The turn-around was really fabulous on this one. While we were on vacation, we received a call from the CI that the final home study had been submitted on November 26, and the following week we received the official letter with signatures on it stating we are cleared and ready to roll.
Of course, the children we're seeking for adoption are typically not often available, which is why we chose the foster-adoption route this time around. So our files will be sent to the county foster offices eventually (date unspecified) and we'll see what they need. But we're moving forward!
Showing posts with label home study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home study. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
CI Interview II Report
Yesterday the CI called and said she had a cancellation for this morning, so we took it! Speed is always a good thing. She arrived at 8:30 and left a little after 10:00, and the questions weren't as intense as they were on Wednesday. Topics covered today:
So now we wait again. But it sounds like we won't wait very long, at least not with her part. She will write up what she has to write up and submit it to our social worker at the beginning of next week, and call us to let us know she submitted it. Then our social worker will make any corrections and send it back to her, she'll make the changes, resubmit, and call us again. She estimates that process will be done before we travel for the holiday. Then, over our trip, they'll (theoretically) get the paperwork to the county foster office and we'll go from there.
I really have no idea if we'll have a placement right away, but there's potential. We have not yet been assigned a foster care social worker, so we'll have to get connected there and find out what we need to complete the clearance. But if they're as motivated as the CI, we could... maybe... have a child for Christmas. I'm starting to get excited again, but still feeling like I probably shouldn't quite yet.
The CI also asked if we were being foster cleared for multiple counties, which is something that hadn't come up as a possibility. There's apparently a much higher need for foster care in Charleston County, which is not our county, so if we can get multiple clearances, it may help things move more quickly as well. We'll follow up on that when we hear from our social worker.
Again, and always, thank you for your ongoing prayers!
- Child checklist: what behaviors/history/disabilities are we willing/not willing to accept/consider in a child/birth family. While this sounds difficult (and it is) because everything on the list could happen to anyone, the choices need to be made as to what needs, if any, we're simply not physically able or prepared to meet. Not being prepared to deal with basic needs while a child is recovering from trauma is something they'd like to avoid in general. That said, almost everything on the list (as far as behaviors) are developmentally appropriate for the age range we're looking at, so this part wasn't really that complicated.
- Level of comfort/concerns/personal perspectives on continuing birth family/important other people contact
- Finances and Will/future plans for child
- How would you respond if... child/family/public did/said...
- How will you address the concept of adoption/questions/birth family search (when older) with the child
- How will you handle child/adult offering information on trauma/details
- Importance of our faith/plans for child
- Plans for discipline/views of child development
- Plans for daily child care/babysitters/respite providers
So now we wait again. But it sounds like we won't wait very long, at least not with her part. She will write up what she has to write up and submit it to our social worker at the beginning of next week, and call us to let us know she submitted it. Then our social worker will make any corrections and send it back to her, she'll make the changes, resubmit, and call us again. She estimates that process will be done before we travel for the holiday. Then, over our trip, they'll (theoretically) get the paperwork to the county foster office and we'll go from there.
I really have no idea if we'll have a placement right away, but there's potential. We have not yet been assigned a foster care social worker, so we'll have to get connected there and find out what we need to complete the clearance. But if they're as motivated as the CI, we could... maybe... have a child for Christmas. I'm starting to get excited again, but still feeling like I probably shouldn't quite yet.
The CI also asked if we were being foster cleared for multiple counties, which is something that hadn't come up as a possibility. There's apparently a much higher need for foster care in Charleston County, which is not our county, so if we can get multiple clearances, it may help things move more quickly as well. We'll follow up on that when we hear from our social worker.
Again, and always, thank you for your ongoing prayers!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
CI Interview I report
I am exhausted. They say that people's favorite subject to talk about is themselves, but three hours of it in a row with a lot riding on it really takes it out of you. Our CI was very sociable, making it more like a strongly guided conversation and less like an interrogation. She spent some time talking to both of us together, then half an hour or so with Lanse and then with me, and then both together again. Prior to today, people had asked what kind of things she needed to know, so here's some things we talked about:
And now that I've unwound a bit, it's time for some lunch! Thank you all for your ongoing prayers!
- Adoption: why/how so far/reception of family & friends/concerns/hopes
- Parents/brothers/sisters/additional family and their past/work/hobbies and our relationship with them as a child/currently and amount of time we talk to/see them
- Our childhood: hardships/hobbies/ personality/discipline/chores/jobs
- Our formative years/events/hardships/ losses and our methods of coping/healing
- Our marriage/communication/routines/ decisionmaking/changes expected by a child's arrival
- Our/family's health: physical/mental/ emotional and how/why/treatment and how it affects us
And now that I've unwound a bit, it's time for some lunch! Thank you all for your ongoing prayers!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
CI Tomorrow
Tomorrow morning at 8:30 the CI will be here to begin our interview process. She should be here for two or three hours, and we'll talk about everything, apparently. We were told that she's really good and "very thorough". Thank the Lord that I woke up yesterday with scads of energy, something that almost never happens! I was able to clean the main areas of the house, put away all the filing, balance the budget, read four chapters of homework, and cook a steak dinner. Amazing!
