Step 3: Home Study, The Home Visit

We had our final home study meeting, and this one was at our house.

We have a nice house. It was built in the 1950s, and has been well maintained. We aren't super handy or anything, but if something needs done, we take care of it. I go back and forth between loving and hating the house, but for the most part love it. I only hate it when something is wrong with it that costs money. I have even grown to love our tiny galley kitchen.

However, when someone is coming to tour your home and speak with you in it, your home immediately becomes the most disgusting place you've ever seen, and you spend days, even weeks preparing for a ten minute tour. (When I say "you", I mean "me".)

I seriously started deep cleaning eight days before our visit. The nursery being in such disarray was not helping matters. I finished the nursery (for the most part) the day before our visit.

I had divided up the chores between us and started on my own. Unexpectedly (since he hasn't been sick in three years) Josh came down with the flu. Not the puke-and-feel-better flu, the I-can't-do-anything-but-lay-on-the-couch-for-days flu. So add that to my pile of stress.

When the time finally came, our social worker couldn't find our house. If you've ever tried to come to our house before, I think you've probably done the same thing. We have the most passable house in the world. We know we have ordered pizza too much from the same place when the delivery vehicle arrives on the first try. So anyway, I called her and helped be her GPS and navigated her into the driveway.

Source

Josh and I were required to take the PREPARE/ENRICH test to determine if we're compatable as husband and wife and as parents. I would think the past ten years would be a compatability test enough, but whatever. We do what we have to do. We found out that in fact we are a good match and scored in the highest bracket possible. Go us.

We discussed the results of that for an hour and then talked about our final homework page. Josh always complains about filling the paperwork out, so I always tell him to just write whatever he's thinking, even if it is sarcastic. It is how he feels and he should write it.

One of the questions was: "What experience do you have with newborns?".

Josh's answer: "I have held a few".

So she recommended we check out a parenting class. Ha.

She asked me a lot about infertility and how I handled it. It was really a short and easy visit, not at all worthy of the panic I was feeling leading up to it.

We took a walk around the house, said a few more things, and she left.

Before she went though I asked her what happens next. She told us that our part is done. We have put in the time and effort required of us, and now we sit back and wait. She will begin our final report next week and it will be finished mid-January. I asked if mid-January is when we will find out if we're approved. She said that we haven't had any red flags or anything to worry about this far, and that her report in January will just be the official approval, but that we are unofficially approved now.

So I'm still waiting for the weight to be lifted off of my chest. I'm still in panic/survival mode. I know that I can relax, but my body won't let me yet. I'm planning to give it another go tonight on the couch not doing anything. Heck, maybe I'll read like I used to.

Now that the worst part of this is out of the way, we just wait for SuperBaby's arrival. We can't wait.

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