Our home is our home, not perfect, and not completely decorated. However, it is filled with love.
The view: From the "eyes of my Social Worker" on the day of our home study.
This blog journals my life as I take the journey towards motherhood, my passion for photography, other hobbies, and all of the things that come with living and having faith. "For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him" - 1 Samuel 1:27
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Snapshots on the afternoon of the HS
I promised to post a few pictures that I took on the afternoon after our HS was completed. I took these after our SW left. Boy was I glad it was completed. She looked in every room, including the basement! I am a little late posting these. I am sticking to my promise by posting a few pics "from my SW eyes" on the day of our HS. These are just a few pics from outside and a few rooms inside that afternoon.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
HS completed today
Today we had our final home visit today with our SW. I am so glad that we are finished!
Our appointment was scheduled for 1pm and we finished up around 2:40 pm. She arrived at our front door at 1:02pm after riding to the amenities which is walking distance from my home. She loved the amenities and she appeared to enjoy our home inside and out. She gave us a choice of talking first and then looking at the home or vice versa. She came through the front door giving us praise about our home and she had only entered the foyer, so it was a good sign for me. I am very comfortable in my own home and we were not nervous at all.
We began by giving her a tour of our home, including the unfinished basement, and then we sat in the family room and talked about completing our profile to be shown and one more item that we can fax in. She literally looked in every room and commented.
I intially thought that she was only going to look in a few rooms, but she took a grand tour. She enjoyed it and seemed to love our style of decorating and the style of the home as well based upon her reactions as I opened up each room and the comments that she made.
I had all of our doors closed upstairs so that we could give her a formal tour and each room would be a surprise. We saved the nursery for last and she was really surprised to see that we had pulled things together so quickly. She was indeed tickled by all of the items in the closet as well. She knew that we were a serious couple, but I think she really found out the truth we she came to our home.
She enjoyed our dog and he enjoyed her! She wanted him to be left out because he is apart of our family and plus she likes dogs. He was on his best behavior as usual.
We had a brief discussion about our preference list that we submitted a while back in addition to gender preferences and flexibility. We discussed what we would and possibly would not accept in terms of family history or pregnancy history. As we discussed those items I did advise her that it is hard to say on paper with some things, because with some concerns it is a case by case scenario and it is a little easier to determine with all of the information and not speculations. Some things are not as cut and dry as others and it takes prayer and discernment. She asked us to be flexible because sometimes things can happen quickly and many times they call the family selected to meet the potential birth family at last minute notice. However, she said that she would try to give us 2-3 day notice and we told her that we could work with that. She informed us that the other family that was waiting was placed so there is no one else waiting for a baby. So, we will be the only family waiting for a placement until our friends complete their hs, and they are right behind us, literally.
We should have our completed profile in her hands by Friday of this week or the latest next Monday. She brought us a copy of a profile and letter to BM family as she promised so that we could look at it if we had any questions while working on ours.
Hopefully, she will have the completed homestudy completed within a couple of weeks so that this will be all done and we will have copies for our record.
On a side note, I am not for sure why people freak out over of the SW coming to their homes. It was a nice visit to and a way for her to see where we live and how we live. We left our garage as normal and we did not superficially clean it because it is a garage and it has things in it. It is pretty organized anyway, but we did not try to make it look like something that it would not be on a typical day. She was not touching anything, she was just observing and looking. The main things she checked to make sure that we had were smoke detectors and we had plenty and C02 detectors. I even pointed out the fire extinguishers that we had in the pantry. We also pointed out the safety gate on our deck since it is a steep set of steps to the basement, patio and backyard. We use the gate to actually keep our dog on the deck when we are sitting outside or grilling on the weekends. Yes, I had my potted flowers out on the deck and all of the pots that I filled 2 weekends ago at my front entrance. Curb appeal is everything, whether it is a home study or not!
Something funny:
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that my hubby came home for lunch (an extended lunch) for the meeting and he put some oatmeal and raisins cookie dough in the oven to bake prior to her arriving to give a fresh baked scent. The house already smelled of vanilla and christmas cookies from some candles that I had on for about an hour before she came. We blew those out and he scooped out 4 spoonfuls of the cookie dough and made 4 cookies. I must admit, it did smell good! He was on point with baking the cookies. He has heard of people doing that when agents are selling their homes and it kind of sets a cheerful mood for those entering into your space. We ate them at the end of our visit as she was leaving and yes I did offer her a cookie before I ate mine but she did not want any. I was starved by the end of the visit. I am too thrilled that this is completed.
