there are 2 of them) are supposed to consist of house tours, interviews separately and together, and some general conversation about the adoption process and getting ready for the baby.

Wish us luck!