Individual Interviews

Jason and I are starting this blog mid-stream in our adoption process.  We'll write some posts later to catch up on why we are adopting, what the process has been like so far, how we've grown and changed already, etc.  But for now, we'll pick up with current events - our individual interviews!  


The interviews were two hours each, and scheduled back-to-back so that we couldn't "compare note" with each other between interviews.  The most nerve-wracking part was that we weren't sure what types of questions to expect.  Would they be hard questions?  Would we be put on the defensive?  Would our answers line up?

Afterward, we both agreed that it wasn't too bad.  As best as we can remember, the questions were regarding the following:

• our parent's personalities and our relationships with them as children, teenagers, and now, including how often we see them and communicate with them
• what growing up was like for us (family lifestyle, interaction with extended family, how we were disciplined, how faith played a role in our family, family values, etc.)
• what we were like as kids and in high school and college, including interests and activities, experimentation with drugs and alcohol, etc.
• family medical history and our own medical histories, including physical and mental/emotional 
• our strengths and weaknesses
• our marriage, including how we each act when mad or upset, any especially trying times in our marriage, etc.
• how we came to faith, how we are involved in our church, etc.
• how we plan to discipline our children
• our values 
• our close friends and our support system 
• employment history - first job, other jobs, professional life, main responsibilities in current job, what we like/don't like about current job, etc.
• exposure to diversity (racial and lifestyle) and thoughts on it
• political views
• how we handle stereotypes 
• our communication and problem solving skills 

So, what's next?  We have a few more pieces of paperwork to get in, including some more "book reports" (we have to read several adoption books and write up our analysis of each book).  Next Thursday (6/27), our social worker is coming to our home for our joint interview and home inspection.  The joint interview will be with both of us and is expected to last approximately two hours.  The home inspection is expected to last approximately an hour.  At that visit, we need to have all of our hazardous materials (cleaning supplies, tools, guns, etc.) child-proofed.  We also need to have purchased other child safety equipment (plugs for outlets, etc.).  Other than that, we're not quite sure what to expect during the visit - we've already had our house inspected by the fire marshall and the county code enforcement officer.  We suspect she'll look at the size of the child's room, for any safety issues, and generally whether or not our place is habitable.  Guess we'd better get cleaning! :)

Once we complete next week's joint interview and visit, and get our paperwork in, we'll be officially finished with the home-study process.  Then, our social worker takes approximately two weeks to write up our home-study report.  The report goes to the Executive Director of the agency, who has to approve it.  After that, it comes to us for our approval.  We have the chance to make any changes that are necessary (misspellings, errors in dates or ages, etc.).  Once it looks good, we sign it and then we are officially approved to be adoptive parents!

In the meantime, we'll be working on our "profile."  Our profile is basically a little book that, in words and pictures, tells the birthmother about us.  If a birthmother likes what she sees in the profile, she can either select us or choose to meet us before making a decision.  More about that later - but for now, we need to focus on getting our profile done because once it is done and we have our home-study approval, the agency can start showing our profile to birthmothers.

I think that's enough for now - we'll try to update over the next week or two to catch up on everything we've experienced up until now!  In the meantime, please be praying:

1. For the Lord to be creating the right child for our family
2. For the birthmother of our child
3. For us, as we are preparing to be parents, that the Lord would be molding us and shaping us into the right kind of parents for our child 

Love,
Jason and Jeannine