First Home Study Visit

Whew...I can't believe I'm still awake.  We just finished our first Home Study Interview with our social worker, Kathy.  Jeremiah and I really like her.  She has a very quiet and calm personality.  We were both worried that we wouldn't be able to get the boys to sleep before she arrived, but all went well.  Jeremiah put Parker to bed and I read Harry Potter to Preston, and snuggled for a while and he went right to sleep.  He wanted to stay up to meet Kathy and show her his Transformers and talk to her about his "discoveries", but I promised him that he could do all of the at her next visit. 

Kathy talked with us a lot about attachment issues and bonding.  She said that our baby will most likely be at least 9 months old, but it is more than likely that by the time we travel to China and get home she will be about 13-14 months old.  She shared with us a lot of cultural resources and playgroups that will be helpful for our daughter to have others to connect with who are adopted and who are also Chinese.  

We have several things to complete before she can complete our Home Study.  Right now we are working on employment verification letters and medical exams.  We are in the process of trying to find a family doctor in Jackson County so that we don't have to drive all the way to Lawrenceville.  Jeremiah is going to check with our insurance company tomorrow to see who we can switch to that will be in the network.  Oh, the joy of HMO's!  

We have two more appointments with Kathy this month.  We will be busy!  Keep us in your prayers as we move forward with the paper chase and Home Study.  This is a very exciting time as each day passes, we move closer to bringing home our Chinese daughter. 

Tracy

Home Study

Our Home Study interview is set for Tuesday evening. Our Social Worker called to introduce herself and set up our first appointment, which is very exciting. We were told that she would contact us about 3 weeks ago, but there were some technical problems at our agency, so she didn't get our contact information. We also had a little bit of extra paper work delayed on our end because Jeremiah and I both lived in other states besides GA, so we had to send off some additional paperwork to get Child Abuse Clearance checks.
Our Social Worker's name is Kathy. She sounds very nice. We are a little nervous since she is coming at 8:15pm. We will try to have the boys in bed by the time she arrives as she requested for our first meeting. We'll see how that goes. The next two interviews will be more of getting to know Jeremiah and I seperately, so we will meet with her together for the first interview, and then seperately for the next two. She'll also spend some time with Preston and Parker at the 2nd and 3rd interviews.
Right now, we have a couple of things on our "to-do" list before she comes. Most important is that she will check the smoke detectors, so we'll have to make sure they have fresh batteries. Mainly we will be discussing how to prepare for adoption and how to prepare the boys for their adopted sister.
Today I brought Preston's baby scrapbook to work with me to share with some friends. It was so sweet looking back on his tiny little baby pictures. The time just flew by. The best part was reading little notes that I had jotted down. I found a note that I had written one day. It goes like this..."Mommy I need your cell phone so I can call my friend, Alyce". Alyce is my mom and Preston said this to me when he was just two years old.
Many people have questioned us as to why wouldn't adopt from another country with the wait being so long to adopt from China. The wait is about 36 months (this could change anytime), but we are very busy working parents with two young boys to chase after. 36 months doesn't seem like a long time to wait for our precious daughter. God knew this baby before she was even formed in her birth's mothers womb and he had already chosen us to be her forever family. So for those of you who wonder why we don't mind the wait, I hope this answers your questions.
Love,
Tracy