first home study visit

"Let's go get some kids!"

That's what David said as we left our house today to go to our first home study appointment.

Then when we got in the car he asked me how I'm going to feel when he says that for real because we're getting on a plane to Peru to pick up our kids.

"I think I'll throw up," I said.

I hope the home study case worker is not reading this.

In fact, if you don't know us well enough to know our sense of humor, please ignore everything you've read so far.

The home study, we've learned, is somewhat misnamed. It's more of a people study. In our case, it has involved collecting a boatload of paperwork (check!) and then a series of four interviews. The first, which we did today, is an hour interview with the case worker and David and me. It was pretty straightforward and less invasive than we were expecting. She asked us questions like, Why do you want to adopt?, What challenges do you expect when the kids arrive? How will you know if the kids are not bonding properly? and What's the best and worst part about being married?

Next week we'll check off meetings #2 and 3, which are an hour for each of us to meet individually with the case worker. For the last meeting, the case worker comes to our house. After that, the case worker writes up a report that approves us (hopefully) to adopt within certain parameters. For example, we might be approved to adopt up to 5 children from birth through age 16, with moderate health challenges, either gender, related or not. That is just an example of the broad parameters within which we are approved. That is not, I repeat, not, our plan. Although we did talk by phone to a woman who adopted five Peruvian siblings a couple years ago, and it does get a person thinking... Anyway, then the home study report and paperwork will be sent to the adoption agency in Alabama that we've chosen to work with because of their expertise in adoptions from Peru.

It feels good to be actually doing something other than filling out forms. It feels like we're moving forward. It feels like we're going to go get some kids.