Thursday, April 8, 2010

Homestudy.. Nerves & Feet

So, Monday was our rescheduled homestudy.  I was a bit late, because of work... I told them I needed to leave early and still was unable to escape the clutches of the firm. 

Anyway, the KGB was on time and I was about 10 mintues late.  Honestly, it wasn't what I expected at all... it was more of an informational meeting with a little bit of "just looking" -  to make sure there was a house? that we had rooms? that everything was clean?  I don't really know.  Anyway, this "initial" homestudy consisted of her giving us some forms: Background/Fingerprinting Form, Foster Parent Agreement, Medical Forms, Foster Parent Questionairre, and something else (I can't remember right now.. and really don't feel like getting up to find it.. all I remember is that it has carbon copies).  We sat at the dining room where she could write on the forms as needed and hand them out. 

Once we had all our forms and instructions, she measured our bedrooms and wrote down what type of bed was in each (including the Master) and noted how many bathrooms we had.  She also checked our smoke detectors (to make sure we had one on each level.. we actually have a bit of overkill because of the security system... one in each bedroom and two in the hallway, plus more downstairs).  The only thing we couldn't figure out is if our somke detectors were also carbon monoxide detectors... so we are just have to buy one this coming weekend.

We have our next homestudy on Saturday, April 17th, I think there will be more talking with this next one... asking about our dicispline techniques, personalities, yada, yada.  

Anyway, just as she was leaving.. I asked a few more questions (even though I probably should've just let her walk out the door).  I have been paranoid about our retention pond... it isn't on our property.. but abuts it.  I had heard that some states require alarms on the exterior doors and even specific locks, to ensure that the children don't wander out.  Anyway, so I asked about the retention pond.. and her reaction was shocking.. I guess I expected more than "Umm.. you're just going to be outside when the kids our outside.  Supervised outdoor activites."  Then we started to discuss the age requirements for kids to be home alone (granted we aren't fostering children that of an age to be responsible enough to be left alone) and she told us that in our state there isn't an age requirement for children to be left alone.  I was shocked.  All I could think about about is the stupid stuff we did without our parents supervison.  Granted we didn't do anything that was "destructive" or even "illegal" but it wasn't exactly innocent and sweet either.  So here is were my nerves get the best of me.. and yes, I totally put my foot my mouth...  I start telling her about the stupid crap we did as kids when my parents weren't paying attention.  I told her about this one incident that we put chicken poop in a dress-up purse and left it on the side of street, hid in a rhodendrum bush next to the stone wall by the side of the road.. and waited.. waited and watched.  A car would inevitably stop... pick up the purse.. drive down the street (not far), slam on the breaks and throw the purse out the window.  Then we would send my youngest brother down the street to get the purse and put it back were it was.  Yes, I told her we laughed as people put their hand in a purse full of chicken poop! 

What the heck was I thinking?  Umm... I blame it on nerves.  Needless, to say I need to just keep my mouth shut.  To completely avoid putting my foot in my mouth again.. no matter how good it tastes.

5 comments:

  1. way to go! lol! she will never forget you now! ;)

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  2. I've been so nervous for you waiting to see how it went. I'm glad it went good, and I'm sure she knew some of it was nerves. You guys will be great parents!

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  3. oh my gosh....I can totally see myself doing something like that b/c of nerves. But I'm sure she didn't get a bad feel or reaction from your story, just that you were nervous.

    :)

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  4. I laughed at your rambling with the social worker, because that's totally something i would do. I'm glad the visit went well overall. can't wait to hear more :)

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  5. Wow... you have an incredibly different process than we did. We never even had a sit down chat. We just did our PRIDE home work. Also, you're just now doing Finger Prints? It took 10 weeks for ours to come back, I can't believe they're just now doing that. They can't place with you until they're done in VA. Our CW just made sure there was a bed in the room, checked smoke alarms, asked what kind of kids we wanted, and then left.

    Glad at least phase one is over! Keep me posted.

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