The rest of our home study went easily. Of course, having someone go over your life with white gloves is stressful, but we had a very nice social worker, Kathy, who made the process as painless as possible. According to Kathy, the only real “pass or fail” part of the home study was whether or not our fire detector worked (it did). And even though she told us not to worry about it, we still did a thorough cleaning and a little bit of landscaping before she came. She told us that everyone’s house is squeaky clean for the home study, but for the post-placement report, 6 months after the adoption, it’s a wreak, just like any house with a toddler.Before she came, we each had to write an autobiography. This covered our family lives growing up, the education we’ve had, the jobs we’ve held, and our marriage and theories about parenting, which must be a laugh considering how many children we have. We also had to discuss why we’re adopting and how we feel about it.
Georgia requires four home study visits. The orientation counted as the first.
For the second, the came to our home. We gave her our biographies and some other documentation she needed to write our home studies. Next, she talked to Jackie and I together. We discussed why we’re adopting and how we think we’ll handle some situations, such as if someone comes up and makes unthinking and rude comments. I showed her around our home. The highlight of the tour, however, was on the back porch.
In cleaning up for Kathy’s visit, we had rinsed out our garbage can and left it propped up on the back porch to dry. The next morning, the day Kathy was coming, I went out to pick up the garbage can, raised it upright, and was surprised by the possum in the bottom. It was playing dead pretty well. I left the trash can tilted so it could crawl out and let it be.
Later that day, Kathy came out on the back porch, and I explained why the trash can was back there. She didn’t want to look in, though. Go figure.
For the third meeting, I went to her office. She talked with me about my family, and she had a few questions concerning my autobiography.
Finally, for the fourth meeting, she came back to our home again. She first talked with Jackie by herself. Later, she talked with us both together again. Primarily, this was so she could answer any remaining questions we had, but I don't remember our having any.
She then had to write up a report. It was sent to USCIS as part of the paper work needed for the I-171H, which says that US Immigration will allow us to adopt internationally. A shortened version of her report is sent with our dossier to China.
BTW, the possum cleared out the next night, but we had to clean the garbage can again: the possum had used it as both a bedroom and a bathroom.
