Home Study visit #2

2 hours of LOTS of questions!
It was me by myself, Richard will have a separate one of the same next week.
At later points, talks with me & Richard together, actual inspection of the home, as well as talks with the kids.

Wyatt went down for a nap right before she arrived,
Brett went to his friend Lewis' house,
and Matthew was unexpectedly home sick from school (but kept quiet and very happy with new Lego set!).

Questions started with my childhood, relationships with friends, family, and of course Richard.

At one of the next meetings she will need to talk to the kids (well, maybe not so much with Wyatt), and that it was better to talk to them with adoption having been discussed. I had thought we might wait a while longer, seeing how we aren't planning on it actually happening for a while, hopefully sometime next year. So anyways, she suggested we tell them.

And after she left today I told Matthew. He was fine with it, as long as a sister doesn't like Hannah Montana (which would apparently be the worst thing in the world). And then when Brett got home, Matthew informed him. Neither was shocked. I suppose it seems entirely abstract to them, especially when I told Brett it would probably happen after he's already done with Kindergarten (even Kinder starting seems forever away for him).

Wyatt will just be happy to not have to accessorize with pink floral.

The (other) first gift!

Oops!
JD & Andrea actually sent two baby girl gifts!

I opened the package and immediately thought of putting them both on Wyatt. Since he's a bit larger than the onesie (and would have fought it), I didn't.

But there was an adorable headband too....that I saved to put on him (he was napping) for a photo!

Forgot to last night, but here he is (fighting it):

First baby gift!!!

Today in the mail our first pink baby gift arrived!

It was from....

ANDREA & J.D.!!!!!

Thank you!!!

And telling more parents...

Sunday afternoon was spent at a BBQ at DarDar's house. Blue Tiffany&Co bag tucked away in back, so no one would see or suspect.

But part way through the afternoon the bag was brought out. An announcement was made. Everyone was happy & excited for us.

Still oblivious to the bag beside her...
Telling his mom what's going on, and excitement on their faces :)
Time for more champagne!

Home study

Most of yesterday was spent cleaning. By the boys, me, and Richard. Everyone was doing their part, and the house looks good!

The home study is an evaluation of us. Of the home, our family, our kids, our goals. Everything. Before any type of adoption can take place, we need to have a completed home study. In doing that, we have been assigned a social worker who will walk us through this portion of the adoption. She will be the one to evaluate and counsel us, and finally (hopefully) approve us.

Today was the first visit by the social worker that we will be working with.

I've heard horror stories about having your house inspected top to bottom, and I was a bit nervous. Also heard the opposite, where it's a breeze and nothing to stress over. Thankfully, this was the latter of those.

So Richard came home mid-morning. Wyatt went down for a perfectly planned nap (and slept throughout!!), and Brett got to go to Legoland with Aunt Dona for some fun time!

The social worker, Lori, was great; we spent an hour and a half discussing lots of things. Reasons behind wanting to adopt, and our views on various things. Also spent a lot of time on paperwork. Many forms to sign. Many forms to have competed by others (doctors, the kids' teachers, etc). And a large check at the end :)

We meet again in two weeks, where Richard and I will both talk to her again. Separately and then together. And then at some point she'll be chatting with the kids, seeing what the dynamics are (slightly nuts, but hopefully approve-able!).

More family to tell this weekend...

Telling some parents...

We told some of the parents!
Had Gramz & Grandaddy up on Sunday for dinner.
Let them in on it!
Confused, shocked, happy were some of the things (I think) were going through their heads.

We got to serve pink champagne (Chandon...not bad!!), and present them with the Tiffany bag!

Next up is social worker on Thursday.
Mostly talking, discussing, all of that. No clue how much of the house she'll need to go through. But we talked for about 20 minutes yesterday, and it went really well! She's going to help us determine if we want to go international or domestic. Leaning towards one...but we'll see!!

Fingerprinting

So the first part of the adoption process is home study. We're evaluated as a family. Our home is looked over. Fingerprinting done to check for child abuse & felonies.

The fingerprints can take up to (or even over) 2 months to be processed. So we received the forms in the mail yesterday and went to the livescan center to have them done!

2 sets needed for each of us, one for FBI, and one for California Dept of Justice (DOJ).

Had the phones with us, so I grabbed some photos :)

waiting for everything to be entered into computer

Getting Richard done :)

2 golden retrievers "helping"