Today, however, there's not so much energy. The medication I'm on at the moment is making me twitchy and feeling at loose ends, but I'm exhausted and don't really want to move. Even so, this morning I cleared up the kid's room and put bedding out, so that room is lovely, found another stack of books and had to rearrange the shelves to make them fit (a task I actually enjoy, so long as I don't get sucked into reading things), and aside from a small list of incidentals, I only have the upstairs loft left to straighten. Most of that is done already, and I just need to finish filling up the BORC (Box Of Random Stuff) and shove it in the attic. I also have to clean my bathroom floor, which is tiny, so that's okay. Doesn't sound like much compared to yesterday, but it's been a lot harder to get going today.
I appear to have wandered a bit. I find it interesting, though, how our attitudes have changed each time we've done the homestudy. The first time through, we didn't make it to the home visit, so we didn't have to clean like this. The second time, we were tweaked out about every little detail, and friends from church volunteered to come over and help me deep scrub. We emptied and cleaned out all the cabinets and sanitized the entire house top to bottom. This time we're much more relaxed, and balanced on that edge of wanting it to be company-ready, but also accurately represent our style of living, which is not company-ready. I seem to be the only one actually stressing out about it, (though Lanse is under a lot of stress at work, so it's hard to tell) but I'm definitely not sweating what I think of as the small stuff. Of course, my definition of "the small stuff" is different from other people's. But I figure if we ever have to do a homestudy again, we'll probably just vaccuum and make the beds.
Pray for us tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes!
Today, however, there's not so much energy. The medication I'm on at the moment is making me twitchy and feeling at loose ends, but I'm exhausted and don't really want to move. Even so, this morning I cleared up the kid's room and put bedding out, so that room is lovely, found another stack of books and had to rearrange the shelves to make them fit (a task I actually enjoy, so long as I don't get sucked into reading things), and aside from a small list of incidentals, I only have the upstairs loft left to straighten. Most of that is done already, and I just need to finish filling up the BORC (Box Of Random Stuff) and shove it in the attic. I also have to clean my bathroom floor, which is tiny, so that's okay. Doesn't sound like much compared to yesterday, but it's been a lot harder to get going today.
I appear to have wandered a bit. I find it interesting, though, how our attitudes have changed each time we've done the homestudy. The first time through, we didn't make it to the home visit, so we didn't have to clean like this. The second time, we were tweaked out about every little detail, and friends from church volunteered to come over and help me deep scrub. We emptied and cleaned out all the cabinets and sanitized the entire house top to bottom. This time we're much more relaxed, and balanced on that edge of wanting it to be company-ready, but also accurately represent our style of living, which is not company-ready. I seem to be the only one actually stressing out about it, (though Lanse is under a lot of stress at work, so it's hard to tell) but I'm definitely not sweating what I think of as the small stuff. Of course, my definition of "the small stuff" is different from other people's. But I figure if we ever have to do a homestudy again, we'll probably just vaccuum and make the beds.
Pray for us tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Self-induced DSS meeting
We passed the fire inspection easily, he just checked the smoke detectors and that was about it. He'd already measured windows and suchlike last year, and he treated it mostly as an update, but since we haven't any children placed yet there were some things that he didn't have to deal with (like checking records of fire drills and escape routes and such). I did have to redo our floor plan drawing just a little bit because in my haste I put the screen porch on in the wrong place, blocking a window that they could feasibly need to access in an emergency. So that's done.
All of the reference letters have been received. THANK YOU to all of our lovely friends who helped refer us! I don't know if those will be updated every year or not; obviously I hope for the fewest items to update, but if they do, I'm sure you'll hear from us.
The title of this post occurred this morning. When we were going through this process with Bethany, they explained to us that the autobiography interviews and the home visits were the ways in which our social worker gets to know us better as individuals, and we build that trust relationship. I know that I became much more comfortable working with them because of these steps. In the current system, however, we did not have to redo our autobiographies from the Bethany homestudy, and SC employs Certified Investigators (CI) - social workers whose only job is to travel around and do home visits and create the text of the homestudy from them. This person is not our personal social worker. So, I wondered, when do we get to know our own worker? I wrote and asked her how the process allowed for that opportunity, and she said, "How's Thursday morning at 10:00?"
So this morning we went to meet with her for the sole purpose of chatting about anything and becoming more comfortable with each other. I was really worried because when it came down to it, I didn't have any specific questions and didn't know what I'd say. I was also worried that by straying from "the way it officially works" we'd be labeled some of "THOSE" people, or that it would have negative repercussions somehow.
It ended up being a very nice hour. We mostly went over the process again, trying to identify those things which vary from the private agency approach, clarifying the differences between the adoption regional office and the foster county office and who does what, we shared photos of our niece and goddaughters, and chatted a little bit off topic about work, school, pets and life in general. It was a very good conversation, and accomplished what I had hoped: that we're now hopefully more comfortable working together.
Next Wednesday our CI comes to do the first of two home visits. Our lovely friend Katharine is coming tomorrow to help me do some deep cleaning that hasn't been done in a while, and hopefully everything will still be in order by Wednesday. After that visit we'll have a break for turkey day and then have the second visit (I assume that it won't be quick enough to finish before we travel, but you never know), and she'll wrap up the homestudy. Then it all goes over to the county foster office and we'll be licensed. Because we're hoping for very young children, there could be a bit of a wait... or we could have a temporary placement by Christmas. More uncertainty, but at least things are moving.
Thanks for your continued prayers!
All of the reference letters have been received. THANK YOU to all of our lovely friends who helped refer us! I don't know if those will be updated every year or not; obviously I hope for the fewest items to update, but if they do, I'm sure you'll hear from us.
