Home Study visit #2

Between home study visit #1 and #2, Future Dad and I had to write an autobiography. These things took forever! We worked for several hours trying to get all the information typed up. The page with the requirements of things we needed to include was 5 pages long. The other unfortunate thing was that we each had to do our own. It was really hard to stay so focused through the process because it was just so exhausting. To relive all your life and try to think of examples to match the questions was emotionally draining.

Alas, the autobiographies were finished and sent off to be analyzed. During our 2nd visit, we had individual meetings with our social worker. My meeting was fine. She asked lots of questions about my autobiography and she told us all the things we needed to have finished BEFORE meeting #3. The awesome thing is that we had everything done already with one exception. We had to type up some answers to questions regarding adopting internationally. All our education and reading was already finished !!

Whoop Whoop!

Our 3rd home study visit is next week, Tuesday afternoon. This one is talking about our parenting philosophy and theories. We don't know what those are, but hopefully this process will solidify some of those practices.

Tomorrow we are going to a benefit concert for our agency and CHRISTY NOCKLES is singing!

Here is my new favorite of her's:

Waiting for you! My babies: I'm waiting for you!

Home Study #1 Success

NOTE: This post was supposed to be published January 23rd. I just realized that I scheduled it to post January 23, 2014! HA! So from now on, pretend this posted 3 weeks ago!

Monday was our first home study meeting. I'll start off by saying, it was a huge success.

Now, back up to Thursday. We got the email asking if we could do the home study visit on Monday at 10:30. We agreed, knowing that we would be out of the house from Friday morning until Sunday at 1:00 P.M. We were working with our youth during the D-NOW weekend. It was totally amazing and we even had 2 girls in our group profess faith for the first time. I was paired up with this young woman named Jules. She is a sophomore at Samford University in Birmingham. She was the bible study leader for the weekend, and I was the chaperone. It was very fun. God knew what he was doing when he paired us.

(The best DNOW group ever! Love the 8th grade girls! P.S. Jules is the one at the top of the stairs.)

Jules has 2 adopted sisters, so she has been through this process before. She volunteered to come over and help us clean for a few hours after DNOW was over. I hesitated at first, but then decided to take her up on the offer. She said it was her way of helping our adoption. It was the most selfless thing I've ever had done for me by a complete stranger. Jules had known me for 2 days before she came and dusted my entire living room.

I'm also extremely grateful for all the people that volunteered to come help. Thank you.

Sunday night, Future Dad and I went to Lowes to buy cabinet locks, a carbon monoxide detector, outlet covers for 2 of our outlets and more cleaning supplies. When we got home, I tried to install the cabinet locks and failed. Had to get Future Dad to teach me how to drill pilot holes to screw the latches on.

Monday, I got up and ran with a co-worker, then took Keller to the vet for her yearly rabies shot. I got home just in time for a shower before our caseworker and her intern showed up.

(FYI: I opted for dark skinny jeans, a long sleeved red t-shirt, a cream puffy vest and my brown leather boots.)

The actual conversation went well. She asked lots of questions about our marriage and family, then walked around and took a look at our house. She asked us where our fire hydrant was. Luckily we bought one several weeks earlier off WOOT!

In the end, everything went well. Future Dad was excited and talkative. I, of course, talked too much. I get so excited that I ramble on and on. I'm sure we could have finished an hour earlier if I had more concise answers. 

The only thing that was a shock to me was how little she looked around our house. She leaned her head in every room, but she didn't walk into many. It was very relaxed. 

I am grateful for Lifelife and their staff. 

Homework: Each of us have to write an autobiography. The page of bullets with the info that we have to cover is 5 pages long. I can only imagine how long our autobiographies will be.