[Mom2J]

We have had 2- very seperate home studies done. The first was in Panama for our son. He was already in our home and the sw was coming to visit us. We of course, had to pick her up, because we lived on a military base. Now, of course with that luck, our air conditioner in our car went out, so we didn't want to pick her up in our car and then the borrowed one wasn't big enough to take my hubby, daughter, me, pason in the car seat, sw, and the translator. They got stuck in traffic coming home with a young child in a car seat, hubby that only spoke English, sw only spoke Spanish and translater that was getting car sick. (We'd also have to mention driving through the gate to base and the police decide this car is the one that they want to do a search on and had everyone and everything removed from the car, in the pouring down rain.)

Our daughter was in a Saturday program to keep her occupied and she called crying hysterically and wanted to come home. Hubby had to leave the visit, to get her. Our cat decided that was the right time to show her his skills of jumping up on the bathroom sink and my 6-year old proudly proclaimed, he loves to drink out of the faucets, so we let them. (Mind you, he only does that with the bathroom sink and drinks from the water that hits the bowl and not the actual faucet.) Both kids ended up getting fussy over wanting lunch, so I had to stop and make lunch. (Gee, like she would think feeding the kids would be a bad thing?! I was just paranoid.) She left telling us we had a wonderful home and a family that was really dedicated to making sure the kids were healthy and happy. (She told the translater when we dropped her off, that's the first time she'd ever been in a home study visit, when it seemed everything went wrong and the family still laughed about it and rolled with the punches.)

The last one was getting custody of my cousin. We had to have the entire family there, so we ran around like crazy going in different directions to get both kids home for the sw's visit. She arrived and our mini. Schnauzer decided he'd jump all over her and then our terrier decided she was "his" property and was very annoying with poking her with his nose. (Thank goodness she had a great dane at home and thought these things were minor.)

We had just been asked about having friends of the cousin's race (to make sure we would raise him with his heritage) and there was a knock on the door. It was our neighbor's daughter that is AA and she forgot her key and couldn't get into the house. She came in and of course everyone needed snacks. I'm running around trying to get the kids settled with making sure homework was done before playing, giving snacks, (leaving notes on doors for the neighbor to know where the child was), and dogs that have decided they're going to be pure pests. My poor husband was sick with the flu and trying to keep up the conversation with the sw and I'm, running around like a chicken with it's head cut-off. (Hubby had to excuse himself a couple of times to get sick.)

SW talked to the kids to ask about having a little brother in the house. Our son pipes in that he's happy to have someone else help clean his room. (The cousin was 2 & 1/2 at the time.) The daughter then says that she would love a little brother, but couldn't we also talk about bringing a little sister into the house too. (I just wanted to crawl under something.) The sw was laughing about everything. We got the passing home study with glowing reviews. I honestly think is we EVER had a home study visit that went smooth, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves.

K.