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:

• 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
  

When it's ready, we will drive up to Columbia and read through every word. We'll discuss with her if we think something is incorrect or could be worded differently, and then she'll make changes and run off a final draft. And then we're ready to roll.

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.

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!

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.

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!

Fire update

Well, Bert's called the Fire Marshal three times in the last two weeks and can't get through to schedule the inspection. She intends to try one more time, and if we still can't get put on his calendar, she'll call his boss the Fire Chief and get him to put the squeeze on. She was told when she called that there is only one Fire Marshal for 8 counties, or at least the one that we need has 8 counties, and we have to talk directly to him to get on his schedule... so you could understand why he's been hard to reach.

Adoption Related Prayer Requests:
1. Fire Marshal will answer the phone.
2. He'll have an available slot NOW (though, next week is okay too), or if there's a cancellation they will give us the slot.

I feel the pressure for speed all of the sudden. This could be hormonal, could be part of my previous post about the desperate ache of motherhood needs... but it could also be an intuitive gut thing that I get sometimes that's almost always right and says, "OK... GO!" Therefore...

3. If speed is God's Will, He'll do it fast and now; if it is not His Will, if we need to wait for our child to be ready, that He'll chill me out and calm me down.

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!

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.

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!!

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!

Reaction observations

One of the huge emotional struggles that adopting parents have to push past when beginning the process is the fact that there are so many people out there having kids they don't want, or shouldn't have, and they're free to do so as they wish... when we have to be interviewed, tested, and approved by the government before we're "allowed" to be parents. Anger is a natural part of the process, but it's vital to have done as much dealing with it as possible before you begin interacting with your potential child, because they can sense moods and may read your anger as disapproval, or think you're angry with them. It's just not something the kids should have to deal with. Obviously, I do understand that our children will at some point deal with us being angry, but I'd like to keep my anger unrelated to the adoption process, since that's going to be the first and foremost Big Deal to the kids right now and won't help anyone if dealt with inappropriately.

Yesterday I was at church when I received the call from the county to schedule our health inspection. I'm trying to put all kinds of emotions into words here, and it's not working very well. Everything was... and still is... pretty overwhelming.

Overall, while I am very nervous, I'm mostly excited. Finally the process is moving forward. This is a wonderful thing! After calling Lanse and then calling my mom, I went down to tell the people who happened to be at church who are in my Bible study and always asks for updates. They were very excited for us! They are praying! This is good!

And then I went to find another friend who was working in the office, and someone else had just come in. Now, we're not keeping this a secret (obviously) so I didn't hesitate to share the news anyway. This other person asked what this inspection entails, and I explained what we have to do in general, what we got done for Bert's inspection, and what specifics we had left. Thinking back, my tone was a bit apologetic for some reason, like I was trying to convey 'yeah, this is kinda silly, but it's what we're doing.' So from that perspective, I guess I can understand her reaction. She looked at me with pity and a smile and, dripping with sarcasm, said, "I completely understand. Because, you know, my garage was completely childproof when I had my baby, and I padded my walls, too, just in case." Then she lost her sarcasm and in a very caring voice said how sorry she was that we had to deal with such incredible nonsense, etc.

So now I'm really angry again. Oddly, though, I'm angry with her and not the government, because her response made me angry. (That's rather circular...) I honestly thought I'd gotten over that part, and I'd moved on. I was excited about moving forward, glad that we had everything under control for next week's inspection... this is just What Must Be Done. But her response was like... someone with six kids who never suffered a drop of morning sickness watch her friend heaving into the toilet pregnant with her first and saying, "Isn't morning sickness awful? I'm so sorry." No one would even think of being that cruel.

Anyway, I'm angry and upset. I also realize that I shouldn't be; her reaction is exactly the same as our reactions to hearing we had to go through this. It's exactly what I should expect but for some reason I didn't, and it was like this huge heavy wet blanket over my excitement.

Yes, we're sorting and organizing, installing weird plastic devices, locking cabinets, cleaning the house to ridiculous extent. I am being observed, interviewed, and graded. I am not, however, throwing up for nine months, on oxygen or bed rest, eating pickle ice cream sandwiches, or looking forward to a tentative high-risk surgical birth. In the end, I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it.

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!

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.

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.

Home Visit

It's been two days since Bert was here for the home visit, and I think I'm still processing everything. I have had some sort of resistance to posting about it; I hope it's just because I'm still thinking it over.

The fact that we are going to be parents sometime soon is starting to feel much more real, and kind of suddenly... something will come to mind and just bowl me over emotionally. I'm feeling very stressed out, but not because of any specific event or job that needs doing, but more at the fact that it's Soon. On Wednesday night we were cleaning out and straightening the back room. That room originally had all our child related stuff (I have a lot of toys and books and things from the school I taught at), and it was neat and organized, and we used it as a guest room with the air mattress. Then I needed a place to move my sewing stuff, so we put the toys in the attic and then we needed a better bookcase in the office, so all the furniture moved around again, and it was my sewing room/guest room. (I'd called it my Playroom). Wednesday night we went in to move things around again, and realized this is it. We brought the toys back down to be used and figured out where the bed might go. A friend of ours calls this kind of thing, "Weird head space", like momentous stuff is going on and we just can't wrap our brains around it.

