So, last Wednesday night, February 24th, we had our first home study visit.

It was definitely less than painful. After scrubbing the house from top to bottom (thank you Mel), we sat in our family room and had a "friendly chat". As M, our social worker who is conducting the home visits, said she is really easy to talk to. It was like sitting down and talking to an old friend.

First she explained the whole foster/adopt process to us in a little more detail than we have received so far. She explained some of the situations out there, for instance, and this is something I never even considered, there are women that just keep losing their babies as soon as they have them. These are women that have lost custody multiple times before, and therefore as soon as they have a baby they instantly lose the new baby. She said, "I have women that keep having babies, they say 'I'm going to keep having babies until you stop taking them from me.' and I (M) tell them 'I'm going to keep taking your babies until you stop having them.'" Wow!! She said these are actually our best bets since they are completely uncontested foster/adopt situations. She also gave us a few examples of behaviors we might run into. She let us know these were just samples, and that we would learn a lot more during our core training in a few weeks.

One thing M told us, that really helped us feel good about our decision, was that Broomfield County, in her opinion, is the best county to go through the foster care, foster/adoption process. She said Boulder County was the best until the Broomfield County Health & Human Services organization was created. "It's like they got the best of all groups and put them in Broomfield". Definitely nice to hear.

After that she started in on the question and answer time. She had our initial application with her and went through it with us. Basically she was asking clarification questions of each us about our families, family dynamics, how we got to where we are in life, how we met, etc. The questions were interesting, and listening to each others answers was even more interesting. (I'm one of those crazy people that actually like interviews. I find I always learn something, and have very little to no problem talking about myself.)

Nate was so cute during M's visit. First, when she asked who we are looking for (as in girl, boy, young, or old) Nate piped up with, I really want a sister, and no-one too young. (He says he doesn't want a baby.) Then after we were talking for a little while, he said, "excuse me, can you find someone silly? My brother or sister has to be silly to be in this family!" We were all cracking up. The kid knows what he wants.

So, the question I always get is "what's next"? Here's an outline as I understand it?

1. Tomorrow, March 2nd, we get home visit #2. This is a more in depth question and answer period. M says she will be giving each of us a questionnaire to go off separately and fill out. Then she said she will meet with each of us individually to go over the answers. Apparently these are really person questions such as "Have you ever used xyz?" "Do you still?" "If you did, what are your feelings about xyz now?", etc. Should be interesting.

3. She said, she then has to make a third visit. M said she usually doesn't need that third visit, but it is required by the state, so she usually uses it to do a walk-through of the house. Kind of just to get the layout. This is not the safety visit, that's later.

4. Next she takes all this information from the three visits and compiles a huge (her words) report that she submits to the county for a review.

5. In two weeks, March 11 - 12th, we have our core foster parenting training. I hear that's a hard weekend. Needless to say I will be forgoing the makeup that weekend!!

6. Sometime in here we need to schedule CPR training, and then get together with the county foster care supervisor to put together our training plan.

As far as I know, that's it for the certification process ... and then we wait. I can't help but think "I wonder where my other child is right now, and I hope she/he is relatively safe and happy right now."