Home Study Complete!!!!!!!!

Today I was able to check the home study off of my list!  We definitely went out to celebrate tonight.  We were so worried about the paper chase in the beginning.  Little did we know that the hardest part would be getting the home study done.  Our case worker came today and asked us tons of questions about our childhood, family, and life experiences. 

I have been prepping for this day for a couple of months.  I even hired a house keeper to help me scrub the house.  Knowing that the case worker’s job was to come here and make us prove what we put on our application was a little nerve racking for me.  Nothing was difficult to prove, we just had to find all of the documents and get them copied.  Ray was actually pretty supportive of the house keeper coming knowing that he got out of having to help me with the “big clean”.  Don’t get me wrong- he is incredibly helpful.  There is just a different stress for me with the home study looming.

On a side note- my favorite comment from the first visit by Marty was a comment directed toward Ray.  She went to sweep his room and picked the rug up to expose the wood floors.  Somehow in the coarse of the conversation Ray told her that he worked from home everyday, and she replied- “maybe you should make it in to the office more”.  I guess she thought that the home office needed a break- little too cluttered ;-)

So I start to photocopy the pertinent documents and realize that I forgot to make a copy of my employment verification before I sent it to the Houston consulate.  WOW- how on earth did I do that?  I can tell you- STRESS!  This did however lead to a downward spiral and a long couple of hours involving sobs and Kleenex 2 nights before the big day.  Long story short- it wasn’t that big of a deal but in that moment it was the biggest thing ever.

It started raining early this morning and it was raining hard.  The case worker came about 15 minutes early and we were glad that we spotted her before she got out of the car so that we could wave her on to the garage, avoiding the deluge from the front porch roof.  She was a grandmotherly lady with a smokers voice.  It was not hard to open up to her and answer all of her questions.  It almost felt like a job interview and in a sense I guess it was.  What are your strengths and weaknesses?  How would others describe you and your relationships?  What type of parenting style do you think that you will have?

The interview was shorter than I expected and I have to say that I was happy about this fact.  I had worked up this event so much in my head just because I didn’t know what to expect.  Ray and I were exhausted.  I am so glad that it is over!