Well, our first 2 meetings with our case worker went very well. She is so kind and very easy going which made being open a lot less intimidating. As a case worker, her job is to really understand who we are as people, and as a family. In order to fully understand this, she has to dig deep and get very personal, which can sometimes be difficult. However, she made this process a positive experience for us overall. I feel great about what we were able to convey to her about who we are, why we want to adopt, and how we plan to move forward with the adoption process.
Today is our final meeting for the home study, as well as the home inspection. I'm a little nervous for this because once again, it feels a little invasive. But we have worked hard to make this house a home and I am proud of what we have. Our case worker keeps reassuring us that this is not a big deal and not to stress. There is no checklist or anything for us to reference so I hope everything is up to par today.:)
After todays meeting and inspection, our case worker will be writing up the actual home study. This can take 4-8 weeks, depending on her work load with other cases. We can then begin to gather the information and paper work for our dossier. This is the file we will need to bring with us to Ethiopia containing all the required paperwork and information. It all has to be notarized and is pretty specific. We will also have more training to do which can be done online and through special courses or seminars that Bethany offers. We plan to take this part of the adoption process step by step as we have everything thus far so that we do not get overwhelmed.
I am looking forward to learning more and waiting patiently for a referral!
<3
