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Adoption - Phase Two

I had planned on talking about the home study portion of the adoption process as a distinct phase, but things have been moving so quickly that the phases have kind of blended together.

The day after we finished our paperwork (aka, Phase One), We met for the first time with the social worker. A few days later she came to our house for the dreaded home visit. The worst part of the home study is the fear that some flaw of character will be exposed, that the house will be too dirty, the dogs willl misbehave, that some reason for denying the application will arise.

I'm not wanting to jinx the process, but it seems to be going smoothly so far. Our meetings with the social worker were pleasant, if somewhat uncomfortable. It's hard to tell your life story in under an hour, but we got through it okay.

We meet again with the social worker on Friday to asnwer some questions, then will meet one more time after that to review the home study and resolve any lingering questions. At that point, Phase Two will be complete and Phase Three (the wait) will begin. We have slowly begun to realize that this will be the longest, most difficult phase. Once the home study is complete, INS has to process our application. After that, it gets translated and sent to the Chinese^* government for approval. These things will not happen overnight.

At this point, we're just thankful that we didn't choose to adopt a child from Romania, where the government, in a well-meaning but overzealous law, has suspended foreign adoptions.