The title of this post occurred this morning. When we were going through this process with Bethany, they explained to us that the autobiography interviews and the home visits were the ways in which our social worker gets to know us better as individuals, and we build that trust relationship. I know that I became much more comfortable working with them because of these steps. In the current system, however, we did not have to redo our autobiographies from the Bethany homestudy, and SC employs Certified Investigators (CI) - social workers whose only job is to travel around and do home visits and create the text of the homestudy from them. This person is not our personal social worker. So, I wondered, when do we get to know our own worker? I wrote and asked her how the process allowed for that opportunity, and she said, "How's Thursday morning at 10:00?"
So this morning we went to meet with her for the sole purpose of chatting about anything and becoming more comfortable with each other. I was really worried because when it came down to it, I didn't have any specific questions and didn't know what I'd say. I was also worried that by straying from "the way it officially works" we'd be labeled some of "THOSE" people, or that it would have negative repercussions somehow.
It ended up being a very nice hour. We mostly went over the process again, trying to identify those things which vary from the private agency approach, clarifying the differences between the adoption regional office and the foster county office and who does what, we shared photos of our niece and goddaughters, and chatted a little bit off topic about work, school, pets and life in general. It was a very good conversation, and accomplished what I had hoped: that we're now hopefully more comfortable working together.
Next Wednesday our CI comes to do the first of two home visits. Our lovely friend Katharine is coming tomorrow to help me do some deep cleaning that hasn't been done in a while, and hopefully everything will still be in order by Wednesday. After that visit we'll have a break for turkey day and then have the second visit (I assume that it won't be quick enough to finish before we travel, but you never know), and she'll wrap up the homestudy. Then it all goes over to the county foster office and we'll be licensed. Because we're hoping for very young children, there could be a bit of a wait... or we could have a temporary placement by Christmas. More uncertainty, but at least things are moving.
Thanks for your continued prayers!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Another year ended
Apparently the last time I updated was October. I keep waiting for something to happen that I can report on, and then nothing does. This weekend something happened: our homestudy had it's first birthday. I've been saying that it "expired", because we technically don't have an approved homestudy available between the last day and the renewal. Normally renewal happens prior to expiration date (which was May 2 for us), but due to one thing and another, it hasn't been completed. Hopefully our end of it will be done by the end of next week - the proper paperwork is in the mail - and then we have to redo the fire inspection. Last time it took him a month to get here, so we'll see how this works.
In the meantime, there has been a bit of a change in the general situation. The last time I posted, we had about 24 inquiries outstanding. This means that we'd submitted our homestudy for these children and had not yet heard any result from their individual social workers. Then, suddenly (for us), the Federal and State budgets changed in the area of Children and Family Services, cutting social worker hours, laying off a lot of folks, and making it much more difficult for states to pay private agencies or deal with the ICPC (Interstate Compact).
The result for us is that the last time I posted here was approximately the last time we heard anything from anyone out of state, except for one child in February (whose worker chose a family closer to home) and another child I inquired on a couple of weeks ago, whose worker emailed me that the children on that website are no longer available for out-of-state placements. None of the other 24 inquiries followed up... in fact, no one even returned our social worker's multiple phone calls to verify they received our study. Inter-state adoptions, while still possible for extremely hard-to-place children, seems to have become nearly impossible, and the program we're in is completely dependent on inter-state inquiries due to other restrictions on Agency/DSS in-state interactions.
The arrival of our homestudy renewal puts us in an ideal position to make a change in our program. However, we've been experiencing a lot of different emotions and thoughts, we're doing a LOT of praying, and every time we discuss we come out with something different. Oddly, we've thus far been in agreement each time, but none of it is leading us to a solid conclusion.
We're proceeding with the renewal of the homestudy as it is, but we've also received paperwork for the domestic infant program, as well as having contact information for a local DSS person if we choose to switch to foster adopt. (As an aside, we had hoped to do local foster care while seeking a child out-of-state, but we've been chasing that option down for a definitive NO from DSS. They don't like the idea of working from more than one angle.) We've also seriously discussed the possibility of changing to a local agency so that we can be more actively engaged in the situation.
Please join us as we pray for clarity on which direction we need to go. Please also pray for our social worker, Bert, who just received some discouraging news about her health and is feeling the pressure of the work time that will be lost in dealing with it.
Thanks.
In the meantime, there has been a bit of a change in the general situation. The last time I posted, we had about 24 inquiries outstanding. This means that we'd submitted our homestudy for these children and had not yet heard any result from their individual social workers. Then, suddenly (for us), the Federal and State budgets changed in the area of Children and Family Services, cutting social worker hours, laying off a lot of folks, and making it much more difficult for states to pay private agencies or deal with the ICPC (Interstate Compact).
The result for us is that the last time I posted here was approximately the last time we heard anything from anyone out of state, except for one child in February (whose worker chose a family closer to home) and another child I inquired on a couple of weeks ago, whose worker emailed me that the children on that website are no longer available for out-of-state placements. None of the other 24 inquiries followed up... in fact, no one even returned our social worker's multiple phone calls to verify they received our study. Inter-state adoptions, while still possible for extremely hard-to-place children, seems to have become nearly impossible, and the program we're in is completely dependent on inter-state inquiries due to other restrictions on Agency/DSS in-state interactions.
The arrival of our homestudy renewal puts us in an ideal position to make a change in our program. However, we've been experiencing a lot of different emotions and thoughts, we're doing a LOT of praying, and every time we discuss we come out with something different. Oddly, we've thus far been in agreement each time, but none of it is leading us to a solid conclusion.
