I’m super duper excited. This marks the last of our prep work before we can become official foster parents. It's the goal we've focused on since we started this process 9 months ago.
What is a homestudy you ask? I would define it as a 4-6 hour interview between you, your spouse & the Family Developer from our agency. It’s a chance for the Family Developer to ask a zillion personal questions about you in order for her to write a 25 page document about you and the mojo in your home. Essentially, after our interview she will write a research paper on us. That research paper is either approved or not approved. Once approved, we can be on the “Open List” for kiddos.
If y’all don’t know- I love telling my story. I mean who doesn’t? I guess private people don’t, but I’m an open book. Call me narcissistic, or a product of my millennial generation, but I can talk about me, my husband, and my life for hours. Lucky Family Developer. Right?!?
Sample Questions:
1) How did you meet your husband? (in Pre-School)
2) What kind of support system do you have? (Amazing group of friends & family who have surrounded us & incredible siblings who are so pumped for us.)
3) What’s your communication style? (We dance-it-out)
4) What are your expectations for fostering? (Hold on for the ride of a lifetime)
5) What was your childhood like? (uhm, this one is going to take a while. In summary, God is good.)
The FD interviews the hubby and I together & then interviews us separately. That’s right - FBI style. We’ve been practicing our answers to make sure we're all synced up.
Sample Questions:
1) How did you meet your husband? (in Pre-School)
2) What kind of support system do you have? (Amazing group of friends & family who have surrounded us & incredible siblings who are so pumped for us.)
3) What’s your communication style? (We dance-it-out)
4) What are your expectations for fostering? (Hold on for the ride of a lifetime)
5) What was your childhood like? (uhm, this one is going to take a while. In summary, God is good.)
The FD interviews the hubby and I together & then interviews us separately. That’s right - FBI style. We’ve been practicing our answers to make sure we're all synced up.
Example:
FD: What is Nick’s greatest weakness?
Jak: Oh, gosh. He really doesn’t have any weaknesses. But if I had to list just one, I would say that he cares too much.
FD: What is Nick’s greatest weakness?
Jak: Oh, gosh. He really doesn’t have any weaknesses. But if I had to list just one, I would say that he cares too much.
Then the Family Developer gets to tour our home and inspect every corner, closet & crevasse and see if we are up to code and abiding by the state minimum requirements.
Giving tours of my home?!?! Yes, please! I’ve been training for this moment for my whole life! (That might be a little exaggeration. But I spend a lot of energy on the layout, color scheme and decor of every room.)
So if you’re reading this, we would ask you to pray. Pray for the Lord’s Spirit to be among us tomorrow and glorified by our conversation & that the FD would get all the info she needs in this one interview so we don’t have to schedule a 2nd time to meet.
Oh, and pray that we would pass with flying colors.
Stay tuned. I’m sure I’ll be updating with photos & whatnot. Did I mention I’m so excited?!?
Yay for your homestudy! When we did ours, I think I was most nervous about what our then-4-year-old would say. I will say that the tour around the house was much less detailed/invasive than I thought it would be, although that could be because we were pursuing adoption instead of fostering (I think the rules are more lenient about house stuff). The interview and questions were about what I thought it was going to be, but our social worker definitely came across as supportive and helpful, not looking for things wrong with us or anything.
ReplyDeleteWhoo hoo! I'll be praying for your homestudy tomorrow and can't wait to hear how it goes. Love that you've practiced your "apart questions" :)
ReplyDeleteOh man-I love this and love you guys. It will go great!!!
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