Home Study Update, coming in hot…

Last Wednesday, we had our second home study visit and our 'Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll' interviews. In order to facilitate our separate interviews, our case worker provided a four page questionnaire discussing the following:

• Sexual assault or sexual abuse
  
• Alcohol use
  
• Legal and illegal drug use
  
• Substance abuse or addiction
  
• Criminal history
  
• Loss of family members or friends
  
• Childhood memories
  

The questions were focused on our personal experiences, but also the experiences of our close friends and loved ones. Subsequently, how did/do these experiences effect us emotionally... Was there any long lasting emotional hardship as a result of our decisions or the decisions of those around us?

A large majority of the questions were regarding our childhood and the dynamic of our family. Who primarily took care of you? Who primarily disciplined you and what did that look like? What trauma have you experienced that has effected who you are as an individual, a spouse and a parent?

Overall, if the entire interview was summed up in one question it would be…

How would you describe yourself and what made you the way that you are?

It was a long interview, approximately one hour each and we discussed a lot of private topics, but despite this both Corey and I agreed that it went really well. The second visit was much less stressful than the first, so honestly, there is not much else to report. The exciting news is the second home visit was the final step of our 'Home Study', which means now the home study report needs to be generated. This will take several weeks before we both are able to review and sign.

Finishing our home study is a huge deal. It means we will officially be 'approved' and it also means we can apply for some grants to help gather the funds required to be able to start the matching process. The large majority of nonprofit organizations require a completed home study in order to apply for grants, which makes sense, but because of this we still have a lot of unknowns. I'm looking forward to resolving some of those unknowns and getting our ducks in a row so that we can start the matching process.

Maybe I will do a separate post on matching, so let me know if you are interested… In short though in order to start the matching process, two things have to happen (1) we need to create our online profile and (2) we need to financially be prepared to cover the estimated cost ($30k or more), which is due in full when we are successfully 'matched' aka chosen.

So, onward and upward… It took a lot of hard work and almost 3 months to the day to get to this point. We are *almost* APPROVED. That said, it is hard to get excited. I keep telling people, this is just the end of the 1st trimester. We have some big obstacles to over come in the 2nd trimester, but here we go…

 LOVE and XO& - Grace, Corey and Braydon

 **Waiting for our missing piece***