To be honest, I am a little sad that it's over. Our social worker is great, and we have such a great time when she visits. I had heard stories about how intrusive the home study could be, but we didn't have any issues with any of the questions. It was interesting to look back at my childhood and examine how I was raised. And she was just so nice to work with. I'm happy she is part of my adoption team!
We talked a bit more about our marriage, and who does what around the house. And then we did the walk through of the house. There was a check list that we had to go through, indicating what we were in compliance with.
Some of these were things like no locks on the bedroom doors, and a separate room for the child that was not separate from the main house (!?!). Yes, they have it on there that you can't put your adopted child in a room over the garage. Sadly, if it's in the checklist it's because someone once tried to do this.
We also had to do a fire evacuation plan. This really should be something that we thought about before the adoption process. We ended up buying two nifty fire escape rope ladders for our two upper floors. I am going to buy one for my parents as well, as if the stairway was blocked they would have no way of getting out save for jumping out the window. Happy that I posted this on Facebook too, asking if my friends had an evacuation plan... I know one person did end up buying a ladder themselves, and reviewed their plan with their two little girls.
As for things that are marked as "will comply", we have things on the list like baby gates, crib/toddler bed, and outlet covers. Those items are usually on a "will comply" list since we do not know the age of our child, or when it will happen. These are things that can be easily bought.
I've already started researching though (surprise surprise) and have picked out a baby gate for the second floor of the house.
Our house is upside down, in that the bedrooms are on the ground floor, and the kitchen/living room/dining room are on the second floor (where we spend most of our time).
Since we have a useable attic on the third floor, we need a gate large enough to block off both stair cases. The family who lived in the house before us had one in a very wide 78" doorway.
 |
| The snazzy KidCo G3000. Is it just me or does everything looked Photoshopped into this picture? :) |
