Two down, one to go...

Yesterday I started the day with my individual home study interview at the Youth Ranch. It was just an hour-long meeting with our social worker, mostly answering questions about my family and my childhood, and my marriage. Pretty much stuff I had already written about in my autobiography. I like Jenny (our social worker) and feel like she will do a good job for us.

In the evening, Jenny came over to our house for the mandatory "home visit". Brian, Jenny and I sat down for about 90 minutes and talked about our reasons for adopting, philosophies on discipline, awareness of attachment, sociological issues, and on... Then she took a tour of our house and made sure everything was "safe" for a baby.

Jenny stated that she was very impressed with the amount of "homework" we have already done in the form of reading and preparing ourselves for the adoption. I have been reading books and articles on adoption in general, forming attachments, etc. I have also ordered a book that specifically focuses on inter-racial adoption. Brian is getting caught up and trying to read everything I have been reading. Anyway, the good news is that Jenny said she isn't going to require the fourth interview with us, since she already feels we have a good handle on things. Praise God!

Brian's personal interview is tomorrow, and then it will take Jenny about three weeks to write up and finalize our home study. She will be working directly with AAI to make sure all the content and wording is appropriate for Ethiopia. She said that sometimes there are things that come up in a home study that would be a non-issue for a US adoption, but that other countries might have issues with it. That is why she will be going back and forth with AAI to make sure everything is just right. I'm sure glad they all know what they're doing!