Today I am going to mail off the documents for our home study. We have had them a very long time and it feels really good to get them out.

They include:

a) background checks for every place we have lived in for the last 5 years (a hem that’s 3 different states and about 5 different houses/apartments)

b) 15 page-questionnaire about how we are going to raise our child (lots of technology maybe a pet robot). It had really great questions on it like why we were adopting, what religion we are gonna rase our kid, our relationships with our family etc.  They asked about how our lives were gonna change after the kid was here. Andy’s answer was the best “less HBO more Nickelodeon”. Yup. That sums it up.

c) Medical clearance from our doctor- which included a HIV, Hepatitis, TB and Syphilis test. I told Andy that I hoped to finally pass these tests and he reminded me that these are the ones that I hope to actually fail. Thankfully we flunked with flying colors- we don’t have any communicable diseases.

d)  Finanicial disclosure form

e) Job verification (for those of us who have one)

f) and other random docs (directions to our house, copies of our marriage license and birth certificates etc.).

We also had to get 4 letters of recommendations from our friends. Our friend Marie’s daughter decided to put in her own letter to the adoption agency which totally made me cry my eyes out because it was so sweet. After all that is in (the longest part is the background checks and I think ours are especially complicated). We get assigned a social worker and begin our parenting classes. We meet with the social worker once each individually and then she comes over and makes sure our house is kid safe. Which it should be by then. Fortunately we live in a house that once had kids living in it- so we have some stuff already in place. It feels weird to kid proof a house when the idea of having a kid can still be a year off. I am happy to do it- but it does seem sort of strange. I would feel more comfortable kid proofing closer to when the kid comes home. It feels like bad mojimbo to get it done so early in the process. But I digress… nothing like sending out a giant package of paperwork to make you feel like you accomplished a lot during the day!