Home Study Visit #2

Our second home study revealed an example of how small this world is - our social worker is the daughter of a grad school classmate and a cousin of another.  Nancy had followed a later-in-life dream to go back to school, even if it meant she'd be taking classes with students her children's ages.  She fit in well with her classmates and everyone adored her.  Of course I had no idea one of Nancy's children, whom she talked so much about, would some day help the husband I had yet to meet bring home a new child. 

Aside from that it's-a-small-world aha moment, the home study visit felt like another check off the long list of steps required by law.  Our interview was more a conversation about my life - my upbringing, my relationship with my parents, what I did for fun as a kid, family traditions, how I did in school, what lead me into my current career, my relationship with Chris and so on.  All the questions seemed to focus on what I had already written in my essays.  I know the whole purpose is to help our social worker get to know us better since she will play such an integral role in expanding our family, but Chris and I couldn't help but feel this home study visit was redundant.

Our third and last home study visit will hopefully take place the week after Labor Day.  I had hoped to schedule it earlier, but with Chris's work travel, our vacation plans at the end of August, and our social worker only being in the office Monday-Thursday, we couldn't fit the three visits in before we leave for New Jersey.  And I found out the home study by state law must consist of three distinct home study visits.  Hence Lindsey must come back a third time to "interview" Oliver and Soren and take a look at our neighborhood, even though she's already talked to our kids and is familiar with our neighborhood because she happens to attend the ECFE adoption class at the school down the street from our house.  (Again...small world.)

At least as soon as that third and final visit concludes, Lindsey can start writing the home study report even if we are still waiting on some final documentation needed for the home study, such as medical reports from our kids' pediatrician.  So although I'm feeling frustrated by the delay in what is already a long process that we've just barely begun, I know the end of this stage in the process will come quickly.  Lindsey needs two to three weeks to write the report and have it approved by her office.  She'll then submit the report to our agency's national office for approval and the China team will review the report to make sure it meets all the requirements of the Chinese government, a process that takes another week or two.  Once the national office approves the report, we can mark the home study process complete!