So then, on to the official report. Bert arrived Thursday morning a little before 10:00, and we all got some coffee and sat down to talk. Colin gave us a lovely show, playing with the jingly toy mouse, throwing it in the air by its tail and doing flips to grab it again. That was fun. :) Anyway, first she addressed our concerns and questions, most of which revolved around the inspection. So we got up and did the tour of the house, explained the areas we were concerned about, talked about the furniture and so forth, she gave us some suggestions on things we may want to take care of before the state inspection. There's not many of them, and most of them we were already aware of, which is good.

Then we sat and talked for about an hour, maybe a little more. She'd received our referrals (Thank you, References!) and there was an area on the form for weaknesses as well as strengths,
so we discussed those (don't worry, she didn't tell us who said what). We talked a lot about things that had been covered with our case worker in NY; not for the paperwork, since she had it all written down already, but so that she could get to know us better. We discussed LPA and the pregnancy rates and mixed marriages and how I deal with kids in difficulty areas. We talked about our history, where certain tendencies came from, our marriage and struggles early on and how we dealt with them. Basic important life things.

We've officially had recorded that we're also open to siblings, just two... but one or more than one. We think we've figured out a reasonable way to arrange the house, and we're asking that if we are blessed with two little ones, they'll be close in developmental age so they can share toys and things. Within reason, obviously. We will accept either gender if we feel that we've found The Ones, in any combination really... though we both keep having dreams (at night) that we're having a girl, so we're hoping God will lead us to that. If not now, maybe later. For siblings, Lanse prefers a boy/girl or girl/girl, whereas I prefer a boy/girl or boy/boy, even though I don't know that I can handle two boys. For some reason I just can not picture two girls in this house, I don't know why. But I know that both of us are excited and thrilled to have ANY kids, gender doesn't matter.

As soon as we've finished the things with the house, we'll call Bert and let her know and she'll file for the fire inspection. She's already filed for the Health and Safety, and was surprised they hadn't called us yet. So we'll see how that ends up. Unfortunately, she has to go back into surgery and will be recovering for another six weeks or so. Her previous surgery ruptured, or something nasty like that. Prayers for Bert are appreciated; partly because we don't want her to be in pain, but also because selfishly we want her to be able to get stuff done quickly for us, and we know that she's vital in the lives of a lot of kids right now.

So that's where we are at the moment. Her visit went well, she personally approves of the house and seemed to be very agreeable to our viewpoints in discussion. We get on the ball with the final safety items, call her, she calls them, we wait. They inspect, we get the papers filed, get the vet stuff in, and wait. Once the red tape's all cut and burned, we start the search for our kid(s). And wait. She said it could be anywhere from 6 months to a year or more, it just depends on how on the ball everyone is, and where the child lives right now. I know people who have really on-top-of-it people who get things done sooner than 6 months, but that's not very common. So that's what we're looking at.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers; we can feel them working!

Anxiety - Social Worker Home Visit

The final meeting of our home study is here at the house tomorrow morning around 10. Bert will be inspecting the house, as well as doing other final meeting related conversation and paperwork; I'm not sure what all is involved. While she's not the official safety inspection person, we wanted to have as much as possible obviously begun so she knows we Really Really Mean It.

Yesterday we installed all the child locks and things to wind the blind cords around and outlet covers (except the spiffy ones for power strips I couldn't find at the store) and the tipsy bookshelves bolted to the wall and the main areas of the house straightened and our bedroom cleaned (it had become a catch-all kind of room). The hardwoods are swept and the main bathroom is clean. I was also appalled by the large chunks of paint peeling off the front porch steps, so I scraped it and put a coat of paint on yesterday morning (with 48 hours exactly to dry, and yes, the weather was just on the cold side of acceptable for painting). The paint went on really thin, more like a stain, and all I can think is that I didn't stir it enough, since it's definitely a can of acrylic top coat exterior porch paint. No clue. It was in the garage from the previous owners, so maybe they added something to it. But at least the porch is now an 'in process' project and not a 'bad home owner' mess.

Today we have to prepare the back bedroom (kids' room that's also been a catch-all), deal with a few random piles of miscellaneous stuff, vacuum and mop where necessary, wash kitten nose prints off the windows, dust the furniture, and clean the master bathroom. Also have to call a vet and make an appointment. Then, perhaps, we'll be ready.

I'm trying to decide what I can bake that will make the house smell lovely. We need a loaf of bread, but I don't want to have to get it out of the machine while she's here, and I'm not getting up at 6 to put it in. So maybe I'll make muffins or cookies or something. Maybe cinnamon rolls, since it's a morning meeting. Suggestions are welcome.

