Our Home Study Home Visit

Hey, Y'all! We had our adoption home visit on Monday. This is one of the last parts of the home-study process. I think it went well--yay!

Tanna left work a little early to be here, and Laura, our case worker--that's her in the above photo--came over at 4 p.m. Kate slept through pretty much the whole thing because she did not fall asleep until about 3 that afternoon. I was prepared to wake her up, but Laura said it was OK to let her sleep. (She said that we all would need to be here for the home visit--but because Kate is too young to really answer any of her questions, we just let her keep on napping.)

Anyway, I had been cleaning and straightening up like a madwoman leading up to the visit. It's hard to keep a place tidy when ... A) You don't have a lot of room to begin with ... and B) You have a very active toddler. LOL! I did end up with a bum knee from being on my knees so much when I was cleaning. hahaha! It's doing a lot better now, though.

Also, I kept forgetting that Laura had asked for some specific photos of us and of our home. Fortunately, I remembered at the last minute, so I spent part of Monday morning and early afternoon ordering prints, picking them up, and mounting them on paper. I probably went a little overboard with the pictures ... but what do you expect from someone like me? ha!

I took the advice of the Internet and put some cookies in the oven just before Laura's arrival. The cookies smelled delicious--and they are a nice treat to serve, don't you think? I should have put them in a little sooner (because they weren't quite done when Laura got here), but it worked out OK.

We had a nice visit. Laura asked us several questions about our home and our community. We talked about adoption and random other things. She said that our home study should be complete and approved, etc., by the end of September, if all goes well. Lord willing, the official waiting will then begin. The average wait for a match is currently about 12 months. If that is approved, then it will be another three to six months after that before our baby would come home. Lord willing and the Creek don't rise ... as they say here in the South.

In the meantime, we have a few loose ends to tie up as well as some training to take. I also ordered a few books about adoption to read. Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers as we continue this journey.