The final stretch, that’s where we are right now with the adoption process. We’ve had our home study, passed it, and were recommended for adoption which is a process that has to be done in order to adopt in the first place. We’ve bought a majority of the large things we need for the nursery now and have placed all the decorations on the walls. (see pictures) The remaining items will wait till after the baby shower to see what we received and what we didn’t off the registry. We’ve put an action place in place at work to ensure our stores are covered in our absence. The ONLY thing left is the baby, we have to wait until he decided to grace us with his presence.
What is a home study?
- Well, it’s essentially what it sounds like, a study of the home. The evening of March 17th our social worker came over for our scheduled home study and sat with us and explained what she was going to do and what needed to take place afterward. She asked us some questions about our background, family history (medical), how friends and family felt about us adopting a child, got to know us a little better and how we were planning for the baby’s arrival. Of course I wont go into our whole life story otherwise you may be reading this for the remainder of the week. At the end of the “interview” the social worker looked around our home and seen the nursery, she also complimented us on the beauty of our home. She did take a lot of notes which made me a little nervous but Paula and I knew we had nothing to be scared of, we just acted like ourselves and didn’t put on a facade. At the conclusion of the home study our social worker explained she would have someone transcribe her notes and compile the information into the actually home study documents (legal format). As she was walking out the door she turned to us and said “you guys have nothing to worry about, you will be great parents”; that alone, made my week. Late the next week we received the copy of the official home study, which is submitted to the State of South Dakota, approving us for the adoption.
That’s a home study in a nut shell, nothing to fancy or exhilarating.
Now what?
- We wait. Our birth mother turned 37 weeks yesterday and still has no signs of labor. There is nothing we can do to help move this along any quicker. We’ve done everything on our end, we just have to wait for the little guy to hold his end of the bargain and show up! Yes, I’m already making deals with my son.
What happens when you get “the call”?
-We PANIC! No, in all honesty, we just get in contact with Krystal (Paula’s Mom) and let her know the time has arrived and have her book our flights to Texas. She’s a flight attendant so we get to fly for dirt cheap last-minute.
Don’t hate, appreciate.
Once we are in Texas there is a time frame that our birth mother has to change her mind and decide to keep the baby, that time is 48 hours. Once that 48 hours has surpassed she is permitted to terminate her rights and we can become his parents. Of course that’s a whole long legal process that I won’t bore you with, let’s just say once this is all said and done it will have taken 10 months to complete. After the two days has passed and some legal mumbo-jumbo is done allowing us to leave the state of Texas (pending he has a clean bill of health and permitted to fly) we come home to South Dakota and start our little family. Worst case scenario, we may have to drive to South Dakota from Texas, we shall wait and see what happens.
So, as we travel down this final stretch of the adoption process we just wait, and wait, and wait…..oh, and wait some more! I just wish he would come already, but there are only 3 week left.
Until next time,
-JD
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