[Dagz]

okay, this is moving fast. our homestudy visit is this friday !!!
can anyone tell me what to expect? i know they will interview us individual and together, but do they also go around, looking into cabinets and things like that?
...so excited...

[maviskat]

Congratulations!
For our home study, I spent 2 days cleaning every nook and cranny of our house. I cleaned places I didn't know existed!!!!
And of course, when the SW came she barely looked around...I wanted her to look under the beds to see that we had no dust bunnies under there!!!! All she asked to see was where the baby's room would be.
She did speak with both of us together and then separately....she asked about things we wrote about in our paperwork, how we would raise children, how we felt about how we were raised. No surprise questions at all.
So bascially....straighten your house up (don't spend a weekend doing it turning it into a museum like I did) and just be yourselves. Offer some coffee or cake and relax. It will be fine......good luck!!!!

Kathy

[kelceesmom]

We all do the major cleaning and they don't really care about that. Yes, they would like to see a clean house but they know day to day living is not like that. Our SW wanted to see that the baby had a place to sleep, checked up on our security such as latches, smoke alarms etc., checked our yard for safety. To tell you the truth I don't remember much more than that. She asked some more questions and was done within 1/2 an hour. Don't sweat it.

[Vogi2002]

Congrats on the quick timeline

I know for our first homestudy (I actually had two with two different agencies...long story) I did a major cleaning and wanted everything spotless. She didn't even look at all the bedrooms!! She basically just peeked around and kinda looked at specific things (I am sure she would have looked harder had we already had children in the home). Then we sat at the kitchen table and talked. For our second homestudy, I just cleaned like I normally do the weekend before. She looked more around than the first, but as a guest, asking questions about pictures and things. She did it more for personal reasons than the homestudy. For example, I have a 4 foot cookoo clock in my house, it stands out like a sore thumb, so I was laughing telling her the story behind it (dh's crazy grandma gave it to us for christmas, we couldn't NOT put it up, we pratically pee'd our pants when we opened it trying not to laugh).

Anyways, just relax and make sure all the major things are there (fire extinguisher, etc).

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

Natalie

[Leigh131313]

a 4 ft cookoo clock?? Why does that somehow seem apropriate in your house?


lol

[Vogi2002]

Ha! Sadly you are so true.....matches the lopsided picture that I won't rehang and straighten because my daddy hung it for me and was SO proud....

[Bonnie S.]

Our homestudy visit lasted about 45 minutes. Don't kill yourself cleaning. They just want to see that a child has a safe place to live, a place to sleep, and in a safe neighborhood. They aren't interested in doing a white glove test.

[Dagz]

thanks for all your answeres...i am so glad i found this adoption forum, i have learned so much from everybody. i will keep you updated on how things worked out....
raffaela