We're proceeding with the renewal of the homestudy as it is, but we've also received paperwork for the domestic infant program, as well as having contact information for a local DSS person if we choose to switch to foster adopt. (As an aside, we had hoped to do local foster care while seeking a child out-of-state, but we've been chasing that option down for a definitive NO from DSS. They don't like the idea of working from more than one angle.) We've also seriously discussed the possibility of changing to a local agency so that we can be more actively engaged in the situation.
Please join us as we pray for clarity on which direction we need to go. Please also pray for our social worker, Bert, who just received some discouraging news about her health and is feeling the pressure of the work time that will be lost in dealing with it.
Thanks.
Monday, May 4, 2009
HOMESTUDY READY!
WE'RE HOMESTUDY READY!!!
The ball is now mostly in our court; we will spend all our waking hours pouring over photolistings from all over the country and networking with social workers. The plan is to get the word out as much as possible, but unfortunately there is a whole world of scammers and illegal 'selling children' activity out there, so we're trying to keep our contacts clearly within social worker domains. That means that if you hear of someone with a child available within our criteria, we would love to know... but we need to have either our social worker contact theirs or theirs contact ours; we don't want any random phone calls to our house! Please be considerate about that, as many of you know us personally.
If you are a (or have any connection to a) social worker, we have a one-page profile sheet that we'd like to share. We're looking for any kind of connection that may even be second- or third-hand just to get our name circulating; so far I've thought of educators, clergy, and pediatric medical professionals as contact sources as well as folks who are directly in the social or family services professions. Our profile sheet basically describes us in a nutshell and the kind of child (or children) we feel would fit our family well, and provides contact information for receiving a copy of our homestudy from Bert at Bethany. We can email it or snail-mail it to you, whatever is most convenient. Oddly enough, though we are definitely wanting to follow any leads, we are beginning outside of South Carolina because of the way in which the state to agency interactions work. This makes the networking a little more difficult since we can't just drop by to local places, so your willingess to help is truly valued!
Thanks so much for all your prayers and support. Keep it coming... the hard part's just beginning!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Homestudy Approval Meeting Tomorrow
We're driving up to Bethany tomorrow to meet with Bert at 2:30. The homestudy's been signed off by the Director, and we have to read through it carefully to make sure it's all accurate and things cast in the particular lights that we feel are appropriate. We'll be bringing her a few more photos to add in, and we'll also be discussing our time line for the next part of the plan. As soon as I know it, I'll share it.
I love my friends, and how they're all so amazingly supportive through all of this craziness. I've been spending time here and there looking through photolistings and getting discouraged because of how few children are listed as available who we feel could fit our family. I've been discouraged enough that we've already started discussing our alternatives. I mentioned this to one of my best friends last night and she said, "Well, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it until Friday, right? So they wouldn't be there yet." Her point was basically, when we're ready, God'll put our children's info right where it needs to be. She was so totally right. I'm so grateful that God's given us friends to help us keep perspective.
More news tomorrow!
I love my friends, and how they're all so amazingly supportive through all of this craziness. I've been spending time here and there looking through photolistings and getting discouraged because of how few children are listed as available who we feel could fit our family. I've been discouraged enough that we've already started discussing our alternatives. I mentioned this to one of my best friends last night and she said, "Well, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it until Friday, right? So they wouldn't be there yet." Her point was basically, when we're ready, God'll put our children's info right where it needs to be. She was so totally right. I'm so grateful that God's given us friends to help us keep perspective.
More news tomorrow!
Friday, April 17, 2009
A month later...
Wow. My last post was the 16th of March, and here it is the 17th of April. But there's good news! Bert took two days last week to focus on our homestudy, one of which she worked from her home office so as to avoid distractions. While going through our file, she did find questions she wanted to ask, something that was marked off as received but had NY information, and discovered that she hadn't received a recommendation from one source and that our physical exams were soon to expire.
So yesterday we went in to the doctor's office and got our physicals done again (3rd time's the charm?), and the recommendation is currently in progress (the person writing it IMed us mid-writing, so we know). As of this moment the homestudy is 99% complete; as soon as these items get to the office and she plugs in the text, we're ready to roll!!
What's next? When it's ready, we drive to the agency office, read it over and make any corrections or changes, and she'll work through a timeline with us. I have no idea what this timeline looks like yet, but we'll let you know.
So yesterday we went in to the doctor's office and got our physicals done again (3rd time's the charm?), and the recommendation is currently in progress (the person writing it IMed us mid-writing, so we know). As of this moment the homestudy is 99% complete; as soon as these items get to the office and she plugs in the text, we're ready to roll!!
What's next? When it's ready, we drive to the agency office, read it over and make any corrections or changes, and she'll work through a timeline with us. I have no idea what this timeline looks like yet, but we'll let you know.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Homestudy Writing Update
Well, three weeks will be up on Friday (tomorrow), but Bert's just starting to work on our stuff today. So it'll be another 2 to 3 weeks. It's okay, I'm disappointed but not upset, because she had very good reasons. She transferred and settled 5 (not 3) kids from California to Myrtle Beach, and a baby involved in one of her client's cases was born unexpectedly and needed placement, and that was out of her immediate area as well, so she was on the road a lot as well as just dealing with the normal caseload fpr both cases. We'd known about the CA kids and there's nothing to be done about an unexpected birth, so it's all good. I am, however, looking forward to getting her first clarification phone call. She warned us that when she writes these things, she works from home and the moment she comes across something she needs to check with us, she calls... no making lists and calling later, she'll just ring us up at any strange time she may be writing. So once we get one of those calls we'll know she's getting things done.