Play structure & pets

Flossy asked why we'd have to dismantle the play structure. There's a picture of it; on the left is where the slide attaches and in the middle we have two swings, a chin up bar, and a set of rings. All those parts are in the shed; this picture was taken when we were preparing for 'Never-Became-a-Hurricane Hanna'.

If you look closely, you will notice that the left corner where the slide attaches is broken, and there are a number of slats missing in the upper level. The upper level is a square shape; and yet, it is braced by a center beam. So when you stand on the end it rocks very unsteadily. The ladder stairs are spaced quite far apart, (it's hard for me to climb up,) and up-close real life observation (not shown in the photo) you can see where some of the wood is splitting. Most of the concerning bit is up on the top level, so our choices right now are to either repair the whole thing, remove the upper level and shorten the swing section (it also takes up a lot of the yard, so I'd like to make it a bit smaller) and repair the slide and ladder, or just tear it all down. We honestly can't decide, so we want to get our social worker's opinion on whether not deciding right now is going to harm the inspection results.


Additional update information: after half-heartedly tearing the house apart looking for the vet records, new copies are now in the mail. For whatever crazy reason, the state wants proof that our pets won't spread rabies if they attack the children. Silly state. :)

State, if you're reading, that there was sarcasm. As far as logic tells me, our cats are up to date on vaccinations and never ever bite, unless... ya know... the toy you're taunting them with is small enough they get fingers by mistake.

Safety dance

We're doing the Safety Dance. For me, it's a dance of joy that people love us and we now have a bag full of donated supplies to child proof the house! Yay!

Loads of thanks to Heather Jackson at church and anyone else who may have donated to this cause.

My cousin has offered us a baby gate or two and the remainder of the outlet covers we need (minus the snazzy ones I want), so I think we'll be all set pretty soon.

Home visit & Update

Bert will come and do the final home study meeting here at our house on December 4th, around 10:00 in the morning. We need to have as much completed for the inspections as possible, since she'll be serving as sort of a pre-inspection as well as doing other things. She'll offer her opinion on what things we may have to deal with for the inspection, like whether or not we have to dismantle the play structure for it, that kind of thing.

The head of Women's Ministry at church emailed me that there's a bag of child proofing things waiting for me there. Yay! Support is wonderful. I'll pick that up on Friday when I go for Bible Study, we'll put it all into action, and then see what we have left. I also need to see when Nancy can have me come down and pick up the baby gates from her, now that Lanse isn't in the office predictably enough for them to exchange at work.

We also got Bert's approval for the online classes we found at Foster Parent College, so we'll be signing up for some learning as soon as we can sit in one place together and decide on which class we want.

October 1, 2008

Inspective To-Do List

Things we're pretty sure we need to do for the inspection:

1. Clean the garage. This is scary, cuz it's still crowded from moving in. Even though we won't really do stuff in there, fire code needs an obvious and unimpeded path from the kitchen door to the exit.

2. Organize and bin up extra crap around the house, especially stuff being stored in our child's room.

3. Childproof the house. Now I'm sure the first thing you think about are locking cabinets and plugging outlets and putting up baby gates. But remember, I'm the height of a 5 year old, so almost EVERYTHING WE OWN is in my reach. Including scissors, knives, heavy and/or fragile objects, china dishes, cleaning supplies, medications, cat food... you name it, they can get it. This prospect frankly terrifies me. We haven't even got the proper kind of furniture to put a lot of this stuff out of reach and have me use a step stool, since we buy furniture that's me-accessible. If we had that I'd feel a bit better. I may just choose to bin everything until we can budget for more lockable or tall furniture. We also need to replace or add locks to the outside porch door and maybe the front door, since those are very easy to open as well.

4. Make a decision about the play structure in the back, and then do something about it. Some of the higher pieces of wood are splitting and the top level is really rickety and missing some side slats. We could A) fix up what we have, B) remove the scary top level which a kid the age we're looking for shouldn't use anyway and leave the short level with the slide and trap door and then do lots of TLC to it, or C) just take the whole thing down and use it to heat the house in the fireplace in January. Considering January cost us $200 more than any other month last year in heating, that actually is more appealing than I want to admit.

5. Clean up anything scary around the shed like broken glass or boards with nails in it. The shed itself is barred so I can't even get in, so I don't think we'll have to do stuff there. Some day soon we want to tear it down.

6. Do some weeding. Seems weird, but we have spiny vine weed things crawling along the front walk and coming up between slats in the porches and trying to eat the house. We try not to feed the weed plants. No one named Seymour lives here.

7. Maybe replace the carpet in the back rooms. If we don't have dad come and steam clean it again the day before inspection, we may not pass the health bit. Cats don't like that carpet; rather, they like it TOO much.

ARGH! At least we have about 6 weeks before we could be inspected.