Homestudy: Part One

Our first homestudy visit was Friday. It puts us one step closer to the end. Our social worker confirmed that it could be twelve months before we receive a referral. I suspected this was the case, based on the reports I was reading on the website, but it still didn’t making hearing it fun.

When I talk to people, I am always amazed at how frightened prospective parents are of their homestudy. With our first son, I didn’t go through this fear because I had done it when my sister was adopted. I thought my sister’s social worker was going to be a cross between Zeus and Hercules. She held all the power. I was sure that if I didn’t come off as the perfect child, she would deny me a baby sister. Because my parents remained so active in the adoption community and they became good friends with my sister’s social worker, I had lost most of my anxiety with the process by the time I started my own.

This time was pretty relaxed. We have the same social worker so we didn’t have to get used to someone new. I told our social worker that I’m going to miss the homestudy process. We told my son that she was coming and he cleaned his room without complaint. We’re talking spotless.

Our second visit will be in about a week and then the waiting game begins. It’s absolutely amazing how much of the adoption process is waiting.