Yesterday, we had our last home study visit! It was the first time our social worker came to our home and the first time she met the children. I will admit that I was a wee bit nervous. I wasn't concerned about the house (although I did take the opportunity to do some spring cleaning beforehand), but I was concerned about the children's behavior- namely Nathan. He can be a wild card at times. As it turned out, the kids mostly did fine. After the initial excitement of having a visitor, they settled down and pretty much left us alone until the very end, when Nathan thought he should receive some attention from the social worker. We filled out a few more forms and did some talking. Our social worker had a few questions to clarify some things and then we took her on a tour of the house. Caetlyn was doing her homework throughout the visit, but she did chime in quite a bit. She even asked some questions. I think this visit made the adoption process more real for the children.
Our social worker expects to have our home study document completed in about 2 weeks. We have one slight wrinkle (get used to it, right?)- our IL background checks have not come back. They typically take up to 6 weeks, which would be April 11, so they are still within the expected time range. Still, our social worker contacted them to make sure the requests had been received and she was unable to get a response. She went ahead and re-submitted the requests by a different route just to be sure. She cannot complete our home study without those background checks!
Once the home study is finished, she will send us a draft to look over. Then, it will go to our adoption agency, followed by her supervisor and the state of IL. I pray that this approval process goes smoothly! We will be celebrating when this big step is complete!
In family news, our son turned 5 this week. He is now a whole hand! I will close with a picture of him opening one of his gifts.
1 comment:
PROGRESS!!!! Home study will be done before you know it!
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