I've received some confused questions about what's going on now (working on the homestudy) as opposed to what we've been doing over the last year (working on the homestudy). So here's a clarification that those of you involved in adoption already can just skim over or skip to the end as you wish.
Over the last year (and some, see the ticker on the side of the blog) we've been working on completing a number of documents. This is us "working on the homestudy". All of these documents go into our file and once they're all completed, Bert will take them and write them into a combination of narrative and general information that can be presented as a whole to the social workers representing our potential children. This is her "working on the homestudy", which is happening right now.
So if we decide we want to parent Jenny (no, there's no "Jenny" yet), Jenny's social worker will receive a little book about us from Bert. That book is what she's writing. Some homestudies are just a few sheets of paper and some are doctoral-thesis-length; Bert likes to be as thorough as possible without being so overwhelming that the other social worker won't read it. I can't remember exactly, but I have the idea that she aims for 10-15 pages.
Our homestudy will contain:
So there's the description of the homestudy process in a nutshell, or at least in the shell surrounding our particular nut. I know that every state and every agency does things in slightly different ways, but from what I've learned from talking to people this is a pretty good representation of the concept. I hope it's cleared things up a bit for everyone.
The only other matter was that of the kitchen fire extinguisher. Yes, there are multiple kinds of extinguishers! Here's a picture, ruthlessly pillaged from the internet and edited by me:
Apparently they put out different kinds of fires. The smaller one does mostly just stove fires, but the second one we bought does stove fires (kitchen), wood type fuels (fireplace), and live electrical wires. In any case, we're all set and ready and everyone who needs a photo of our lovely mounted-under-the-counter extinguisher has been appeased.
And I think that's it for now! We'll keep on keeping everyone posted as we start hearing from Bert as she writes.
I've received some confused questions about what's going on now (working on the homestudy) as opposed to what we've been doing over the last year (working on the homestudy). So here's a clarification that those of you involved in adoption already can just skim over or skip to the end as you wish.
Over the last year (and some, see the ticker on the side of the blog) we've been working on completing a number of documents. This is us "working on the homestudy". All of these documents go into our file and once they're all completed, Bert will take them and write them into a combination of narrative and general information that can be presented as a whole to the social workers representing our potential children. This is her "working on the homestudy", which is happening right now.
So if we decide we want to parent Jenny (no, there's no "Jenny" yet), Jenny's social worker will receive a little book about us from Bert. That book is what she's writing. Some homestudies are just a few sheets of paper and some are doctoral-thesis-length; Bert likes to be as thorough as possible without being so overwhelming that the other social worker won't read it. I can't remember exactly, but I have the idea that she aims for 10-15 pages.
Our homestudy will contain:
- a cover sheet (profile page) that's a very brief 'who we are and who we're looking for'
- more detailed narrative on our past, marriage, families, current lifestyle, future aspirations; basically All About Us (as understood by Bert)
- details of the kind of children we're looking for and why (if appropriate)
- recommendation letters gathered from friends and family, with explanations of comments if necessary
- results of our physicals
- results of our background checks
- results of our inspections
So there's the description of the homestudy process in a nutshell, or at least in the shell surrounding our particular nut. I know that every state and every agency does things in slightly different ways, but from what I've learned from talking to people this is a pretty good representation of the concept. I hope it's cleared things up a bit for everyone.
*******************
The only other matter was that of the kitchen fire extinguisher. Yes, there are multiple kinds of extinguishers! Here's a picture, ruthlessly pillaged from the internet and edited by me:
And I think that's it for now! We'll keep on keeping everyone posted as we start hearing from Bert as she writes.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Fire Inspection Complete!
Bert met the Fire Marshal at McDonald's off of the highway exit, grabbed some coffee, and were on our doorstep pretty much right at 9:00 this morning. He measured the kid's bedroom window, investigated (looked at) the optional kid's bedroom window to assess it was the same as the first, tested every smoke detector, and then put lots of stuff in his laptop. The only hitch is that we apparently bought the wrong kind of fire extinguisher; we got one traditionally found in a home kitchen, and we needed the next (enormous) size up with a hose on it like you see in schools. We're going to replace this one, take a digital photo of the new one, and email it to him so that he can see that it's there and then we're good to go. Ain't technology grand? And, as seemed to happen last time, he didn't look at the things we had concerns about.
So. The next step is Bert's actual creation of the official homestudy document that we will hand 'round about. She said it will take 2-3 weeks, because she's wrapping up three of her assigned kids moving here from California this week and next. So in 3 weeks we'll be starting the search! Bert explained that we work from the internet photolistings (such as are listed in the sidebar) and word of mouth, so as soon as we're "Homestudy Ready" we'll be on a mission to get the word out about us to everyone we know. I may also either change the format of this blog, or put up another website for the sake of having a URL to hand around to friends and family.
Keep watching this space!
So. The next step is Bert's actual creation of the official homestudy document that we will hand 'round about. She said it will take 2-3 weeks, because she's wrapping up three of her assigned kids moving here from California this week and next. So in 3 weeks we'll be starting the search! Bert explained that we work from the internet photolistings (such as are listed in the sidebar) and word of mouth, so as soon as we're "Homestudy Ready" we'll be on a mission to get the word out about us to everyone we know. I may also either change the format of this blog, or put up another website for the sake of having a URL to hand around to friends and family.
