Drumroll please...OUR HOME STUDY HAS BEEN COMPLETED!!!! 43 days from first home visit to now and 6 months 2 weeks and 1 day after our case was first assigned to a worker, I was finally able to go and sign our completed home study. Our caseworker decided to do two separate home study reports so we can both feel included in the process, but with our full histories in one another's and the only diffence is the order the names will be listed in. She emailed us Monday with my report to have the two of us read over, check for accuracy and send back to her. In totality it's 36 pages of background info, interviews, financial info, pictures and child preferences. The best part was getting to the very end of the home study report and seeing the following:
"... it is the recommendation of [agency] that the following course of action be taken on this placement/license:
Adoptive Home:
(X) Approve
( ) Denied"
Not gonna lie, I definitely cried. Tears were both from joy and relief that this part is over and we can finally move forward. I was even a total geek and screen-printed the screen so I can scrapbook it. (Mama S is fairly sure I've lost my marbles on that part, oh well!) I didn't tell Mama S that we had been approved until after she got home from work, and she was thrilled, though still thought I was cute for crying (again). We knew nothing was official until it had the necessary signatures, but we were finally getting close. Then, yesterday we were told by our case worker that we just needed one more document signed and notarized and we would be good to go, which we had done today. I called her to let her know, in case she had to arrange a meeting before we proceeded. Instead, she told me I could go ahead and come down to the office to sign the papers, as she was done with my report. (The sooner we had one completed the sooner we could inquire about a child/children.)
So, now we are all signed, sealed and complete. In the next few days we'll receive info on where to place inquiries on kids and the process is rather tedious from here, but we both feel comforted knowing that it means we won't be rushed into adopting a child that may not thrive in our family. Between now and finding a child there are many things we can do to become the best family possible for our potential kiddos by attending trainings and meetings on adoption. As it stands, our worker has us registered for an all day workshop she will be teaching called "Adoption 101/102", where we'll learn more about what to expect from a child coming out of foster care and how to care for them in an appropriate way given the traumas they have experienced previously. The class is only offered once in a blue moon, so when she told us about it we cleared out schedules and signed up immediately. I know it's going to be heavy content, but I can't wait to better prepare ourselves for our kids.
In closing, I have to say it feels so good to know that I can say "our kids" and know that us becoming a family isn't just a pipe dream, that it's finally coming to us. We still have a ways to go, but we're finally getting somewhere along the path. I also have to say, we couldn't have gotten so far without the support of our family and friends. Thank you all for all your love, support and shoulders when this road got rocky. You all mean the world to us and we can't wait for the day when we can tell you that our family is growing.
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