Home Study: Part One

As many of you know, we are in the process of applying for our second adoption.  We are very excited about the idea of expanding our family.  This time around has been tricky!  We have gone through a lot just to get all of the proper paperwork completed, physicals done, fingerprints done, etc.  We hadn't even gotten to the Home Study yet!  Well, today we FINALLY started the Home Study!  WHOO HOO!!  Those close to us know that we have been getting our house cleaned up and pulled together for this meeting.  I was asked a number of times by friends or family about what this process includes.  So here goes...

If you want a definition of a home study, you can check out Wikipedia.  I normally do not think that Wikipedia is a reliable source of info, but after looking at it, it is pretty accurate.  But what did it look like for the Stape fam?  Well, we filled out TONS of paperwork, had our fingerprints/background check done twice, health physicals done twice, recommendation letters sent in, financial and tax info handed over, checks written,  drug tests taken twice, more paperwork filled out, paperwork refilled out when they changed the forms, etc.  Today was the first of our interviews with our social worker, Faith.  (Interesting that her name is Faith, huh?  Gotta have a lot of faith in this process!)

Faith arrived at our house this morning.  Yes, we cleaned our house like crazy people yesterday and today.  Even put Joel's sister and her kids to work last night.  (We invited them to dinner....and then put them to work.  :) Thanks, Gyolai's for always helping us out!!  We owe you big time!!)  Our house is cleaner than it was when we first moved in! It will be nice if we can keep it this way!

Faith sat down with us to go over a bunch of questions and paperwork that we have previously filled out.  We talked about things like our community and the racial make up of it, safety, location of schools, hospitals, fire stations, police departments, size of our lot of land, size of our house, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, bedrooms, bathrooms, Gus' preschool, employment, openness to children and what we are willing to accept, adoption education, family profiles, letters to birthparents, contracts and finances.  In addition to this, Faith took a tour of our house.  She took notes about what our house was like, what we had in each room, etc.  Gus was really excited to show of his bedroom to her.  Showed her his books and the pond out the window.  She of course, oohed and ahhhed over it all for him.  When she looked at my office, we got on the topic of Thirty-One.  (She LOVES Thirty-One!  I see that as a bonus!!)  Then came the bad part....the poor lady looked in our garage and in our basement!  YIKES!!!  Both are what we consider storage units!  So much junk stored in both of those places it is no wonder she didn't get lost!  Oh well....that is life!

We have our next meeting scheduled with her for next Thursday.  Stay tuned to what the rest of this process looks like!

Pinterest

Perhaps you have heard of this thing called Pinterest.  Besides reading blogs, this is what I do after Gus goes to bed.  Some people read a good book before bed....I read blogs and pin.

If you haven't heard of pinterest, you definitely need to check it out.  It is my new crazy obsession....much to my husbands dismay!  This site is essentially a social network to share ideas on EVERYTHING!  I have currently found 2000+ ideas to "pin" on my boards.  2000+ things that I want to try or I want to remember or that I want to share with someone else because they might like it.  At the rate I am going, I am going to end up on a special edition of the tv show, "Hoarders".  They will have "Hoarders: Pinterest Edition" just for me.  I cannot get enough of the ideas that are on there.  So many great ideas out there in the world and I just want to soak them all up!!  I have actually done quite a few of these already.  There are so many other things I plan to try this summer.

If you recall, one of my other favorite things to do is read blogs.  One of my favorites is the terpblog.  I have known this blogger since high school.  She is a great Thirty-One customer of mine and just recently allowed me to be part of her first blog give away.  Who doesn't love FREE Thirty-One stuff??  Anyway, the terpblog co-hosting a Pinterest Link Up.  So if you love blogs and love Pinterest like I do, you need to check this out. Lots of great bloggers and pinners!  Lots of great ideas!!

Beautiful Adoption Story

So I logged in tonight to write a new post.  Whenever I log in, I quick scan the many blogs that I follow and check out what others have to say.  I ran across this blog tonight. And after reading her post, I looked around her blog for a minute and thought I would check out the adoption story.  I had been reading her blog for a while and never noticed the tab with their story.  I will warn you....it will make you cry.  I mean all out, snotty, hyperventilating type of crying...or maybe that is just me.  Thank goodness I am home alone right now and nobody else can see this blubbering mess!!  Just a beautiful story that I wanted to share with others.  Check it out....and their blog!  She has some good stuff!!  Check out Rage Against the Minivan.

When I remember what I was going to write about, I will come back....if I don't get sidetracked by some other really cool thing.

Let the fun begin!

School ended yesterday!  I am officially on summer vacation!  There are so many super fun things that we will be doing this summer but there are also some things that desperately NEED to be done!!  We have been in this house for over a year now, we have out-of-state friends coming to visit us (WHOO HOO!!!) and we have our adoption home study.  Many reasons to get this house in order.  For those that know me, know that I like to make color-coded lists.  Organizing my organization.  Tomorrow it will all begin.  Watch out boys....we have work to do!!