Initial home visit

Hi ho hi ho it’s off to work I go, ive cleaned the house to within an inch of its life, even our adorable staff/lab dog was showered for the occassion.  The cakes, biscuits and drinks are all prepared; I hear social workers often need little sweetening up have a sweet tooth and like to be made to feel welcome.  I know there is no chance of me getting any work done this morning but I have to show willing if nothing else. 

We were stood nervously hiding behind the curtains, as she pulled up, We are reassuring each other that everything would be just fine, and with that, our beloved dog, was ushered outside, she is as good as gold until someone knocks on the door and then the bark is unleashed.  She is all bark and no bite luckily for us, and so loving and understanding with the children currently in her life.

It was quite an in depth conversation, but nothing too testing, nothing that we weren’t expecting, just a thorough conversation in getting to know us.

Topics:

-          Full names and date of births

-          How we met

-          When we met

-          How long we had been together

-          How we had decided on adoption

-          What was our ideal for adoption

-          Infertility testing dates and results

-          How we coped with infertility

-          How did we know our decision was right and final

-          What we understood of adoption

-          Were we smokers

-          The ins and outs of DH past smoking habits
-      Our wonderful staff/lab dog and all about her

-          Family relationships in brief

-          Support networks

-          Finances

-          How we planned on one of us taking 12 months off work

-          Our existing experiences with young children=

-          Health and safety in our home and finally

-          A tour of our house.

I think that was everything but I may have to add to this list as things come back to us.

Our social worker (who may I add was lovely) told us how impressed she was with our attitude towards everything and how refreshing it was to see some young adopters coming through who have chose adoption as a first option.  She was going to be off for 2 weeks but would ensure her report was written up before she left for the day and we would hopefully hear from her manager within a week of whether we are being invited to apply and go on prep course.  She added that there was a prep course in November and January.  And that she would recommend us to be placed on the soonest available course.

Ecstatic isn’t even close.  A happy dance around the living room as soon as she left and had driven out of sight was most definitely necessary.  Even my laid back husband was getting giddy, and shared a mad moment with me!  Anyone who knows him will know that he can't normally enjoy the excitement until he has something definite to celebrate.