We had our first interview with our Social Worker (SW) today. The whole weekend I was waiting to feel nervous, even today as we were walking up to the agency I thought that I would get some butterflies in my stomach, but I never did. I felt calm and confident the whole time. I could tell that people have been praying for us and that God was working in this situation! Our SW did a fantastic job of making us feel comfortable and relaxed during the whole interview. The SW’s job is to advocate for us during this process so in order to do that she wants as much information about us as possible.
The interview started with us asking the questions that we had for our SW. Then, our SW went through our self study and asked us questions to help her clarify our self-study responses. Most of the questions our SW asked of us were repeats from the self-study, but I am glad that we had completed the self-study so that we had already thought of our answers, instead of coming up with something on the spot. We seemed to really gel with our SW and we feel confident in her ability to work with us, which is a huge relief!!
Our next step is the 2nd interview, which is in our home. It is scheduled for March 6th (which is next week already!) So, I need to stop typing and start cleaning, cleaning, and some more cleaning!!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
We have a Social Worker!
We got a call last week from our social worker to set up our first Home-Study interview. We are very excited to say that we are finally in our home-study, and it is great to have the name of our social worker.
Our first interview is set up for Monday, Feb 25th at 10 AM. We will be meeting with her at the agency. She said that it usually takes between 2-3 hours to conduct the interview.
So our next step is to finish the first interview at the agency on the 25th. We will then schedule another interview to take place in our home. After that second interview, our Social Worker will write up our Home-Study, and pass it along to the Korea Program. It really is great to reach these milestones, and to see some more coming in the foreseeable future.
Our first interview is set up for Monday, Feb 25th at 10 AM. We will be meeting with her at the agency. She said that it usually takes between 2-3 hours to conduct the interview.
So our next step is to finish the first interview at the agency on the 25th. We will then schedule another interview to take place in our home. After that second interview, our Social Worker will write up our Home-Study, and pass it along to the Korea Program. It really is great to reach these milestones, and to see some more coming in the foreseeable future.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Self-Study DONE!!
We had to stay up past midnight on Thursday night, but we are DONE with the self-study and Jason dropped it off at the agency on Friday. We cannot tell you how happy we are to be done. The questions were very thought provoking, and very difficult to answer on paper. Here are some samples:
Personal History
Describe your childhood and adolescence. What memorable events stand out? How were you encouraged and disciplined? What methods of discipline were more and less effective? What was your relationship with your parents and siblings? How did you deal with the transition from adolescence to adulthood? Briefly describe your current job. What do you like best/least? Do you plan any changes? How important is it to your toal life? How would you describe your state of health? What kinds of illnesses have you had or do you have? Describe your use of tobacco, alcohol or medications. How have you handled infertility in your family? What do you do to promote your health/wellness and that of your family?
(Thus concludes question number one, only eighteen more of these to go.)
Current Relationships
Describe your spouse, including stengths and weaknesses. What would you like to change about them? Describe your marriage, including communication, roles, areas of conflict, handling of disagreements, decision-making process and feelings towards spouse's parents. How will adoption impact this relationship? How will you take care of and maintain your marital relationship?
Personal Characteristics
Describe yourself, including strengths and weaknesses. What would you like to change about yourself? How do you react when you feel unappreciated? How do you express feelings such as frustration, conflict, and anger?
Parenting Skills
Describe your parenting philosophy, experiences and skills. Include plans for discipline and nurturing. Describe future goals and aspirations that you have for your child. What about parenting gives you, or will give you satifaction? What parenting skills/techniques have you used before? Have you had prior experience with your local school system? Do you feel prepared to advocate for your child as needed?
Adoptive Parenting
a.) Please describe your personal experience with adoption.
b.) What motivated you to adopt? Please discuss infertility if applicable.
c.) Describe the attitude of your extended family and friends toward your adoption plan.
d.) How do you plan to talk to your future child and others about adoption?
e.) What do you think your feelings to your future child's birth parents will be?
f.) What are your fears, concerns, and hopes about parenting through adoption?
Each of these sections is considered ONE question. There were 19 questions in all. And NO! you may not read our answers, and we don't need any suggestions as to how we should have answered. :) Can you imagine completing all of these questions, packaging them up, and mailing them off to a total stranger who will decide your fate in becoming a future parent? [insert sarcastic comment here] Maybe we should take a poll - how many of you have, or would care to answer all of these questions for your family?
So the next step is to wait for our Social Worker to call us and set up an appoinment for our first interview for our homestudy. There are a total of two interviews - one at the angency and one at our house. It really feels great to have this step done!
Personal History
Describe your childhood and adolescence. What memorable events stand out? How were you encouraged and disciplined? What methods of discipline were more and less effective? What was your relationship with your parents and siblings? How did you deal with the transition from adolescence to adulthood? Briefly describe your current job. What do you like best/least? Do you plan any changes? How important is it to your toal life? How would you describe your state of health? What kinds of illnesses have you had or do you have? Describe your use of tobacco, alcohol or medications. How have you handled infertility in your family? What do you do to promote your health/wellness and that of your family?
(Thus concludes question number one, only eighteen more of these to go.)
Current Relationships
Describe your spouse, including stengths and weaknesses. What would you like to change about them? Describe your marriage, including communication, roles, areas of conflict, handling of disagreements, decision-making process and feelings towards spouse's parents. How will adoption impact this relationship? How will you take care of and maintain your marital relationship?
Personal Characteristics
Describe yourself, including strengths and weaknesses. What would you like to change about yourself? How do you react when you feel unappreciated? How do you express feelings such as frustration, conflict, and anger?
Parenting Skills
Describe your parenting philosophy, experiences and skills. Include plans for discipline and nurturing. Describe future goals and aspirations that you have for your child. What about parenting gives you, or will give you satifaction? What parenting skills/techniques have you used before? Have you had prior experience with your local school system? Do you feel prepared to advocate for your child as needed?
Adoptive Parenting
a.) Please describe your personal experience with adoption.
b.) What motivated you to adopt? Please discuss infertility if applicable.
c.) Describe the attitude of your extended family and friends toward your adoption plan.
d.) How do you plan to talk to your future child and others about adoption?
e.) What do you think your feelings to your future child's birth parents will be?
f.) What are your fears, concerns, and hopes about parenting through adoption?
Each of these sections is considered ONE question. There were 19 questions in all. And NO! you may not read our answers, and we don't need any suggestions as to how we should have answered. :) Can you imagine completing all of these questions, packaging them up, and mailing them off to a total stranger who will decide your fate in becoming a future parent? [insert sarcastic comment here] Maybe we should take a poll - how many of you have, or would care to answer all of these questions for your family?
So the next step is to wait for our Social Worker to call us and set up an appoinment for our first interview for our homestudy. There are a total of two interviews - one at the angency and one at our house. It really feels great to have this step done!
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