Home Study Advice

[fluffybunny]

DH and I have finally gotten through all the paperwork and have home studies this week. The first one will be conducted at our house to check out where we live. The second one we meet at the agency and they will interview us together and then separately.

Does anyone have any advice on things that will make the home visit go smoothly? What should I expect the social worker to be looking for? I know she is looking to see if it's a safe environment and that there will be room for another baby. What specifically can I do to be prepared?

Thanks in advance.

[Lovey1226]

Well congrats on finishing that mountain of paper work!!

Our social worker for our home study was very laid back. She had our fire inspection and just kind of reviewed all of those safety precautions. We were told to use those safety outlet covers -- but she actually laughed at that... Oh well.

The tour around out house was brief, she spent most of her time talking to us about why we want to adopt and reviewed most of our paper work. For us, we worried a lot, but in the end everything was fine. We even have 2 dobermans (pretty well behaved) and she was very unconcerned with them (they were on their BEST behavior!). All in all, she was just reviewing our paper work and re-checking the house.

A small funny, we have beer tap - DH was very nervous about that being in the open. So he covered it with a tarp -- the tarp accidentally opened the tap - so for her WHOLE visit we had beer pouring into our garage (for like 1.5 hours). Thank God she did not even peak in the garage to see our pool of beer...

Good Luck!!!

[fluffybunny]

The beer waterfall sounds like my luck.

I was nervous but not enough to paint a room or two. LOL. I did think about baking cookies to give the house that welcome smell. I didn't do it but now I wonder if that's one of those things adoptive parents do all the time thinking they're original for thinking it while all the sw think its funny cause they see it all the time.

We had both of our home studies last week. And they both went well. DS was really making an effort to push our buttons for some attention but we handled it well. So I'm glad to be done with those.

Thanks for your stories. It's nice to hear other's input so I don't feel so alone. I feel more alienated as an adoptive parent than I did just struggling with IF.

[JLmee]

Hi Ladies

I read this post and had to laugh. I remember being "there" for my first homestudy. It seems like years ago (like 4 years at least) even though it was just over 2 years ago. I didn't even think about baking cookies! Duh! LOL But I was nervous. In the end though, she just asked a thousand questions, and I practically had to drag the sw around my house. She wasn't concerned at all. Although the dreaded question came up. "Have you grieved the loss of a biological child?"

Fluff..thats interesting about your feeling alienated as an adoptive mom. I would agree with that feeling. I am trying IVF now for #2, and I would say that struggling with IVF is more stressful in the end. Although I guess I can say that because my adoption had a happy ending. Its tough to think positive while your going thru the process.

JLmee