Home Visit

Today was our home visit with our social worker. We really did not know exactly what to expect, but I was excited and nervous at the same time. Raleigh and I spent a lot of time cleaning before her arrival.

Prior to our meeting, the doorbell rang. We were not expecting anyone so I was surprised. It was a flower delivery! My parents sent us a beautiful vase of flowers since today was our home visit. It was so sweet and definitely unexpected!

Our social worker arrived at 3:30 and stayed for about an hour and a half. We chatted for the first part of the visit and then she had a home visit questionnaire to complete. She asked us questions such as the distance to the fire department, police department, and local hospital and the names of the local schools. We talked about local parks and the ethnic diversity in our neighborhood. I also had several questions that I asked during this time. After the questionnaire was complete, we toured our home. She looked in closets and the garage for hidden dangers we might not think about. She only had one suggestion. We have two small doors in our bedroom that lead to storage areas. The doors are only half the height of normal doors (I'm sure there is a technical name for them...), so a toddler might be able to reach the doorknob. She suggested changing the doorknobs so that they can be locked to prevent a child from crawling into the storage area. This seems like an easy fix.

I think the meeting went well. Each step definitely makes the process seem more real. She did mention that her prediction for the timeline is now 12-16 months instead of 18-24months that we were originally told. However, the time frames change frequently so I am still anticipating 18-24 months.

Here are the next steps:
1.)Wait for our social worker to complete our homestudy. Her goal is to complete it in the next 30 days.
2.)She will send our homestudy to the corporate office for approval.
3.)We will receive an approval letter with our homestudy to Korea (HSTK) date.
4.)Corporate will mail our homestudy to Korea.
5.)We are officially waiting once we have our HSTK date.

Once our homestudy is complete, Raleigh and I will begin completing the I-600a form and be fingerprinted at the USCIS office. After this form is submitted and we are fingerprinted, we do not have any more "paperwork" to complete until we receive our referral.

We are one step closer to seeing our sweet child's beautiful face!