joel's thoughts

Owlhaven shares a nerve-wracking experience she had in preparation for her fourth adoption homestudy.

We had heard all the stories of folks going into mad cleaning frenzies in preparation for the homestudy. But we also heard/read some folks advising that the homestudy isn’t really about how clean or orderly your house was, and we decided to take that to heart. As I recall we probably did the basics — vaccuum, give the bathrooms a once-over, etc., but there were still toys all over the floors, piles of mail and papers on the table, etc. It’s not that we like having stuff all over the place, it’s just that it never seems to fully go away for very long. 😛

And you know what? It was fine. I even brought it up to the social worker in one of the interviews. I gestured at all the stuff, mentioned deciding not to go crazy cleaning up, shrugged, and said, “This is who we are.” She said, “That’s fine; that’s not what I’m here for.” She even mentioned at one point that at home she’s all about keeping things organized and clutter-free, so I know it wasn’t that she just sympathized. 🙂 I think it was more that the important stuff was in place — the kids had proper beds and were clothed and fed, we had gates and cabinet locks where it made sense to have them, we were legally married and had sufficient income, and neither one of us has ever committed a felony. That sort of thing.

And now we have the draft homestudy ready to send back to her, and we’re ready to move on with submitting the dossier. God is good. 🙂