Keep watching this space!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Previous post addendum
Ok, so after looking at the fire safety brochure, that's not all they'll be checking. They also look to see that gas related whatsits (like lawn mowers and gas cans) aren't being stored in the house, make sure the fireplace has appropriate screens, the electrical panel is accessible, there's easy exits in case of fire, we have colorful fire exit floor plans posted on the wall, and they want 3' clearance around electrical utilities like the water heater. That last one's actually our biggest concern, because some previous owner built a little room around the water heater out in the garage and there is not 3' clearance all around it. But Bert looked at it and said it wasn't a problem.
If the Fire Marshal has a problem with something, it's not like we're a write-off... we have a chance to fix it and have Bert notify them when we're set. Still... we're ready to move on from this stage.
I don't want anything else we have to have cleared if we can avoid it.
If the Fire Marshal has a problem with something, it's not like we're a write-off... we have a chance to fix it and have Bert notify them when we're set. Still... we're ready to move on from this stage.
I don't want anything else we have to have cleared if we can avoid it.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Fire Inspection - Scheduled!
Thanks for your prayers; they're working! Bert got through today and scheduled us for Feb. 27th at 9:00am-ish. After that it's just her putting together the final homestudy document and we're ready to start looking. In the meantime, we have two more online classes to take (about two evenings) and we'll be ready on our end. Good times.
All he's looking for are smoke detectors, a fire extinguisher, and he's going to measure the windows to be sure a fully geared firefighter can fit through them. Sounds pretty straightforward.
Prayers are still good though. Thanks!
All he's looking for are smoke detectors, a fire extinguisher, and he's going to measure the windows to be sure a fully geared firefighter can fit through them. Sounds pretty straightforward.
Prayers are still good though. Thanks!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Details
Here's more details for you.
She was here about 1/2 an hour, came in and asked to see the kitchen, checked the water temp, asked to see the kid's bath and bedroom (loved the decor!), checked our potential second bedroom (if we needed it as a bedroom we'd move the office upstairs), took a backyard tour, and we were good to go. She didn't even enter the rooms we had really stressed out over! Also, we'd been really stressed out about our cats' worse habits, but she herself has 5 cats and 2 dogs and was all, "Meh, you do what you gotta do."
Sat down and filled out the paperwork; we did have one change to make from what the agency had sent them, but it's not a big deal. We had asked the agency that our bottom age range be "Walking... which is, what? Like... 2? Ish?" and she definitively wrote AGE 2 on the sheet. We wanted more flexibility... my niece just started walking and she's only 11 months. So with our approval the inspector decided to inspect for the 0 - 6 range, so we'll have to sort everyone out and get them all on the same page. Which is fine.
We're approved as-is, since the only thing that needs addressing we had already planned to address.... we had some damage to the play set. So we're good to go!
Now we just have to impress the Fire Marshal. *grin*
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers everyone!
She was here about 1/2 an hour, came in and asked to see the kitchen, checked the water temp, asked to see the kid's bath and bedroom (loved the decor!), checked our potential second bedroom (if we needed it as a bedroom we'd move the office upstairs), took a backyard tour, and we were good to go. She didn't even enter the rooms we had really stressed out over! Also, we'd been really stressed out about our cats' worse habits, but she herself has 5 cats and 2 dogs and was all, "Meh, you do what you gotta do."
Sat down and filled out the paperwork; we did have one change to make from what the agency had sent them, but it's not a big deal. We had asked the agency that our bottom age range be "Walking... which is, what? Like... 2? Ish?" and she definitively wrote AGE 2 on the sheet. We wanted more flexibility... my niece just started walking and she's only 11 months. So with our approval the inspector decided to inspect for the 0 - 6 range, so we'll have to sort everyone out and get them all on the same page. Which is fine.
We're approved as-is, since the only thing that needs addressing we had already planned to address.... we had some damage to the play set. So we're good to go!
Now we just have to impress the Fire Marshal. *grin*
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers everyone!
Inspection PASSED!
It went GREAT!! She wasn't here long, just asked to see the kitchen, kid's room and bath, and the backyard; she has a whole lot of pets herself and wasn't phased at all about ours... amazing. Lovely.
I'm gonna go fall down now. I'll post more details later. Promise.
I'm gonna go fall down now. I'll post more details later. Promise.
Ready?
I think.... we're... maybe ready? Pretty sure ready? We've got just about two hours, and I'm not sure if we're ready. I've saved our to-do lists in our adoption binder; when we're all set and done with everything and start putting a life book together for our child (like a scrapbook) I'll set them all out and take a picture. Aaaaaallll the many many lists of things. The very last thing on my list is to make another list! Literally... I need to make a list of emergency numbers to put by the phone. Which I will finish when I'm done with this post.
So. Just a few more tiny things and we'll actually be prepared to open the door to the inspector at 11:30ish. Keep praying!!
So. Just a few more tiny things and we'll actually be prepared to open the door to the inspector at 11:30ish. Keep praying!!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
More preparing
Today has been very busy as a preparing day. We had a lot of rearranging stuff to do yet, furniture to buy and so forth, so we headed out to Walmart rather early (for a sleepy Saturday). Besides groceries we got a new file box with a lid that can lock, an enormous under-the-bed storage bin, a meat thermometer... I forget what else. We also added a couple things to the list for Lowes, which should happen tomorrow.
