Just had to say a quick yay!

[Leah26]

I talked with DHS today and got another very positive and upbeat encouraging response. Woohoo! They got they application and we've having our first meeting here at our house Wednesday at 4:30! Yay! I'm so glad things seem to be moving along already. Yay again! Lol.

[Cosmosmom]

That is GREAT!

[sunkiss]

and !!!

[Marquette Fan]

Yeah for the good news

[As Is]

[Leah26]

Thanks for all the support ladies! I went a little insane already. Thank goodness I'm off work tomorrow and Wednesday and have time to get the house ready. We NEVER have company so it's rarely what I would call company ready so I'm nervous a little about how the house will look even though she told us it was more about basic things like, working stove, working refrigerator, no exposed wiring, etc. BUT I was super nervous about showing her the potential baby room with it the way it was. So we took two old night stands and an old dresser to my MILs..they were falling apart and we had no use for them and have been wanting to get rid of them anyway. The dresser actually fell apart while we moved it so...proved my point there.

Anyway, I completely rearranged the entire upstairs of our house. We sort of had everything spread out. We have a one and a half story house with the small rooms and low ceiling upstairs so furniture placement is key. Anyway, now there's an empty future baby's room except for a twin bed that we figured we might as well keep. The space between the two rooms has been turned into a reading nook and the other room is now our office/guest room/music room/art room. Lol. It's more organized than before. Now I have to spend all day tomorrow on the downstairs. Oh goodness!

[bowlerchick]

Great news Leah!! Yay for being able to move forward in the process, any progress is such a huge relief. Keep us posted on your Wednesday meeting!

[pumpkinpeejays]

I'm so excited for you!

[kellyowens]

...that is so exciting!! LOL, I was nervous about the home visits too but I think she barely noticed all the hard work I put in for literally *days* getting ready !

Can't wait to hear how it goes tomorrow...thinking of you!

[Leah26]

Thanks ladies! I was like a tazmanian devil today flying around the house doing a million things. I stayed up until 2 this morning rearranging the furniture upstairs. I wanted it to be obvious that the baby's room while small is perfect for a baby or a young child. The only problem is it's upstairs and our bedroom is downstairs...not sure if that will matter or not but if it does we can always change things around or have a baby in our room. I'm sure we'd have them in our room for a while anyway after getting them. So now all that's in the future baby's room is a pack and play and a twin bed. Lol. Looks so much better without all of that junk in there. I've never cleaned so hard or so fast in all my life. DH was thrilled when he got home to see how clean everything was. Lol. I even reorganized all the books on all the book cases. We're book freaks so we have 5 of them. Lol. That part took a while also. Oh and I dusted twice and cleaned both bathrooms thoroughly and nearly coughed up a lung from too much tilex in the tub.

I also cleaned our appliances...over kill maybe? Lol. She did say she had to check for a working refrigerator and stuff so...I figured they might as well be clean. She comes at 4:30 tomorrow and I'm getting really excited! Oh...and I got all the dead leaves off of the plants that aren't enjoying their new spots...didn't want it to look like we couldn't even take care of plants which I can't actually but that's beside the point. Haha. I'm totally nuts but it'll be worth it I'm sure.

[keepingfaith]

I can't speak for everyone but I think for the most part we all go a little nuts when we have our first home study/visit! I know I did! Your SW may not comment about the details...ours didn't and I was frustrated since I had worked so hard. Just relish in the fact that your place has never looked better and enjoy a super clean house! I remember telling my mom when our SW had left that I couldn't believe she didn't look in the kitchen closet...its where we had our garbage can and I had cleaned the closet and the can just in case she needed to throw something away. My last home study was not nearly as stressful and our update after we moved I felt like I barely did anything and we still had boxes everywhere! Good Luck!

Jess

[kellyowens]

Thanks ladies! I was like a tazmanian devil today flying around the house doing a million things. I stayed up until 2 this morning rearranging the furniture upstairs. I wanted it to be obvious that the baby's room while small is perfect for a baby or a young child. The only problem is it's upstairs and our bedroom is downstairs...not sure if that will matter or not but if it does we can always change things around or have a baby in our room. I'm sure we'd have them in our room for a while anyway after getting them. So now all that's in the future baby's room is a pack and play and a twin bed. Lol. Looks so much better without all of that junk in there. I've never cleaned so hard or so fast in all my life. DH was thrilled when he got home to see how clean everything was. Lol. I even reorganized all the books on all the book cases. We're book freaks so we have 5 of them. Lol. That part took a while also. Oh and I dusted twice and cleaned both bathrooms thoroughly and nearly coughed up a lung from too much tilex in the tub.

