Homestudy Update

We turned in our acceptance papers for Samantha on Friday last week, and we thought we were pretty much finished with all the paperwork.  Well, that was not the case.  On Monday we got an email from our social worker stating that our homestudy needs to be updated.  She included a list of documents that she needed from us.  I felt overwhelmed.  We were not at home to get started on this, and I had about a dozen questions come to mind.  It was not a good time for us to try to call our social worker either, so those questions would linger until the next day.

Would our paperwork get submitted to the Ethiopian courts before we got this paperwork done?  We had to do all of this stuff last year, but many of the things that you have to submit for your homestudy expire after one year. (So be mentally prepared for that if you are adopting.)  It did not go quickly and smoothly the first time around either.  There were several things that we had to wait over a month for last year.  Was it going to take as long this time??  One thing that we have to re-do is a statement of proof of insurance for an adopted child.  Someone at the HR department where James works has to fill this out, and it took over a month last year.  I told James that I thought he should go find the responsible party (he works in the same building) and sit in a chair right beside her desk until she gets in done!  I think she'd tired of that situation fast.

 We did find out on Tuesday that our paper will be submitted to court before we get this done, which was a big relief.   We've made quite a bit of progress this week.  I picked up a copy of our dogs' vaccination records yesterday - yes, the agency needed that.  We got re-fingerprinted yesterday for our new background checks.  It didn't occur to me to take photos the first time we got fingerprinted, so I asked James to take a few pictures this time.  I got three of the vaccinations that I needed to travel to Ethiopia today at my doctor's office.  I've got an appointment at the health department in a couple of weeks to get the other two that I need.  James was able to complete the financial worksheets today. Our social worker is coming over to our house on Friday to do another walk through.  The house was pristine the first time she came over.  It is not going to be so tidy on Friday.  We are still in the process of moving the office downstairs and setting the nursery up.  We will be spending much of today cleaning though.