Paperwork

So from the beginning there was a lot of work, paperwork that is. Both Art and I typed out an autobiography and they were a minimum of 10 pages, answering very broad questions to very detailed emotions/personal information. The autobiography was the beginning, we also needed physicals, bloodwork, finance info, health insurance info, letters of recommendation, and our family tree/info.
Needless to say we were exhausted! We pumped all of it out in a week, staying up until 2 am some nights, I thought quicker on the list maybe the quicker we could be placed. Not the case I am finding out.
So now we need to submit a picture book, a book that the potential birth mothers look at and determine which couples she would like to meet face to face, no pressure right? I mean this is it, this is how she chooses whom she wants to pick. There are a million things going through my head, family, house, trips, animals, and each other. I am thinking not to much travel stuff I don't want her to think we are never home, not to much on the animals because I don't want her to think I will not have time, but I don't want her to think we just sit at home?!?!?! So many factors and not s lot of direction. But I did it, in 36 hours straight at a scrapbooking event and help from Art (loading/unloading my supplies and coffee) it became a masterpiece.
So the paper work is done, the scrapbook is done, and then came our homestudy.
Homestudy, what is that? A social worker cones to our home and spends approximately 4 hours at our house with us in our environment and then with our information submitted and her visit info writes up a ~15 page report. We were in a tizzy that day she was coming, preparing all week for arrival. We had to be prepared to be judged, what if our decorating style was to much, what if she hated animals, what if dog hair offended her, we have one close neighbor and what if that bothered her......thank goodness our social worker was amazing and complimented my style and loved the dogs, that was a relief.
The whole process is so uneasy and you really start to think. So many people just have children easily and here we are trying everything in our power to please and be perfect because the perception our social worker gives to the birth mother could mean the difference between a baby or not.