Homestudy Update

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  Doug and I met with the social worker at the house a couple of weeks ago.  Her name is Helene and she was very nice and full of helpful information.  Doug and our local reference each had their individual interviews on Monday.  Both went well (or so I've been told).  I still need to have my interview and Doug and I have a few hours of online classes to finish up.  And then hopefully the homestudy report will be ready to go sometime in March!

Welcome to Our Non-Child-Proofed House!

I received a phone call from our social worker today to introduce herself and set up a time for her to meet us and see the house.  We scheduled the appointment for next Monday, since I have that day off (President's Day!).  I am super excited to meet her and find out what happens next!  Not to mention being able to pick her brain.  Since the house has already been inspected twice in the last 3 weeks, it's not really messy, but I will still be trying to clean every surface between now and Monday!

How Much Paper is in One Tree?

Well, I don't know the answer to that, but Google does.  According to the all-knowing tech company, one tree equates roughly to 90,000 sheets of paper.  While we didn't use THAT much paper to complete our homestudy paperwork, we may have come close.  So for those of you who are wondering: Just what exactly is all this paperwork? Here is your answer!

Here is what we've turned in so far:

Authorization for Release of Protective Services (Basically checking to see if we are child abusers)
Maryland Background Check
Wisconsin Background Check
Minnesota Background Check
Peru Background Check (me only)
General Release of Information
FBI Background Clearance
DMV Records Request
Home Health Inspection
3 Reference Letters (Thank you for writing them for us!)
Medical Forms and Tuberculosis Tests
Autobiography Essays
Corporal Punishment Form
Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificate
Copies of Pay Stubs
Copies of 2013 Taxes
Education Certificates (Stating that we took 10 hours of adoption parenting courses)
State Subsidy Form
ICPC Requirements Form
Confidentiality Statement
Transracial Adoption Reflection Essays
Proof of Life Insurance
Reference Form

What we are still working on:

Guardianship Forms
County Fire Marshal Home Inspection (It's a long story, but we are having issues getting all the documentation needed in order for the house to be approved)

For some of the forms, we just needed to sign it in front of a notary.  Others took longer and had us running all around Maryland.  I think the hardest part was getting Doug to write his essays!  For those of you who know him, it probably won't come as a surprise that he was still working on the essays this morning before I dropped them off at the agency!

Normally the homestudy wouldn't progress to the next stage, which is meeting with the social worker assigned to our case, until ALL of the forms are submitted.  Our agency (and especially the homestudy coordinator) however, are awesome and are letting us proceed while the home inspection gets sorted out.

I am excited to have that stack of paper out of my hands and another step completed in the adoption process.  Plus, I can't wait to see who our social worker will be!