I promised all of you that I would post about our Home Study process after it was completed. So here I am, keeping my promise. Thank you everyone for being so patient.
Back in July I wrote about all of he paperwork my husband and I had to fill out in preparation for our Home Study. Most of that paperwork would be submitted along with our Home Study Report to the Ontario Government (Police checks, medicals etc) but the two surveys we filled out (one about our upbringing and family, the other about our relationship) would be the basis of our discussion when we met with our Adoption Practicioner Kim.
Before our first meeting with Kim my husband and I were very nervous. We had talked to her on the phone once and communicated a few times through email so we weren't entirely sure what to expect. We went around the house and scrubbed it from top to bottom and we installed additional childproofing throughout the house as we knew there would be a home inpection. When Kim arrived we were both pleasantly surprised. She was laid back and very friendly which immediately put us both at ease. She stated from the beginning that she thought that the Home Study would be a very straighforward process and since we already have a child living in the home the home inspection would be a breeze. Phew!
Overall we had 4 meetings with Kim in our home. Each of the meetings lasted around 2 hours and consisted of candid conversations about our lives, our history and our future with an adopted child.
Our daughter was present at only one of the meetings and luckily she behaved like an angel. Another Phew! She even offered Kim one of her plastic cupcakes from her play kitchen to eat. :)
I think that the easiest way to tell you about the Home Study is to outline the end result, which is the Home Study Report. This report will be sent to the Ontario Government by the end of this month.
The report is 17 pages long and contains the following information:
Applicant information - our names, address, phone numbers and email addresses
Dates of contact - outlines the dates we were interviewed and where they took place
Further applicant information - including information like my maiden name, our birth dates, religion, education, languages, occupation, racial origin, ethnic origin, and citizenship
Date of our marital partnership - the day we were married
Names of children and birth dates
Medical report information
Motivation - this was a one page report on our motivations to adopt and where we want to adopt from. It outlines the steps we have taken already in the adoption process etc.
Extended famly members - lists our parents, siblings and their spouses and their children as well as where they live.
References - lists the names of our wonderful family and friends that filled out reference forms on our behalf
Criminal Record Check/Child Welfare Check/RCMP Finger Print clearing
Profiles - there is a half page profile for each of us - our hair and eye colour, physcial appearance and fitness level, personality, occupation, character traits, family make-up and extra curricular activities
Family Lifestyle - this outlines our lifestyle and activities we participate in together, it touches on things like childcare for our children, guardianship (if needed), our household routines, and how we discipline our children
Home and comunity - describes our home in detail and how it is decorated (she said tasteful and modern, woo hoo), it also outlines the neighbourhood we live in.
Legal/financial rights and responsibilities - here is a little quote from that section "Applicants have been advised of their duty of honest disclosure and candour along with their ongoing duty to disclose of new event or information, which may require an updated or amended home study."
Historical information- this was a full page report on each of us individually outlining our family make up, our upbringing, and our childhoods.
Personal characteristics - outlines our communication skills individually and how we handle stress etc.
Marital/Domestic Partnership - discusses our relationship from the beginning until now, this was also a full page report.
Children - discussed our daughter and the person she is as a result of our parenting (the cupcake helped in this section)
Extended family relationships - this talks about our relationships with our families together as a couple
Physical/Social environment - outlines our income, home value, RRSPs and savings etc.
General Parenting - discusses our parenting style and techniques we use and will continue to use with our adopted child
Specialized parenting - states that we have completed PRIDE Training and are aware of the challenges that come along with th role of being full-time parents a second time to an adopted child. This was a long report as it talks about challenges with children who are adopted from orphanages and with medical issues etc.
Family Preparation and Training Activities - this was a report on what we learned at PRIDE Training.
Adoption issues - outlines our desire to expand our family through adoption and our willingness to discuss our future as adoptive parents
Psychological evaluation conclusions - outlines things like providing an open atmosphere to our daughter and our adopted child about their history and appreciating that by adopting from China we will become a bi-racial family etc.
Placement considerations - says YES, we are reccomended to adopt!!!!
Okay so I know that is a lot of information, but I wasnt really sure how else to show you the amount of information that was in the report. I thought about scanning the document and posting it here but it does include information about our parents and siblings and since this isn't a their blog I didn't think that was fair.
Now I can hear most of you asking..okay, so now what?
So now Kim will send this report to our Adoption Agency (Children's Bridge) where they will approve it and then send it to the Ontario Government. Then we wait.....approximately 6-8 weeks to hear if we are approved by the government. Keep your fingers crossed everyone.
While we wait for our approval we have a mandatory two day training course to attend that is put on by our Adoption Agency. The course is this weekend so you can expect another post about it fairly soon.
Talk to you soon.
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