Homestudy

So, yesterday was our 2nd of 3 meetings with our social worker from Jewish Family Services. She came to our house this time, and I think it went well! Geoff surprised me with someone to come help clean the house, which was such a blessing since I've been working more and we were gone so much this weekend. I still managed to get myself in a small tizzy yesterday morning since I wasn't sure what exactly she'd be looking for. It turned out to be much less invasive than we thought. And she didn't care that there were weeds throughout the garden beds we didn't get to or unfinished projects around the house (I think we are just destined to always have unfinished projects!)

Mary-Michael greeted her by waving from the front door as she pulled up, and managed to eek out a hello before she got really shy. Frazier was still napping when she arrived, so we started with answering questions about our parenting style/philosophy, what we like to do as a family and separately, and our faith. Mary-Michael was showing her toys in the midst of this, NOT sitting like a lady on the couch and otherwise, being a 3 year old girl. I was ultra paranoid about her manners, but Geoff reminded me afterward they probably were not going to fail us because Mary-Michael forgot to say "yes ma'am." Alas, he's probably right.

Mary-Michael did really well answering questions she was asked about what she thinks about having a big sister, what kind of toys she likes to play with and what she thinks Leila will like to play with (babydolls, of course).

When Frazier woke up, he was full of smiles (hooray!) and full of boy! We took her through every room in the house and talked about where Leila's bedroom would be. Mary-Michael was eager to show her the dresses in her closet (so glad I didn't choose to stuff things in the closet!) and her dollhouse. She didn't search to make sure our medicine cabinets were locked up, cleaning supplies locked or ammunition was separated like we thought she would. These are all questions in our application, so I guess they just take our word for it.

We will wait to set up our third and final meeting once we know more from Paige's trip to Niger that is in progress as I write this. She is a LINK employee focused on helping coordinate the adoptions and is over there now learning more about the process as she meets with a lawyer, government officials and orphanage directors. She is also planning to find out as much as she can about Leila's birth mother. So, pray, pray, pray please!

One step forward...