$7.71 Equals.....did you guess correctly???

So what can you get with $7.71???  Hmm...perhaps from Starbucks a sandwich and a cup of house coffee.  From Subway, you'll get a footlong sub, bag of chips, and a drink. In our household today, $7.71 gets us something soooo much bigger!!!  It gets us on our way to starting our home study!!!!  Woo hoo!!!!

Thanks to your generosity, orders, and us pinching pennies, we were able to save $3,188 which is the exact amount we'll need for our home study.  If you'll remember in one of our previous posts, a home study can often times be stressful for prospective parents.  It's an in-depth look at you and your family.  Because we haven't actually gone through a home study before, I thought the information below from the Child Welfare League provided a great overview.  You still may be wondering so what does this mean?  Basically, it means that we REALLY need your prayers to put our mind at ease.  Adoptive parents at this stage often worry about what if we're not approved but...as they also said on this site, "We're not looking for perfect parents.  We're looking for real parents to parent real kids."  Well, if that's what they're looking for, you can't get any more REAL than our crew here.  PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for us.  Thanks so much for your support thus far.  Our first part of the home study, the orientation, is scheduled for April 15th at our adoption agency's office.  

If you want to know more...here's more about the home study report as taken from the Child Welfare League site.  Hopefully, my adoption buddies who have gone through this process already can tell us what parts of this is accurate and share any other tidbits that will help us get through this.  (smile)

In general, home study reports include the above-mentioned health and income statements, background checks, and references, as well as the following types of information:

• Family background. Descriptions of the applicants' childhoods, how they were parented, past and current relationships with parents and siblings, key events and losses, and what was learned from them.
  
• Education/employment. Applicants' current educational level, satisfaction with their educational attainments, and any plans to further their education, as well as their employment status, history, plans, and satisfaction with their current jobs.
  
• Relationships. If applicants are a couple, the report may cover their history together as well as their current relationship (e.g., how they make decisions, solve problems, communicate, show affection, etc.). If applicants are single, there will be information about their social life and how they anticipate integrating a child into it, as well as information about their network of relatives and friends.
  
• Daily life. Routines, such as a typical weekday or weekend, plans for child care (if applicants work outside the home), hobbies, and interests.
  
• Parenting. Applicants' past experiences with children (e.g., their own, relatives' children, neighbors, volunteer work, babysitting, teaching, or coaching), in addition to their plans regarding discipline and other parenting issues.
  
• Neighborhood. Descriptions of the applicants' neighborhood, including safety and proximity to community resources.
  
• Religion. Information about the applicants' religion, level of religious practice, and what kind of religious upbringing (if any) they plan to provide for the child.
  
• Feelings about/readiness for adoption. There may be a section on specific adoption-related issues, including why the applicants want to adopt, feelings about infertility (if this is an issue), what kind of child they might best parent and why, and how they plan to talk to their children about adoption-related issues. If the agency practices openness, there may be information about how the applicants feel about birth families and how much openness with the birth family might work best.
  
• Approval/recommendation. The home study report will conclude with a summary and the social worker's recommendation. This often includes the age range and number of children for which the family is recommended.