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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Home Study Interviews

Today was our second round of home study interviews.  Our caseworker, Kelly, came to our house last Thursday for our first interview.  She asked us each a series of questions about our family, how we were raised, what morals we were taught growing up, our favorite childhoood memories and questions about our siblings.  She also asked us about our relationship, how we discipline our children and what we felt our best and worst traits were in ourselves and in each other.  She also walked around our house to make sure we had fire extinguishers in place and that we had medicine and chemicals out of the reach of little hands.

So today was our follow up interviews at her home in Smyrna.  She talked to us both about some books that we should read and what to expect when we get the little one home.  I had been doing some reading that talked about the same things she talked about.  For whatever year your child is that is how many months you should stay home and bond with the child.  So if she's two years old we should plan to stay at the house as much as possible for 2 months.  This will give her an opportunity to bond with us, learn her surroundings and rely on us for her needs.  If we have visitors they recommend only letting them hold her for 5-10 minutes and to not let visitors feed her or change her clothes or diaper.  Her basic needs should be met by either Tommy or I so that she understands that we are who she will turn to when she needs things.

It makes sense that she is going to be going through so many changes that she will need to be introduced to new experiences and people very slowly.  The air is different, the language is different, the food, the culture and everything is different for her and it can be overwhelming for a little one who is much more aware of her surroundings than a newborn.

It will take Kelly around 3 weeks to complete our home study report.  I'm excited to say that she and her family are traveling to Ethiopia to visit her little boy for the first time!!  After our home study report is finished we will file another application where we will receive a fingerprinting appointment and then I think we'll be finished and ready to file our paperwork!!

1 comment:

  1. Very exciting, the closer it gets the more anxious we become to welcome the new addition into the family.

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