Our Homestudy

We have been in the midst of our homestudy process for the past two months.  Basically, it has consisted of the following: our going for an initial consultation appointment; our completing three inches of paperwork; our getting fingerprinted, investigated and background-checked; our groveling before some friends (and family) regarding their provision of reference letters; our rewarding the aforementioned friends and family with ice cream; our meeting individually with the social worker; our meeting jointly with the social worker; our inviting the social worker to come inspect our home.

Now, I’ve been a parent for a while now (and some might even argue that I’ve been a moderately good one).  However, nothing will rattle your cage like having your childhood, your marriage, your parenting techniques, your children, and your home dissected scrutinized studied. 

I was telling the boys the other day that the social worker would be coming to our house on Monday (tomorrow).  I said, “Hey guys, in a few days an adoption helper will be coming to our house to check it out and make sure it’s a good place for a baby to live, and she’ll want to get to know us to make sure we can be a good family for a baby.”  Our eldest son said, “Well, I hope we’re a good family for a baby because we already have a baby.”  Good point. 

I went on to say, “When the adoption helper is here, I want you guys to do your very best job of being respectful.  She will have some questions for you, so look at her eyes when you are talking to her.  Use your kind words.”  Our three year-old  added, “Yeah, and don’t say potty-talk like ‘underwear, poopy, and toot’”.  I stopped him there, before he exhausted his entire list of “potty-talk,” and agreed that he was right on track regarding the impropriety of such language in this situation.  So there you have it…I don’t know what the social worker is going to ask the kids, but I’d say there’s about a 50% chance that they work some type of bathroom reference into their answer.

Seriously, we invite and appreciate your prayers for the visit tomorrow afternoon.

Sarah