Our appointment was scheduled for 1pm and we finished up around 2:40 pm. She arrived at our front door at 1:02pm after riding to the amenities which is walking distance from my home. She loved the amenities and she appeared to enjoy our home inside and out. She gave us a choice of talking first and then looking at the home or vice versa. She came through the front door giving us praise about our home and she had only entered the foyer, so it was a good sign for me. I am very comfortable in my own home and we were not nervous at all.
We began by giving her a tour of our home, including the unfinished basement, and then we sat in the family room and talked about completing our profile to be shown and one more item that we can fax in. She literally looked in every room and commented.
I intially thought that she was only going to look in a few rooms, but she took a grand tour. She enjoyed it and seemed to love our style of decorating and the style of the home as well based upon her reactions as I opened up each room and the comments that she made.
I had all of our doors closed upstairs so that we could give her a formal tour and each room would be a surprise. We saved the nursery for last and she was really surprised to see that we had pulled things together so quickly. She was indeed tickled by all of the items in the closet as well. She knew that we were a serious couple, but I think she really found out the truth we she came to our home.
She enjoyed our dog and he enjoyed her! She wanted him to be left out because he is apart of our family and plus she likes dogs. He was on his best behavior as usual.
We had a brief discussion about our preference list that we submitted a while back in addition to gender preferences and flexibility. We discussed what we would and possibly would not accept in terms of family history or pregnancy history. As we discussed those items I did advise her that it is hard to say on paper with some things, because with some concerns it is a case by case scenario and it is a little easier to determine with all of the information and not speculations. Some things are not as cut and dry as others and it takes prayer and discernment. She asked us to be flexible because sometimes things can happen quickly and many times they call the family selected to meet the potential birth family at last minute notice. However, she said that she would try to give us 2-3 day notice and we told her that we could work with that. She informed us that the other family that was waiting was placed so there is no one else waiting for a baby. So, we will be the only family waiting for a placement until our friends complete their hs, and they are right behind us, literally.
We should have our completed profile in her hands by Friday of this week or the latest next Monday. She brought us a copy of a profile and letter to BM family as she promised so that we could look at it if we had any questions while working on ours.
Hopefully, she will have the completed homestudy completed within a couple of weeks so that this will be all done and we will have copies for our record.
On a side note, I am not for sure why people freak out over of the SW coming to their homes. It was a nice visit to and a way for her to see where we live and how we live. We left our garage as normal and we did not superficially clean it because it is a garage and it has things in it. It is pretty organized anyway, but we did not try to make it look like something that it would not be on a typical day. She was not touching anything, she was just observing and looking. The main things she checked to make sure that we had were smoke detectors and we had plenty and C02 detectors. I even pointed out the fire extinguishers that we had in the pantry. We also pointed out the safety gate on our deck since it is a steep set of steps to the basement, patio and backyard. We use the gate to actually keep our dog on the deck when we are sitting outside or grilling on the weekends. Yes, I had my potted flowers out on the deck and all of the pots that I filled 2 weekends ago at my front entrance. Curb appeal is everything, whether it is a home study or not!
Something funny:
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that my hubby came home for lunch (an extended lunch) for the meeting and he put some oatmeal and raisins cookie dough in the oven to bake prior to her arriving to give a fresh baked scent. The house already smelled of vanilla and christmas cookies from some candles that I had on for about an hour before she came. We blew those out and he scooped out 4 spoonfuls of the cookie dough and made 4 cookies. I must admit, it did smell good! He was on point with baking the cookies. He has heard of people doing that when agents are selling their homes and it kind of sets a cheerful mood for those entering into your space. We ate them at the end of our visit as she was leaving and yes I did offer her a cookie before I ate mine but she did not want any. I was starved by the end of the visit. I am too thrilled that this is completed.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Neat device
I purchased this device a couple of weeks ago. I saw it in a few magazines that I subscribe to so I thought that I would pick one up to see if it would work for us. It keeps up with your last feedings, changings, etc. and it has a backlight and night light and a clip to attach it to your clothing. I do not know anyone who has used it yet, so I can not give it a review. We put the batteries in it and it really is neat.
I guess it can be confusing for someone if things get busy with a baby and household responsibilities and forget the actual time of the last feeding or changing. Let me know if anyone has used this device. I think it is neat and I may purchase another one to keep in the baby bag for the care provider. If you notice, I have slipped a pic of the dresser in there since we have it out in the hallway due to painting and construction. The crib could not fit through the door. It was assembled in the room, so go figure.
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