Count Down To Home Check Day

This coming Saturday "D", our Home Study Worker, comes for the final house inspection. We have a check sheet (several pages long) of requirements .. everything from safety locks on cabinet doors to window well covers and everything in between. You name it, it's in there. The outdoor fountain can have only 3" of water (it has been moved to a safer location) and we had to fence part of the backyard. They do supply a few things (such as baby gates, fire extinguishers and so forth) and we are taking advantage of all their freebies. We have been interviewed together and separately, attended a 2 day training course, had our fingerprints run by CBI with full back round checks done and are certified in infant/child cpr and first aid. All this has taken about six (loonng) months to complete and it all comes to a head on Saturday. Of course, I still have a few things here and there to complete (Mama would have called me a "Last Minute Joe") and I guarantee something will have slipped through the cracks and I'll be freaking out on Friday night. Our separate one-on-one interviews with her took 3 hours a piece and each spouse had to be gone.. no hovering and listening. For this Curious George, that was no easy task. She wanted to know everything about our lives from our earliest memories to current times. What our families were like, what we were like growing up, past relationships, etc. Being the huge wuss that I am, I had Kleenex lying in wait and boy howdy, did I use it. The reason for the in depth interview is to make sure that any major issues in your life are not only resolved but how you coped and got through it. You can't bring a hurting child into your home if you yourself are hurt. It's a recipe for disaster. If they find that there are areas that still need to be dealt with the county actually sends you to therapy to get them resolved. How cool is that? One of the things that really impressed us about the county is all the training and help provided before, during and after placement. You're not alone. We still have loads of classes to attend for the bazillion hours we need for certification (they just need to be done in a years time) and part of being confident (foster) parents is arming ourselves with information. SO, if "D" doesn't give us an "F" on Saturday and the house is up to par, we will sit down and read her final report, looking for any errors she may have made. It's a compilation of all the interviews and the Dentons as she sees us. Oy. From there, she takes it to the Board with all our other paperwork (financial info, proof of dog vaccinations, emergency exit plan in case the house burns..on and on) and we're in their hands. They vote and we're either in like Flynn or down the road. If we get the thumbs up, we are certified and it could be hours, days or weeks for the phone call that they have a match for us. Of course, we all know what thumbs down means. Keep us in your prayers, please!