Case Worker & Home Study (11/18-11/25)

For those following along with our story of finding Maddison, the story continues:

11/18

I call and get an appointment with a  case worker that my lawyer recommended. When I called him, he said that he has already been in contact with my lawyer and knows we want to start and complete the Home Study ASAP. So we setup for him to come that Thursday.

After talking with Stephen I hopped my bum into my car and drove to the store to stock up on things for Maddi! This is what I bought:

Winter jacket, snow pants, snow boots, hat and gloves, 3 pairs of socks, big girl panties, pull ups, wipes, 4 outfits, 1 pair jammies, pair of black dress shows, purple paint, Tinkerbell wall stickers, Tinkerbell sheet set, a SECOND nightlight for the bathroom, juice, a booster seat, 3 kiddie plates, 3 kiddie bowls, kiddie flat ware, and 4 sippy cups. Boom! :)
The lady at the checkout says "Boy I know some kids that are going to have a very Merry Christmas!?" And I said "Nope, just one little girl.. and it's not for Christmas... We are adopting a little girl and I NEED this stuff! HAHA" She gasped and said "Oh, wow... that is awesome!!"  [This was the first times I told anyone besides family and it kinda made me get choked up a bit!] :)

11/19

I start painting Maddi's room purple and start second guessing my color decision... it was REALLY purple!?

But... once I finished... I LOVE IT!!! :)

I'm still not quite done painting her sayings and putting all the flower stickers up on the walls... but I think once the whirl wind calms down some... I will have Maddi help me choose where she wants her stickers and her letters of her name above her bed. :)

11/21

At 6pm we have Stephen (our case worker) over to our home to start the Home Study. He outlined what we should expect over the whole process and how long it should take. He asked us questions about our childhood, our family life growing up, our past relationships, our story meeting and dating, how our families blend, our jobs, our hobbies, our finances, our goals, our infertility, goals for our children, our opinions on discipline, and how we were disciplined growing up. 2 hours later...LOL... he gave us personal and family background paperwork to fill out, out physicals we each needed to go do, our paperwork for each of us to have a FBI background check, out fingerprinting paperwork to take to our local police station, and an outline of questions to answer on our 2 page essay we each had to write separately.
After going through all of that, he took a tour of the house and we set up a time to meet that following Monday.

11/23 & 11/24

I am going to skip these days for now... they will be my next post full of videos.
These two days we hosted 2 mini Thanksgiving lunches with family... who knew nothing about Maddison... imagine their shock when she helped us answer the door!? LOL Fair warning... the videos are ADORABLE and will prob make you cry! :)

11/25

Stephen came back out to complete the second half of the Home Study. He re asked us some questions he had already talked about .... I think he was testing us to see if we had the same answers...LOL
We gave him all the paperwork except the finger printing and our physicals. With only meeting him 4 days earlier, we were unable to get those 2 things completed in time. This time he talked about certain things we can expect from Maddison while she transitions and even down the line. He even talked about things that family might tend to say or do down the line. He had us answer how we as her parents would respond.
We talked about the visits and overnights we have had with Maddi and showed him pictures and talked about things she has said and done with us. He seemed super impressed that I had her room all painted and had all the "staples" she needs on such a small time table! lol
We talked with him about how Maddi is so comfertable in our home. She now calls Shiloh and Timber "Maddi's Doggies" and her room is "Maddi's Room". He says that combined with how fast and easy she has taken to us and calls us Mommy and Daddy... she seems like she will be ready to transition soon! We also said he knew how badly we wanted to make the transition easy on Maddison, and if moving quicker helped her... then we were willing to do that...
So he left saying after the Thanksgiving holiday, he would call our Lawyer and talk over everything and tell her pending the return of all documents that he does not see any reason why we are not fit for adoption!!! YEY!!!!!!

Here is a picture of our little Maddi in her New Coat, gloves, Hat, Boots, and outfit. She was Loving the Bunny hat...which Mommy was glad... because she thinks it is A-Dorable!!!

Blessing in a Bunny hat!!!