We had our final homestudy meeting yesterday. It went very well and I'm so glad this is over.
I was very tired since I had stayed in the hospital the night before with my Grandma. She was admitted into the hospital on Sunday, and ended up with a similar problem as she did last year (spent a month in the hospital, several infections and a couple surgeries) but on a much smaller scale. I am actually in the hospital right now with her, and she is sleeping. She looks much better and will hopefully be able to go home shortly.
Thankfully Chris understood that I was very tired, and I'm hoping she didn't hold my fatigue against me. I can't even remember half of the answers I gave LOL!
Chris asked all the same questions of me that she asked of Paul, but my family section went a little quicker ;). She then went on to ask us about our relationship, how we resolve conflicts, how we handle stressful situations etc. She also asked us to name something difficult that we have come through together. We had a few, but our struggles with trying to get pregnant was the first that came to mind.
She asked about our discipline thoughts, and asked about how we were disciplined as kids, and what we would do the same and different as our parents.
Finally she asked us what our preferences were for placements. We said up to 4 kids at a time, ages 0-5 with no racial or gender specifications. We also said that we didn't want any severe physical or mental needs. This is very different from what we had originally said, but she told us that we can always say no. And we can always change that later on too.
I just know that if we were presented with a sibling placement like what she mentioned before (5, 3, 1.5 and 2mo) and there weren't any severe needs- I wouldn't be able to say no- despite the fact that we originally said nothing over 3.
I think God definitely knows what we can handle and we will hopefully be able to discern whether or not each placement is right for us.
I am really excited for this process. I asked Chris how long it would take for us to be officially licensed, and she gave me the following timeline. She will finish the report and likely send it out to her supervisor next week. It will take her supervisor approximately 1 week to review it and approve it. Then it gets sent to Lansing where it will be reviewed by someone in their department. According to Chris, that could take up to 2 months, but she added that the person who has been approving them lately is much quicker than others before her.
So I'm expecting about 2 months total.
HOWEVER- I have been told (by some awesome Foster mom friends of mine) that once the Homestudy is completed (I'm assuming that means her supervisor has approved it) we can be presented with placements provisionally- and this can happen when they are especially desperate. So although I'm expecting and planning for about 2 months, I'm also prepared for something a little more immediate.
Either way, we know that God has a plan and we are just along for the ride! And what an interesting ride it has been so far!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Homestudy!
Today was the first visit of the Homestudy. It was quite invasive, but in a good way.
Chris (our licensing worker) came at 9am and after a little bit of paperwork- she started asking us questions. She began with taking a brief description of the layout of the house, and then we took her on a tour. She measured each of the bedrooms, and tested the temperature of the water. She loved the nursery, and commented on how cute it is :)
After the tour of the house, she started on the personal questions. She decided to start with Paul since his work schedule is more demanding and she wanted to make sure she had all of his answers. She asked some basic things like his work history, but she also needed a VERY detailed description of his family. This included parents and siblings. She even needed to know marital status and how many children each sibling had, as well as the relationship he has with each. For Paul this took a LONG time LOL. She also wanted to know what his childhood was like, where he grew up- what schools he went to and asked about some other family history. I think most of the time was spent on just that!
She finished with all the personal questions for Paul, but she still has to ask me the same questions, and then she has a section to ask us about the both of us and our relationship.
She said at least twice that she is expecting to fill this house quickly, and even mentioned a specific set of siblings that were brought in last week that had to be separated. Prior to this meeting I was still expecting to not be licensed or have a placement until at least the end of the summer! Well maybe that won't be the case, but I'm still not planning on it, just trying to be prepared if it does happen :D
All in all, it went well and we have another meeting on Wednesday at 9. That should be the last meeting, unless we can't get everything accomplished. But since my family is about 1/3rd the size of Paul's- I think it will go faster LOL
If it doesn't, we can always have a third meeting, but that would go very quickly. :)
Chris (our licensing worker) came at 9am and after a little bit of paperwork- she started asking us questions. She began with taking a brief description of the layout of the house, and then we took her on a tour. She measured each of the bedrooms, and tested the temperature of the water. She loved the nursery, and commented on how cute it is :)
After the tour of the house, she started on the personal questions. She decided to start with Paul since his work schedule is more demanding and she wanted to make sure she had all of his answers. She asked some basic things like his work history, but she also needed a VERY detailed description of his family. This included parents and siblings. She even needed to know marital status and how many children each sibling had, as well as the relationship he has with each. For Paul this took a LONG time LOL. She also wanted to know what his childhood was like, where he grew up- what schools he went to and asked about some other family history. I think most of the time was spent on just that!
She finished with all the personal questions for Paul, but she still has to ask me the same questions, and then she has a section to ask us about the both of us and our relationship.
She said at least twice that she is expecting to fill this house quickly, and even mentioned a specific set of siblings that were brought in last week that had to be separated. Prior to this meeting I was still expecting to not be licensed or have a placement until at least the end of the summer! Well maybe that won't be the case, but I'm still not planning on it, just trying to be prepared if it does happen :D
All in all, it went well and we have another meeting on Wednesday at 9. That should be the last meeting, unless we can't get everything accomplished. But since my family is about 1/3rd the size of Paul's- I think it will go faster LOL
If it doesn't, we can always have a third meeting, but that would go very quickly. :)
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