Home Visit Report

Yawn! Well, this was the morning. After a night of cleaning...and staying up to get dough to rise for the "Homestudy Cinnamon Buns" and a morning of anxious preparations...well, the home visit is completed. She came at 9, just as we were serving up the Cinnamon buns. It started with the tour - main floor, back deck, basement, office, upstairs bedrooms and bathroom. So that took about 3 minutes. I guess it takes a social worker looking over your shoulder to realize all the places where wires are exposed in our house (and there are a lot). I think our next major home improvement project will revolve around recovering our electrical box, and putting the light switch boxes back in the walls, etc. :)

We sat down at the table to talk. First question, so what are you going to do about a baby's room? Paul's response was "we are not doing a baby's room!" We discussed that our idea has been to keep the guest room as such and have the baby in our room through infancy. It is our hope that as they grow, maybe Paul will build a crib, or we will buy a crib and then have a guest room/toddler room. Of couse I didnt mention any of that and didn't think out how this would sound, but now I envision her saying to herself "they don't want to give the child a room?" Next question, so will you send your child to the Catholic school? "Well, we were thinking about homeschooling." (now I am thinking she thinks we are nuts) Paul explained his rationale, "I went to Catholic school and the theology was just off a bit and I know at public schools they usually just get this unnecessary stuff, we want to teach our children the truth." I followed up that we are not sure yet about schooling. :)

And then down the line comes the question of accepting a child of a different race or nationality. She asks "will you incorporate your child's customs into your family?" Should I give the response from the man who regularly sings "I am proud of my polish heritage!" After he explained the biblical idea of full inculturation into the family, I added that I have an eclectic background and do bring new traditions to the family. When she asked for questions, I decided not to mention anything yet about considering adoptive breast feeding. Enough nuttiness for one day!

Okay - so now I am busy reflecting on what we could have or should have said. Honestly, it was a good visit. I know that she can see we both so excited to welcome a child into our house and lives. Though I keep feeling the need to explain why we aren't "baby ready" - but she has done this for 16 years and probably knows. She said there is no reason we won't be approved. We still have to attend the adoptive parent panel, which will be held towards the end of September...and she needs to write up our homestudy report for approval. She thinks that our profile will be ready to be shown in October. We won't know when our profile is being shown - unless it is a circumstance that would require our approval. So - that is the update. Thanks to all for the prayers!!