Home Visit Complete

Yay, our next milestone is complete!  Tuesday night we welcomed our social worker into our home for the home visit.  We had asked a lot of friends that have been through this what to expect and all said the same thing...Don't go on a cleaning spree.  They aren't going to do the "white glove" test.

At first, we began that deep cleaning anyway...you know, just to be sure.  Then we realized, we have four children.  If we deep clean Saturday, by Tuesday afternoon it is sure to be worse than when we started.  SO, we focused our efforts on making sure that we were "safe".  Everyone told us they would check for fire extinguishers, check the smoke detectors, etc.  We were a little concerned about what they would say about the pool and wondered if they would fault us for not having a fenced yard.

So, we bought an extra fire extinguisher, tested the smoke detectors...a few times, made sure the pool door was locked, etc.  I did have a plan for a quick run through to straighten up.  I teach at the tutorial on Tuesdays so I knew no one would be there to mess up too much.  Monday was CRAZY and there was no way we could work cleaning into the mix so my plan was to straighten up as much as possible before tutorial on Tuesday morning and then when we got home, have everyone pitch in to vacuum, dust, etc.

She was scheduled to come sometime Tuesday afternoon or evening after a visit with another family in town.  I figured we had two or three hours after we got home to get it all arranged.  SO, imagine my surprise (and panic) when at 12:30, while I was still at Tutorial, she called and said she was about an hour away and would be at our house at 1:30!  I was very calm and level headed...or not!  I began running around like a chicken with its head cut off rounding up kids and bags and heading for the door!

My precious MIL had kept Coop that day and had texted saying she had made pizzas for the kids at her house.  We flew to Nana's where I made the kids inhale their pizza and even forbade them from eating the required bowl of ice cream (a Nana necessity).  We got home and I ordered the kids to straighten their rooms, and we vacuumed the kitchen...that is as good as it got!

Our social worker arrived and completely put us at ease.  She really is very sweet.  We talked for a long time, she interviewed the kids and then we began our house tour...where she didn't even ask to see our safety stuff...we just volunteered it like a preschooler who is proud of their art picture!  "See, see our fire extinguisher!"  "Look, our smoke detector works!"

By the time we got upstairs, Coop figured out what was going on.  He took over as tour guide from there and proudly showed her his bed, his hippie, Sissie's room, the bathtub, the pot AND the toilet paper...He is nothing if not thorough!

Anyway, I think all went well.  We will have our final interview on the 7th and HOPEFULLY we will have passed our water test by then (we are re treating this weekend) and will have our fingerprints.  If so, we will just have to wait for the completed write up and final copy of the home study and will be one step closer to our sweet little girl!