Home Study Visit

Today was our Home Study Visit. In addition to all the paper work, someone has to come out and inspect the home - make sure it's safe and that there is space for a child. With our paperwork, they gave us a Safety Handbook with suggestions on child-proofing and making a safe environment for a child. Most of it I don't think that most parents follow - but, I suppose, if we have to have a child-proof house to be approved for adoption, that's what we will do! So, we went around and put outlet covers in all the outlets. We put our medicine in a locked box. I put all my little scrapbook embellishments up on a high shelf. Put a few locks on cabinet doors and drawers. Installed smoke detectors in every bedroom as well as one carbon monoxide detector. We now have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen! We have a fire-escape route mapped out on a piece of paper and it is hanging on the refrigerator next to the list of emergency numbers and doctor information! All our garden tools are in the shed - although we don't have a door on it yet... that will come! We have hand rails for the front and back porch - they just aren't installed quite yet! And the list goes on!!

Our case worker was a very sweet lady and we felt at ease with her! She said she was very impressed with our paperwork that she had looked over. Often, the agency will highlight areas where they need more information and she said we had very few highlighted areas! She didn't go inspect everything - just asked if we had it done. She chuckled that we had actually mapped out a fire escape route because she says people rarely have that done! She looked around and said things looked good and we had plenty of space.

Also, she had a typed copy of our home study paperwork - which is a good thing, because that is part of the process that takes some time. So we could be very close to approval! We are so very excited to have this part of the process over with! Now, on to waiting for the baby!