The Homestudy

Boy - there has been nothing in this process that caused me more angst than the word homestudy. The idea that someone I don't know would look through all of our paperwork - look at the answers to all of those questions - look through our financial statements - look at our house - and make a decision about whether or not we would be allowed to be parents - scared the crap out of me!! I really did have a lot of anxiety. I didn't sleep well during that whole process.

The homestudy with our agency had three parts. 1) Jay and I met together with Jeannie (our social worker) 2) Jay and I met separately with Jeannie 3) Marie came to our house to meet with us. #1 and #2 were at Mary Kendall's office in Owensboro.

The first thing that stressed me out was that we were basically paper ready for our homestudy in February. Because of the visits that we had to do, and they were done during the week, we had to wait to have our homestudy until Jay was done with session. This made me mad at first - but I soon realized that it just meant that our little guy wasn't going to be ready for us in March.

Jay and I went to Owensboro (about a 2 1/2 hour drive) one morning and met with Jeannie that afternoon. We soon (ok - maybe me - I don't think Jay was as stressed as I was) learned that Jeannie wasn't a mean, scary person!! (really Jeannie!!) The first meeting with her went really well. She went over lots of information with us on what our process would be like, she gave us a huge binder with lots of articles to read, and she asked us some questions. We then spent the night in Owensboro, and then went back the next morning for our individual meetings.

About a week later, Marie came out to our house. I was very stressed about this part also. I tell you, my house had never been that clean. I cleaned out closets (especially our closet - which was a mess - but really looked good this spring), underneath the sinks in the bathroom, corners, baseboards - you name it. I don't know why I was stressed so much. We gave Marie a tour of the house. She brought some more things for us to read, she asked us some questions, and we chatted for a bit. It was fine!! As she was leaving I kind of wanted to ask her if she wanted to come look at my closet and underneath the sink!! :)

Everyone I talked to before the homestudy told me to not worry about it - and I knew that deep down - but it was still stressful. I'm glad that part is over. I'm now not worried about the post-placement meetings. :)