Home Study - check!

Us, finishing up our last home study meeting today at the bagel shop.

For the past month, we have been meeting with our social worker at a nearby bagel shop, and as of today, we have completed all of our required meetings and turned in all of our paperwork for the home study.

For anyone out there getting ready to go through this process, it's really not as scary as you think!  We actually had five contacts with our social worker for a total of about 6.5 hours.  She was not out to get us.  She is on our side and wants to present us in an accurate but favorable light.

The first visit took place in our home.  It was short and quick.  We just introduced ourselves and talked about what drew us to adoption.  The second contact was an individual interview with Jeremy, and the third meeting was an individual interview with me.  We just talked about our childhoods and our family members.  The fourth meeting was with both of us as a couple again, and we mostly talked about parenting, attachment, special needs, and expectations for adoption.  In our last meeting today, we talked about our marriage, our faith, and the values we plan to instill in our child.

That's it!  Now, we wait on our social worker to type up the pages and pages of notes she wrote about us.  She will be the one recommending that we are ready and able to adopt a child.  Once she types up the home study, several people at our home study agency will review it carefully making sure it meets all of Bulgaria's requirements and making sure it is error-free.  Then, we will send the completed home study along with a few other documents (this is called the Dossier) to our placing agency, and they will send everything off to Bulgaria.

Our AGCI case worker assures us that we are doing great, that we are almost done, and that the worst is behind us.  I sure hope so!  

Thanks for reading,

Shelly