Knock. Knock. Judgement Time.

This Monday was judgment day. The homestudy visit where they make sure your house is perfect, your kids are perfect, and you are perfectly prepared to have more children. Since we are perfect, we passed. Seriously though... I knew that they weren't looking for perfection, but I sure felt like I needed to be.

The preparation had started weeks before as we cleaned, organized, and made sure all the requirements of the homestudy were met. Knives were put up. All medicines were relocated. Doorknobs on the master bedroom closet were changed to keyed locks. Those things that were to be put in the locked closet were moved there. The deck got gates. The pool got a safety net. And so on.

By the time we got to the day, I felt pretty confident, but still cautiously nervous. The day started well, other than a migraine brought on by a storm and until members started calling from the gym and my husband rushed off for a 40 minute round trip, not including door system fix time, leaving the kids to take care of 7 goats, 7 chickens, lots of rabbits, 2 ducks, 4 quail, and a dog and with the nice lady scheduled to be here at 10:30 expecting children in clean clothes not "Mom, I fell in goat poop" clothes... thank you Titus. Yes, that may just be run-on sentence written purposefully by a homeschool mom. No, I don't care if you judge me. We had been attacked and I knew it. My normal response would have been to flip my lid. Do people still say that?  However, I put on the satellite TV music station and "It is well with my soul" was playing and it was well with my soul. God is good. He's got this. Somehow, Matt got home with plenty of time to spare. The girls got the most goat milk we had ever gotten in a single morning. All the animals were fed and watered. Everyone was in clean clothes. Breakfast was consumed and cleaned up. There was even time for decorating of the front porch and all of them to wait outside for her arrival.

The others had mostly washed off when I went out today.

This was Trinity's "We Love Adoption" right in front of the welcome mat.

Do we get bonus points for awesome kids?

 

The visit was just an hour long. It included a tour inside and outside. Then her talking to the kids casually about the adoption, how they felt, and how they were preparing. It was more a friendly conversation with someone taking notes the whole time while asking getting to know you questions. This was not the dreaded judgment I was expecting. Were the kids on their best behavior? No. Were there things I wished I had said once I reflected after? Yes, but I guess we did okay. She mentioned grants, set our third appointment, and let me know she would be emailing me about how to care for our new children's skin and hair. Sounds positive to me!

 

The rest of the day and this week so far have been a roller coaster of really awesome moments, good's, bad's, and you've got to be kidding me's. Hearing from a mom that just saw our kids two weeks ago. Bank issues. Spending time with my mom and then sister-in-law and her family. Kids arguing. Previously mentioned mom emails me updated pictures of the kids! Shopping with Trinity.  Thefts from the gym... which my thoughtful husband didn't mention until late that evening, but had known about all day. That was just Monday!

 

Thank you everyone for your prayers, for asking us how it went and how it is going, for commenting on my t-shirt ideas on Facebook, for not saying "you are crazy", for writing heart felt reference letters, for loving us through this and not minding that it is consuming our minds and conversation. We love you guys!

 

And a big thank you to my husband and kids for putting up with my mind not working well, for burning dinner while I typed this up, for when I get frustrated that I have too many tabs in my brains browser open. I love you all too :)