Finishing our Adoption Homestudy!

Yesterday my husband and I met with our adoption specialist for the LAST TIME until we find a birth mother. What! I am happy to announce that we’ve completed the final step in our adoption homestudy! 
From start to finish, the process took almost 5 weeks. Although I was anxious to complete everything, the month flew by! Here’s a quick recap of our homestudy timeline:

September 16 - Attended the adoption education event.
September 21 - Met with Calli in our home for the first time. Got an overview of adoption requirements, signed paperwork, & had an interview as a couple.
September 28 - Calli came over to take the fingerprints of every member in the household.
October 8 - Finished our paperwork. Messaged Calli to set up our last appointment.
October 18 - Calli did our individual interviews & home assessment.

Many friends and family members reached out to wish us luck leading up to our home assessment. Afterwards, we were surprised by the supportive & inquisitive messages we received asking how everything went. I cannot tell you how much that meant to us! Still recovering.

So... how did everything go with our home assessment? Let me say that because we are living with my in-laws, we already had the amazing advantage of a beautiful, well-decorated home. We just needed to lightly clean, buy a fire extinguisher and carbon monoxide detector, & move our medicines and chemicals to safer heights. The walk-through with Calli was quick, easy, & non-invasive. Much less stressful than I anticipated! When she asked where certain things were located, we’d walk to a room or open a cupboard or sometimes just point in the general direction. That was that! Easy-peasy.
The individual interviews were rather painless as well. I sat with Calli first while Jk went to another room. She asked questions about my family, my childhood, etc. and I had the opportunity to tell her all about my crazy and wonderful parents and siblings. I talked about the days when my mom was a single parent raising 4 kids and working full-time; then when she remarried my awesome stepdad and we moved from sunny Florida to snowy Pennsylvania! Calli also asked how Jk and I coped with the adoption process and I was so proud to tell her that we knew without a doubt this was right for us. I expressed that I knew hard times were ahead but for now, I was nothing but excited at the thought of having a family. As for Jk’s individual interview—I wasn’t there—but he says it went well! I guess I’ll have to take his word for it. 
What’s next? Calli takes all of the forms, interviews, references, & information about us and writes up a report. She’ll submit the report to the court (by hand! How awesome is she?). Once that’s submitted, we will wait for approval of certification, which we’ve been told should take about 90 days.

In the meantime? We have been given the green light to start looking for a birth mother! Jk and I have a lot of ideas for how we will get the word out and I can’t wait to get started. We have no idea who the birth mother is or how we will find our baby, but we are so optimistic and hopeful! Despite everything we’ve been through, I know that what’s ahead is worth all the heartache we’ve experienced. I have faith that God has a plan & He’ll bring our family together.


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