now we are there

We are officially approved to adopt! The letter came in the mail today that our homestudy was approved! We are officially a waiting family!

not quite there

On Wednesday night we met with our social worker for our last home study visit! Basically, we just signed some papers, ate dinner and talked for a while. We feel so blessed to have had a wonderful home study experience! It was overwhelming at times, but in the end I actually kinda liked it! I can't say we are "certified" yet because our last reference arrived at the agency today and now she will write the final copy and send it to the agency. This agency will in turn send to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services and then onto our placement agency in Florida! I'm waiting for the fee that will be tacked onto my home study having to do all this traveling. So now we wait... Luckily I am super busy with work (way more demanding than I thought it would be!) and planning the Resolve conference. Hopefully, it will make the wait go by faster! I'm very nervous for the wait and wondering how long it will be before I start to get really frustrated!

the final stretch

This time next week we will be finalizing our homestudy! Our home visit on the 19th went wonderfully! I don't think we could have asked for a better experience. We love our social worker and she made the four hours go by so quickly. At the end of Greg's interview I came down and she told me how well he did. Then she told me that we both have such a positive view on parenting that she wants to come back and be our child! That was so great to hear. We've had a long time to talk and think about how we will parent, that's for sure! So when Greg returns, we will meet her one more time to sign and be "certified" to adopt in the state of Ohio! But first I have to prove our residency for the past 3 states we have lived in! That little tidbit came up yesterday after I thought we had checked everything off the list!