Look What I Can Do! (Home Study 1/4)

Ben —  June 5, 2015

What a rush.

After a few hours of getting to know our social worker and her assistant, and they us (all of us), our first home study is completed.

In the first hour of talking to Kim and Me, we were asked questions normally found in maybe the 2nd or 3rd job interview. These questions were personal enough to allow for some awkward and uneasy answers but we both knew by answering them as honest as possible was our only choice. We needed them to know us, for who we are as parents now and for who we will be to our future son. In all honesty, the questions weren’t really as intrusive as I expected them to be – or maybe we were both really comfortable being transparent. I’ll vote for the latter.

After they were done interviewing us we were instructed to go upstairs where our kids currently were. We then sent all three down while we waited in the bedroom for what seemed like an eternity.

We take pride in how much Kim and I let our children discover who they are on their own, but at times I hope and pray they act civilized and refrain from blurting out something they heard me or Kim say that would cause for embarrassment. This was one of those times.

As much as we both wanted to peer over the railing and try and listen to everything our children said, we knew if they knew we could hear them their answers would probably not be as transparent as the social worker had hoped or needed. So we made sure they knew we were in our bedroom, but we didn’t let them know the door was open and one of us could hear almost everything being said. I think the most embarrassing part was probably when Jack began to demonstrate to the social workers how he learned how to play his new armpit trumpet.

Perfectly normal.

Our children are so amazing, and we couldn’t be more proud about how they were able to articulate clear and “normal” answers for our social workers. We actually were able to peer into our children’s brains through this process, and hear real answers which made our hearts skip a beat because they truly are on “team Tico,” and are as excited about the adoption as we are.

The entire interview ended with us walking around the house and showing all of the bedrooms, fire alarms/extinguishers, and other safety features… along with us breathing a sigh of relief.

Next up, we need to get our GBI/FBI fingerprints done as well as continue to fundraise. Next month is going to be really busy, with a few events all throughout July, so we’ll definitely need to schedule as much as we can before then.