Home Studies 3 & 4

Well, we have made it- our Home Study process is over! Wee! I couldn't be more excited. We now wait for the approval of the twenty page document that our social worker has to write involving everything from our visits.

Home Study #3 dealt a lot with who we are; what are Matthew & Emily Imlach like? Our personalities, activities we individually enjoy doing, etc. Just explaining ourselves as clearly as we could, that it would really paint a picture of who we are. Its kind of weird trying to explain yourself, you want yourself to sound like a good, well rounded person, but you also have to be honest and share your downfalls... yes I am stubborn. ;)

Home Study #4 was the actual "home tour", she had a few random questions about our heat working well, our washer and dryer, the dishwasher, do we have a proper way to store food. The only improvements we have to do are get our fire extinguisher up to date, and add another fire alarm.
Our case worker also had questions in regards to how will we handle conflict? What is that going to look like for our family, is it just Matt the punishes, or the both of us? Schooling: will we home school, private schools, or public? Its interesting to be answering these questions, to think...what will we do? What will be the best/right for the child? Thankfully the Lord has grace on us, that no matter how many times we will fail, our hope is in the Lord and he will guide us.

Once the Home Study is approved we then have to come up with $10,000 for our profile books to be seen. We will be making seven books that will be sent throughout the U.S to be seen by potential biological mothers.

So what do we do now? We wait. Wait for our Home Study to be approved, the goal is that we are approved by Thanksgiving. We also pray, pray for what is ahead, the biological parents, our baby and what God has in the future.

Lately.

Lately it seems there has been a lot going on, I have honestly been a basket of full of all emotions. We have been really busy with a variety of things, thankfully some will be ending shortly.

We had our first Home Study, it went to great! It answered those questions of what actually happens in a Home Study. For the first visit, our case worker didn't even do a "tour" of our home, I was surprised-she said that is for the final visit. Thank goodness I didn't go out of my way to really do some elbow greased cleaning, I figured she should see our home in the real way we live in it. Matt and I each had to fill out a question air filled with questions regarding ourselves, and our family. An example would be "Has been on Sleep Medications", you would then check the boxes with those you know of in your family-self included that have been on sleeping medications, etc. We were to fill them out ourselves and only the caseworker would see them. From then on, it was all about our families and our individual lives growing up. From what was our family life like, relationships with each of our parents, our parents relationship, the relationships with each of our siblings, major life events- how we all responded to it, etc. It was a very in-depth perspective of our lives and the major relationships we have. Learning that through the Home Study process they are really digging into every area of your life to get to know you more.

The Second Home Study started with going over some questions our case worker had in regards to the question air we did the first visit, to answer any questions that maybe we checked "yes" to.  An example to the question I shared from the first Home Study would be "Emily why were you on sleeping pills, and for how long? How did you do with coming off of them?" Questions would continue from there. It didn't feel uncomfortable at all, we trust our case worker, and the ability she has to match us well. Knowing that if we just be ourselves it will give her the best palate to work from.
Then she wanted us to each individually share what a "typical" day looks like in our week, from when we get up, to when we go to bed. Next we shared about a "typical" weekend. Its quite interesting to go through a day in the life of Emily/Matt....thinking about all the things you do, or don't and how you spend your time.

So we have 2 of 4 Home Studies done! Our next one is in a week and a half, they are actually really fun, something we look forward to.

One of the things that had kept us extremely busy this September was the preparations for an Estate Sale. We spent many hours at my parents house going through everything, deciding on what to keep--who gets what, items to sell, what was trash, and what we were donating. I was thankful to have many helping hands along my side to do this. Not only was it a big portion of where our time went this month, but as well as emotions. There were the highs and lows of it, and the joys of walking down memory lane. We were blessed that my father told us any money that is made at the Estate Sale, would go towards the Adoption! Thank you to all of you who came and shopped, supported and donated to help bring baby home! Now that the sale is done, in a way its closing a chapter of my childhood  home, but looking ahead, for we're using the funds that will help us create a  future childhood of memories for a family of our own.

Our sandwhich board

Little welcome area. 

Some items for sale. 

Laura & Marsha, great helpers!