I know how overwhelming it seems to get started, I ended up choosing the agency that I first got a good feeling from. Mostly that was due to the fact that they seemed to really have it together and replied quickly to my questions and got me into a class immediately. Unfortunately, they slowed down considerably after they had me hooked. Understaffed, overtaxed, blah blah blah. I still really like the director though, and I also (once in a while) get the feeling that there are more things going on with my case than I am told about. For example, I have had other workers know who I was at events after just asking what kind of child I was looking for, so at least I know that my name is around within the agency. I would suggest checking a few places out and trying to get a feeling for which one you think you would have the most comfortable, trusting relationship with.
I'm not sure if my homestudy process was typical or not, since it was done by a worker from outside of the agency, but it was not scary at all. I thought the paperwork was kinda fun, but I'm a big geek who likes to fill out forms and if the forms are about me, even better.
I scrubbed and scrubbed and bought fire extinguishers and threatened/bribed the dog to be on his best behavior for my first home visit. She did not even look around AT ALL that time, just talked and asked questions. Second visit, she glanced around the first floor and the upstairs where the bedrooms are and that was it. Didn't look behind closed doors, go in the basement, yard, garage... Actually, it seems a little disturbing if I think about it too much. When my actual case worker came by, she seemed more interested in the logistics of everything, like who sleeps where, when is the remodeling going to be done, etc. I didn't ever feel like I was being tested or under a microscope.
Luna - I'm not really all that down. Most of the time. It just gets to me after looking at hundreds of pics of kids on different sites, knowing how much I want to be a mom, and yet still not being matched. Tends to lend a bitter edge to my posts. Sorry. And here I thought that all those people whining about the wait were just being babies - hahahhahhahahha