Home Study Update #3: done with paperwork!

 We've finished the paperwork part of the home study and are now scheduling visits with our social worker, hooray! We're very grateful that we'll be working with the same social worker (Sandy) who helped with both Zelie's and Grace's adoption, which is so cool. She answered so many questions we had as we went through the home study process for the first time, and she met Zelie when Zelie was only a few weeks old and we had just returned from California (Zelie's birth state). And Sandy was one of the first people who found out about Grace (shortly after we found out) and met Grace shortly after we brought her home from the NICU. So she's played a special role in both our girls' lives, and we're so glad she's still working with the agency and able to meet with us again!

This portion of the home study includes three visits, in our house:

• Joint visit #1, with social worker plus us (parents and kids)
• Joint visit #2, with social worker plus parents
• Individual visits, where she meets separately with me and Dan

(So I guess that's technically four visits? But three times at our house.)

Note that one of the joint visits is also with our kids, and Sandy will ask them a few questions about the upcoming adoption. You never know exactly what our kids will say, so that should be fun! :) Zelie in particular brings up "our new baby" quite a bit. Like when she was going through a Christmas toy catalog and circling baby items "for the new baby." Or when we were voting on which movie to go see, and she said it would be great to have a third kid as a tie-breaker, ha! So it's on her mind.

We have our first visit scheduled for November 27 (Bethany's birthday, btw) and at that meeting we'll schedule the other two. It could be possible to get them done before Christmas, we'll see. And then Sandy takes all the information - the paperwork and the visits - and writes up the official home study document that approves us to adopt again.

Getting closer and closer!

As one last recap, here's what we've done so far (the paperwork portion):

• Uploaded proof of medical, life, and car insurance, 1040 tax form from 2022, and Grace's birth certificate 
• Pet license and vaccine records for Mr. Bailey 
• Fire inspection
• Fire safety survey + family emergency plan
• Autobiography updates
• Guardianship forms
• Employer / salary verification
• Certified driving records from the state 
• Medical paperwork for the kids
• Medical self-assessments for adults plus physicals
• Four references
• Background checks (CPS and child support) 
• Live virtual class about transracial adoption 
• Five online classes 

• All financial information
• Two online classes
• Fingerprints

Really glad to have that behind us! Onward!