Our First Visit

Today was our first home visit. We had an idea of what to expect so most of it was not a huge surprise. Just as planned our social worker arrived at about 5 pm. She had some paper work for us to fill out, simple enough. She filled us in on several key things, like what we needed to do by the end of our classes. Just simple things, like making sure we have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, child safety latches on any cabinets that have chemicals in them all medicine has to be under lock and key. Of course, she asked the simple questions, like age range, sibling groups and etc. We intend to adopt 0-4 years old and are willing to take a sibling group, preferably 2 kids. Boy or girl, we don't have a preference.

Our first in depth home visit will be shortly after classes start. And there will be three of these. We will also have a visit once every three months until placement. The future home visits will include a lot more paper work and discussing things in depth. One question she gave us that will come up was, what plan will you have in place for your child or children if something were to happen to both of you? That's a deep question and something any parent should think about.

I asked s question that has been on my mind since this all started. How long is the placement process and once we have a child how long until they are in our home. The placement process, there is no real answer. Some people can have placement in a year some five years, she said once we are selected for placement of a child or children, we could have as little as just a few hours to prepare. Kind of a scary thought if you are getting an infant or toddler, but have no fear! She said they'll help us out. They have car seats and she also said that usually there is a foster family willing to loan you other necessary items. FANTASTIC! Once placement is made, there is a six month "transition" period. During these 6 months, you will have visits starting at a couple times a week, down to just once a month. This is just to make sure everything is going okay and make sure every one is adapting to their "new" life.

I can't wait until classes start, for that matter are done so we can start receiving profiles of children available for adoption. This is all so exciting!!!!!