First Homestudy Interview

Saturday, we had our first homestudy interview with K., our social worker. I think it went really well? But how can I tell?

I was not too nervous until Saturday morning. I did some more house cleaning while waiting for K. to arrive. Andrew thought it funny how I was nervous. He hadn't really seen me like this because I am usually more relaxed about things. Although our house looked nice and clean (we finally got the kitchen curtain up and the dust ruffle on our bed!), I followed the advice of Shelly on her blog and didn't move any heavy furniture, scrub the bath tub, or clean out the refrigerator in preparation for K. to come to our house. I finally sat down,  tried to relax, and did a little crocheting.

Then at a few minutes after ten, our social worker arrived! K. was very nice and smiled. We welcomed her into our home and all sat down in the living room. She asked us if we had and questions for her. The she asked us questions. We talked about Andrew and I as a couple, how we met, each other's strengths, what attracted us to each other initially, what we like about each other after almost three years of marriage, strengths and weaknesses of marriage, why we want to adopt, our expectations about adoption. K. also asked us about the type of child/children we were looking to adopt (age, gender, number of children, any special needs, etc.) K. recommended some local adoption professionals as resources for us.

Then K. walked through our house for a safety audit. She calmed my fears that the room we had picked out for our children's bedroom was not too small. I shouldn't have been worried about her seeing our house at all because she didn't look in our refrigerator, or check for dust bunnies in our closets or under our beds. Basically, K. just wanted to make sure our house wasn't unsafe for small children. Some of the questions on the safety audit were actually a little humorous. For example, did we have running water/indoor plumbing?

I still have a small fear that we won't get homestudy approval.   I think I am worried she will think we make too low of an income, or our house is too small, or we are too religious, or something! There is something a little scary about having someone come into your house, meet you a few times, and judge you based on that short amount of time. Our social worker has the power to say yes or no to our adoption. I need to really trust God, that if we are to adopt, our social worker, K., will approve us.

Before K. left, we scheduled our next three meetings. Andrew will meet with K. at a local coffee shop on Tuesday. I will meet with K. also at the coffee shop on Thursday. For our last meeting, we will both meet with K. on the following Tuesday.

After the first interview, we both felt a little emotionally drained and took a nap.

UPDATE:

Andrew's meeting on Tuesday with K. went well! I am not so nervous about not getting homestudy approval anymore! I will let you know how my Thursday meeting goes...