I also cleaned our appliances...over kill maybe? Lol. She did say she had to check for a working refrigerator and stuff so...I figured they might as well be clean. She comes at 4:30 tomorrow and I'm getting really excited! Oh...and I got all the dead leaves off of the plants that aren't enjoying their new spots...didn't want it to look like we couldn't even take care of plants which I can't actually but that's beside the point. Haha. I'm totally nuts but it'll be worth it I'm sure.

That's awesome ! Sounds like you're more than ready for this visit today!! And even though the cw may not mention it I believe a clean, orderly house gives an overall impression...it speaks something even if people don't consciously notice.

As for having the baby/child's room upstairs, I'm not sure it makes much of a difference at this point. That's one of those things that is easily rearranged if necessary .

[Leah26]

Hi ladies! It went so well! Yay! I'm so excited and relieved! This lady is so nice. I'm surprised about that too because it seems like most people always talk about nightmare experiences with DHS but so far ours has been nothing but good. She came in and sat down and discussed paper work with us. We talked about age, race, background etc. for the kids we'd like to foster and then we took a tour of the house. The tour was super easy. She loved our house and said it was really nice and she couldn't even tell we had cats. Lol. She has three too so she knows what a mess they can be. She said it smelled really good in here too...had a pot roast in the oven.

It doesn't bother me that she didn't go nuts over how clean it was. I mostly did it so everything appeared more put together and organized because I do think that has a lot to do with the first impression. Whether anyone mentions it or not never bothers me. Lol. I did go totally insane though. But yeah our house is cleaner than ever and now I can just sit back and enjoy how beautifully clean it all is. Haha.

She did say that the 6 months and under age group is a smaller one and that they do get babies that age but it might take us longer. She said we should talk about whether or not we want to expand on that. We're thinking up to 12 months would be okay for us. DH is worried about adopting a child when he's missed their first year of life. I think part of it is because he would hate to miss all of those wonderful things like first words, first steps, first smile, and part of it is knowing how crucial that first year is and that we'll more than likely be placed with a child who didn't have the proper treatment in that time frame. I think he worries about them not being able to develop what they need to and us not being able to help with that once they get here. So we're definitely going to talk about all of that. My biggest concern on that is going straight from no kids to a toddler. Toddlers are just so hard and while I've had a lot of experience with them (obviously never in my home though), DH hasn't had as much and I think it might be overwhelming.

Anyway, overall great visit! I'm so relieved and I feel like we got a wonderful person to help us through this process! Oh and she said we're also allowed to open up to the city nearby that's in another state and that helps with the placement time too. She said the city doesn't have as many foster families overall and if we decide to keep a smaller age window that'll help with that as well.

[kellyowens]

...so glad to hear it went so well!! That's fantastic!

I've heard so many success stories of ppl doing foster-adopt and they were placed with infants that they eventually adopted so it does happen .

So exciting!!

[Leah26]

We decided to go ahead and extend to 12 months and under and also to extend to the city nearby that's in a different state which will decrease our wait time. If we wait a while and our time is longer than we like than and we feel comfortable with it we can always extend it more. We feel really good about things. DH seems really happy. I talked to my mom (who teaches Kindermusik) about the development of a child if we get them at 12 months and haven't had the proper care they've needed for a year. She assured us they could catch up easily with the proper attention and focus on what they need because she's seen in a lot in adopted kids from other countries so that made us feel better. We feel like we should just go for it! It feels so good to be doing something that we have more control over. After all of this infertility mess this is truly a breath of fresh air!

[Cosmosmom]

Yes I remember you talked about international before and there you almost certainly would have gotten a toddler anyway. 12 months is still very young and good chance a lot of cool firsts haven't happened yet.

Sounds like an awesome first meeting/visit!

[Leah26]

We're feeling pretty good about it. I just wish we could get things done faster! I know that's nuts though since this is the fastest process there is to having a child in your home...including actually going through it physically yourself. I'm sure it'll all be fine. This has been one of the busiest weeks I've had in a long time and I feel like I'm still reeling from it all and like I haven't had a chance to hardly think about it yet. Hopefully the weekend brings some relaxing time with it.

[ibisgirldc]

I agree with casting a wide net. You'll love whatever child comes into your home... whether they're 1 or 11 mos or more. And it's wonderful to hear that things are moving so quickly. Good luck! I hope to hear that you find a match very soon.

[kellyowens]

I'm so glad to hear you enlarged your preferences . DS's former fmom fosters children up to age 5yrs and honestly, most of the kids she gets, no matter how severe the neglect/abuse, improve considerably within a few months of regular love and care . Obviously, not all kids can "come back" but rarely are their challenges insurmountable.

Praying you get some R&R this weekend (((HUGS)))!!