So we came home and got to work. I got Lanse's unused tackle box out (which works with the padlock) and went around collecting up all the fire-starting devices and the "sharps" (scissors and rotary cutters and the like). Packed up all the Christmas stuff that we'd dumped in the back room and was in the way of the closet, and Lanse took it to the attic. Then I moved all the sewing related things from the back room closet to the cabinetry in the bedroom, put my quilting cotton FQs in the bin under the bed, moved all the stuff from the sewing drawer in the living room into there as well, pretty much condensed everything. I also moved all of our active files into the new file box and got that set up.
While I did that, Lanse cleaned his bathroom (the main one), moved all the stuff from the porch to the shed that we'd put on the porch from the garage (Thanks Jen!), helped me take down and pack up some last minute Christmas stuff, and was available as my shifter to help me move bins and boxes from here-to-there and there-to-upstairs.
We also used the meat thermometer to check the temperature of the hot water at the tap. Required temp for the inspection is 120 degrees or less (which is annoying, because our dishwasher says that it needs 120 or more). In the kitchen it came out at 128; we still have to check the bathroom, which I'll do when I get up to go to bed. So we have the original water heater (10 years old?) that we need to change the temp on, without a manual. Lanse poked around and says it looks like it's set for 130, so it does get colder as it comes along. It's also covered in "READ THE MANUAL" stickers. He agreed to wait until I've had one last long hot shower before trying to figure it out. He's so sweet.
Tomorrow: Church, and I assist in Sunday School with the 4 yr olds, trip to Lowes, mounting the fire escape routes and emergency numbers and all that around the house, organizing the upstairs junk closet, washing my bathroom, fixing the drain plugs in both bathroom sinks (they both broke in the same places one or two days apart from each other!), taking care of the leftover dead garden plants in the backyard, and then I have a paper to write.
What a trip tomorrow will be!
So we came home and got to work. I got Lanse's unused tackle box out (which works with the padlock) and went around collecting up all the fire-starting devices and the "sharps" (scissors and rotary cutters and the like). Packed up all the Christmas stuff that we'd dumped in the back room and was in the way of the closet, and Lanse took it to the attic. Then I moved all the sewing related things from the back room closet to the cabinetry in the bedroom, put my quilting cotton FQs in the bin under the bed, moved all the stuff from the sewing drawer in the living room into there as well, pretty much condensed everything. I also moved all of our active files into the new file box and got that set up.
While I did that, Lanse cleaned his bathroom (the main one), moved all the stuff from the porch to the shed that we'd put on the porch from the garage (Thanks Jen!), helped me take down and pack up some last minute Christmas stuff, and was available as my shifter to help me move bins and boxes from here-to-there and there-to-upstairs.
We also used the meat thermometer to check the temperature of the hot water at the tap. Required temp for the inspection is 120 degrees or less (which is annoying, because our dishwasher says that it needs 120 or more). In the kitchen it came out at 128; we still have to check the bathroom, which I'll do when I get up to go to bed. So we have the original water heater (10 years old?) that we need to change the temp on, without a manual. Lanse poked around and says it looks like it's set for 130, so it does get colder as it comes along. It's also covered in "READ THE MANUAL" stickers. He agreed to wait until I've had one last long hot shower before trying to figure it out. He's so sweet.
Tomorrow: Church, and I assist in Sunday School with the 4 yr olds, trip to Lowes, mounting the fire escape routes and emergency numbers and all that around the house, organizing the upstairs junk closet, washing my bathroom, fixing the drain plugs in both bathroom sinks (they both broke in the same places one or two days apart from each other!), taking care of the leftover dead garden plants in the backyard, and then I have a paper to write.
What a trip tomorrow will be!
Monday, January 12, 2009
One nearly down...
Got the call this morning to schedule our "Sanitation Inspection". The lady from the county called it that, and then listed a few things they'll be looking for... which were all on the list from Bert for the "Health and Safety Inspection". So I'm assuming it's the same thing.
I'm a bit nervous, because I've never been clear about whether we're officially "adopting" or "foster adopting"; we marked the 'yes' box on Bethany's application that said, "Willing to foster identified adopting child" or something like that, and Bert explained that meant we were willing to be cleared just in case the child we choose isn't freed for adoption yet. I explained that situation to the county lady, and she decided to mark 'foster care clearance' on her paper, so we're officially being inspected under foster care terms. I'm a bit concerned that I messed something up on that one, but it doesn't make sense any other way.
Anyway, the inspection is next Thursday around 11:30a.m. Please pray that it'll go really well and that we'll stay calm and accomplish a lot between now and then! Our friend Jen is coming tomorrow after work to help us do some of the major stuff we have left (like cleaning the non-self-cleaning oven and moving all the unsafe heavy stuff from the garage to the shed) and we'll get everything else finished up on the weekend.
In preparation for the fire inspection, (not scheduled yet) I stopped at the fire station today to ask about the extinguisher recharge thing. The firemen were very nice... really young, which surprised me, but quite sweet. I should do more for the local firefighter guys; my cousin fights wildfires in the North West, and I should take an interest in things I have personal connection to. Anyway, they said they have a company down about 10 minutes away come and charge up the ones at the station, and the two guys there didn't know the name of the company, but they did tell me where it is. So I can Google it, most likely. Here's hoping!
I'm a bit nervous, because I've never been clear about whether we're officially "adopting" or "foster adopting"; we marked the 'yes' box on Bethany's application that said, "Willing to foster identified adopting child" or something like that, and Bert explained that meant we were willing to be cleared just in case the child we choose isn't freed for adoption yet. I explained that situation to the county lady, and she decided to mark 'foster care clearance' on her paper, so we're officially being inspected under foster care terms. I'm a bit concerned that I messed something up on that one, but it doesn't make sense any other way.
