So the big homestudy day finally arrived. After a week of cleaning ...followed by children and dogs immediately re-messing.....the house looked pretty much like it always looks! Mrs. Cristal arrives safely at our house at 1:30. We begin with the walk -through where she tells me that even though my kitchen knives are locked with a child proof lock , an older child would be able to figure that out and they really need to be in the tackle box locked with a key on top of the fridge with the prescription meds. OK I am thinking we are not off to a great start. But she checked the bathrooms, bedrooms, gun safe, cleaning supplies, fire extinguisher, exit plans for fire, emergency numbers, and animals and found no other problems. Actually we even convinced her she needed some guineas along the tour. LOL
Then we come the part where we all sit down at the table to talk and fill out paperwork (again). The girls are dismissed to their room to watch TV while Lee and I are interviewed for about 2 hours or so. Then the girls are called down to the table to be interviewed while Lee and I are banished to their room (cause we could hear from our own room). Lee and I used this opportunity to check all text messages on Haley and Sam's phones and to change their phone background to a picture of their parents! (they really appreciated this)
After about another hour or so we are called back to the table and the girls are re-banished to their room, only this time she wants to interview Lee and I separately.
Then somewhere around 5:30 she called it a night. Said our assessment would be a pleasure to write and ,although the final decision belongs to DCFS, she sees no reason whatsoever why we won't be opened as a foster home. Then she informed us she has 45 days to write the assessment and to expect it to be done sometime around February . All in all it went very well!
Now I just have to get the caseworker at Washington county to return my messages so I can schedule 3 hours worth of training, schedule physicals for the entire family, and find out who and when to turn in the rest of the paperwork I have filled out.
We expect to get our first foster child around February or March. And while we are remaining open for adoption to the right child, we plan to be foster parents to however many children need us, first.
