Foster Care Home Study Day!

You'd think I'd be nervous, right?  I wasn't, not really.  I actually thought it would be last week but I was mistaken, so I was prepared and nervous last week.  I worked 40 hours over the weekend, so when the appointment was for 9:30 am this morning (Monday) I was too exhausted to be nervous..lol

It was pretty simple and she had already given us a list of what she'd check (water temp 125 or below, outlet covers, medications and cleaners locked up, corded phone accessible with emergency contact list, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, emergency evacuation plan posted) so I felt confident (kinda) that we'd be ok.  And we were...almost...

The back porch is my husband's "workshop".  Actually it's just a mess of tools and "guy stuff" and I avoid going back there.  lol  However, I didn't realize she'd need to go back there (we did a walk through before and she didn't ask to see the back yard) so I was surprised and nervous when she asked to see it today.  Uh oh.....

Now, we have a pretty big yard, I mean not huge, but plenty of space for running and playing, sandbox, swingset, etc.  I figured with the ages we're looking at (0-10) they wouldn't be outside by themselves anyway, so I wasn't overly worried about his tools and randomness too much because they wouldn't be alone outside and there was plenty of space for them to play.  Don't get me wrong, getting it more organized and safe is definitely on the to-do list, but since it wasn't on the home study list and we didn't go over that in the initial walk through, I didn't make it a top priority for right now.

Well, she said it *shouldn't* stop the process, but getting the back porch "child friendly" needs to be a big priority right now.  That's fine and we'll get that situated this week (weather and husband pending...grrrr...) but it just makes me nervous and tense now.  I feel like I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and something to complicate our getting approved and now I'm worried.  Worry worry worry...it's all I do.

Ok, so hoping that she's right and it won't stop the process, the next step is for her manager to sign off on our file, which she said the manager will be in the office Wednesday or Thursday, at that point, if all goes well, we can make an appointment to sign contracts and be official and waiting for placement.  Oh I can't can't can't wait!  I'm on pins and needles now waiting for Wednesday or Thursday.  I made sure to tell her that I'll be staring at the phone over that time so she needs to update me asap!  lol  By now, she gets that about me I think, so she said she'd let me know as soon as she could.

Not actually our house, but you get the idea...lol  Really, who needs this many tools?!  Apparently my hubby.