Homestudy Interviews

We are moving right along in this process! We had our first homestudy interview with our social worker on Thursday, April 23. Our social worker is from Asheville and her name is Emily. She is super sweet and so easy to talk to. When we filled out our application with Hopscotch who is our homestudy agency, the application was full of interview type questions. I had tried to do as much research as I could regarding the questions that might be asked and what all the social work would be look for in our house and outside around the house. We cleaned like crazy and made sure all of the cleaning products were put on the top shelf in the laundry room or the cabinet had a child lock on it. She was scheduled to arrive at 5:15, so as soon as I finished working at 4:30, I immediately started making cookies so the house would smell yummy and maybe she would give us a good review! About 5:20 she arrives. She apologizes for being a few minutes late and then we introduce the boys to her and introduce ourselves. Braxton unfortunately has had a cold for a couple of weeks and is still fighting it, so he wasn't feeling the best. He fell asleep on the couch a few minutes after she arrived and slept the entire time! It actually turned out to be a great thing so we could sit and talk for several hours and answer all of the questions that she had. Since our application had so many interview questions on it and we did such a good job of detailing so many of them, there weren't a lot of questions left to be answered. She asked us the strengths and weaknesses of our marriage and what we like to do as a family. It's kind of funny, we were telling her that we literally do everything as a family! We grocery shop together, run errands together, soccer practice together, and whatever else we need or want to do. We are a very close family and we love spending time with one another. She asked us about our discipline techniques and we had to commit to never spanking our adopted daughter. Spanking is definitely not our first form of discipline, but if it is needed, it will be used. With a child that has been in an orphanage or a foster home, you never know exactly what types of trauma they may have endured during their life and you don't want to do something that could possibly bring up past experiences that were very traumatic for the child. So, when we said we wouldn't spank her, she then asked us how we would explain that to the boys! Of course we hope they would understand, but honestly, our boys don't get spankings very often, so I don't foresee it being an issue. When it comes up, we will address it. I know Conner has such a big heart, and I know he will understand immediately. Braxton, well, he just beats to his own drum! He is just like his Uncle Chris, but doesn't have the heart that Chris has! Super sweet boy, but he's all boy! Conner has the heart that Uncle Chris has! So, once the interviewing was finished with Patrick and me, we showed her our house and property and she was finished for the night. Whew! Glad that is all behind us now! All that stress for nothing! :) But, we have a super clean and straight house now! One step closer to our baby girl!