home study part III

today was the date of our final home study.  we prepped, we cleaned, we baby proofed, we discussed what we thought was going to be talked about, and prepared for the worst.  we had a damaged exterior window in the garage that we'd been fighting to have repaired for over a month.  we finally had a company agree to come out and repair the window today at 10am.  by 11am they still had not shown up.  will called to check in and see what was going on and was told they were on the way.  by noon we decided that might not have been the situation and by 1pm will called back.  they then informed us they'd call us back in a minute.  when they did call back they determined that i had made a mistake and that they told us they would be there at 2pm, not 10am and that now they were running late.  the social worker was due to arrive at 2:30.  i just knew that this broken window was going to be what would do us in.

our social worker arrived right on time and never said one word about the broken window.  (the window repair company ended up arriving just as our social worker was leaving and will explained to her the story about the window.  i got all worked up about nothing.)  we were nervous that our dogs were going to put on a show and paw her to death, so we elected to hold them during the entire visit.  they both ended up sleeping on our laps.  our social worker did a quick tour of the home, jotted down notes about each space, asked us questions about the rooms, our neighborhood, and how we intended on paying for the adoption.  we signed a quick agreement acknowledging that we understood that they will be as honest with us as possible, but that there are no guarantees in this process.  it was not anything that we were not already aware of and totally made sense.  before you knew it she was saying - okay, so that's it! 

i honestly had a moment of feeling robbed.  seriously?  that's it?  we're done?  yeah, seriously, really, honestly, we were done.  this entire home assessment process was so comfortable, so simple, so easy.  the worst part about the entire process was my nerves and working myself up to expect something from left field - the punch that never came.  if there is anyone out there who ever stumbles across this who is nervous about their home assessment process, please let me be the beacon of light that encourages you to REMAIN CALM and know that everything will flow smoothly and you've got nothing to worry about.  coming out from the other side, i can honestly say it was a breeze.

so where do we go from here?

we're 99% done with our profile book and we learned today that this can be copied and added to in order to create our online profile page.  once this is complete we just wait for our social worker to submit the home assessment report to us for our review, submit it back to her with any changes, wait for approval from her supervisor and the state director, and then we will receive a letter letting us know that we are officially on the list of waiting families.

i'm ordering supplies to keep busy with baby craft projects and we're planning some mini-travel trips over the weekends coming up.  we're continuing to relish in the time that we have remaining where it's just the two of us and being thankful for any morning we can sleep in or any afternoon where we can take a nap.  we're so blessed to be on this journey and cannot believe we're in the home stretch.