Anyway, the inspection is next Thursday around 11:30a.m. Please pray that it'll go really well and that we'll stay calm and accomplish a lot between now and then! Our friend Jen is coming tomorrow after work to help us do some of the major stuff we have left (like cleaning the non-self-cleaning oven and moving all the unsafe heavy stuff from the garage to the shed) and we'll get everything else finished up on the weekend.
In preparation for the fire inspection, (not scheduled yet) I stopped at the fire station today to ask about the extinguisher recharge thing. The firemen were very nice... really young, which surprised me, but quite sweet. I should do more for the local firefighter guys; my cousin fights wildfires in the North West, and I should take an interest in things I have personal connection to. Anyway, they said they have a company down about 10 minutes away come and charge up the ones at the station, and the two guys there didn't know the name of the company, but they did tell me where it is. So I can Google it, most likely. Here's hoping!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Mild frustration... again...
Okay, so I realize that it's been the holidays and things got busy. I can accept that. But when I talked to Bert yesterday, I thought we were golden. Yesterday was the mix up in inspector requisitions. Today she called a number of times... first she hadn't written down when our house was built, which we have discussed a number of times. Then she called back to verify where Lanse works, and I asked her if the reference letters had gone out, since I hadn't heard about it yet. So she goes digging, and the address we'd given her in December while she was standing in our living room (done then to save time, y'know) was still tucked into the file and never made it to the secretary who had the form. Then she called me back again because apparently they sent the employment reference form to work and never got it back. There was something else as well that she called back about, and I can't remember.
So on the frustrated side, things haven't been getting done when I thought they were.
On the positive side though, I happen to know that Bert's been sitting in the office all afternoon with our file open, and that's a good thing.
After losing most of the day to a migraine headache, I have managed to scan in and email our vet records to her, as well as print out the floor plan fire escape routes that we need to have posted in prominent places. We have to run out and get some frames for them. I printed two black and white for the living room and kitchen, and one colorful with cute clip art for the kid's room. I think next I'll print up an emergency numbers list to post with it.
I also need to make that shopping list so that when we go we can get everything at once. It'll be a big bill. Sigh.
So on the frustrated side, things haven't been getting done when I thought they were.
On the positive side though, I happen to know that Bert's been sitting in the office all afternoon with our file open, and that's a good thing.
After losing most of the day to a migraine headache, I have managed to scan in and email our vet records to her, as well as print out the floor plan fire escape routes that we need to have posted in prominent places. We have to run out and get some frames for them. I printed two black and white for the living room and kitchen, and one colorful with cute clip art for the kid's room. I think next I'll print up an emergency numbers list to post with it.
I also need to make that shopping list so that when we go we can get everything at once. It'll be a big bill. Sigh.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Inspections and vets
I had sent email to Bert two weeks ago and in the craziness of the holidays it got buried. I thought there was a chance that she'd gone off to have surgery, so I emailed her secretary and got a call back from Bert.
The health inspection request never got sent, and the fire inspection request was sent to Charleston County instead of Dorchester County. So she's sending both again, and she will copy me on the request via email so that I know exactly when she requests it.
We're pretty much ready for the inspections, though we have to go buy a large bin to store paint in, get around to locking up the tools in the garage, and I keep finding matchbooks in various drawers, so I need to go around with a box and systematically search every drawer and closet and stuff for things like matches and scissors. The obvious stuff has been taken care of, but since I have candles all over the house I tended to leave means of fire nearby. I also need to buy another bin to put my quilting supplies in, since there's currently rotary cutters on my craft shelf and blades for it in my (low) drawer. Hopefully what we have left will take about two hours (not counting the shopping for bins), plus taking the fire extinguisher to the fire station and seeing if they'll recharge it for us.
Other than that, we only had the vet records left to take care of, and that appointment's in an hour. Oh, we also have to dump our dead garden pots. We were also going to dismantle the playset, but Bert says so long as we have a plan and she can verify later that it was done, we don't have to have that done when the inspector arrives.
I registered us for the next two training classes, the first on ADD/ADHD/ODD, and the second on Lying. Should be interesting.
The health inspection request never got sent, and the fire inspection request was sent to Charleston County instead of Dorchester County. So she's sending both again, and she will copy me on the request via email so that I know exactly when she requests it.
We're pretty much ready for the inspections, though we have to go buy a large bin to store paint in, get around to locking up the tools in the garage, and I keep finding matchbooks in various drawers, so I need to go around with a box and systematically search every drawer and closet and stuff for things like matches and scissors. The obvious stuff has been taken care of, but since I have candles all over the house I tended to leave means of fire nearby. I also need to buy another bin to put my quilting supplies in, since there's currently rotary cutters on my craft shelf and blades for it in my (low) drawer. Hopefully what we have left will take about two hours (not counting the shopping for bins), plus taking the fire extinguisher to the fire station and seeing if they'll recharge it for us.
Other than that, we only had the vet records left to take care of, and that appointment's in an hour. Oh, we also have to dump our dead garden pots. We were also going to dismantle the playset, but Bert says so long as we have a plan and she can verify later that it was done, we don't have to have that done when the inspector arrives.
I registered us for the next two training classes, the first on ADD/ADHD/ODD, and the second on Lying. Should be interesting.
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