Yesterday we had a Licensing Agent (to be called Jessica) come from the agency that we're working with to get certified for foster-to-adopt through the state. She was at our house to do a preliminary walk-through of our house to see if any improvements needed to be made before our actual homestudy home inspection was scheduled.

I'm happy to say that we had almost everything in order! We carefully reviewed the list that I've attached to this post (click on the image to enlarge) before she arrived, so that helped.

There were a couple of suggestions that she had and I'd like to share them with you, in case you ever go through this yourself.

1) The plastic Safety 1st cabinets and drawers locks we had will not pass inspection with the state. She recommended that we get magnetic Tot Loks instead because those will pass inspection. I must confess, I've never even heard of these. Jessica said we can find them at Home Depot. I'll bet they're sold at Babies R Us too.

2) We're not allowed to have any extension cords used in our home. We can use surge protectors, as long as they are plugged directly into a wall outlet (not into an extension cord). Apparently extension cords are too much of an electrical fire hazard.

3) We need to purchase a carbon monoxide detector, especially since we have a fireplace. Oops, we forgot that one on the list.

4) We have to get a shepherds hook and ring buoy for our pool. Guess we'll be making a trip to Patio Pools this weekend.

5) We have to sign up for CPR & 1st Aid classes, since we have a pool. We've been meaning to do that anyway, now the state will pay for these classes.

Here are a few things I found interesting:

1) We had to check to make sure our water heater had the hot water temp set below 120 degrees. Thankfully, ours was fine.

2) We had to check our fire extinguisher and make sure it was at least a 2A, 40 B C (ours was a 3A, 80 B C).

3) We had to check our dryer vent hose to make sure it was aluminum, not the papery material that I remember having on our dryer growing up. Since our dryer is fairly new, that was no problem. Apparently they don't make them with the papery material any longer.

4) All the plastic outlet covers we had were not necessary. Jessica said for some reason they don't care about those anymore. Strange.

5) Dog's have to be have their rabiew shots up to date, cats do not. I wonder what the reasoning is behind that. We don't have a dog so it's not an issue, more of a curiosity.

I must say, I really like the agency we're working with right now. Everyone we've dealt with thus far (and there have been a lot of people involved already) has been professional, compassionate, and encouraging. Having Jessica over to our house felt like talking with a friend. She was so relaxed and laid back about whole situation.

What amazes me most is that Jessica said she thinks she can have us licensed by the end of August, just in time for a possible fall placement! She confirmed with us that we'd prefer a girl, newborn to 1 1/2 years old, that we'd consider a sibling group of 2 as long as they fall within that age group, and that we'd certainly consider a little boy if he were part of a sibling group that included a girl (can you tell we really would love to have a girl).

She reminded us that we had the right to say "No" to any situation we didn't feel comfortable with. In fact, she said she'd rather we were honest and said, "No" instead of accepting a situation we were really worried about and have it end in a disrupted placement for the child.

So, Monday morning Jessica is going to schedule our real home inspection. She said it can take several weeks to get an appointment. In the meantime, we'll finish the MAPP classes, allow her to interview Oronzo and I separately (on July 16th), and get the rest of our online application and paperwork completed. Whew! We still have a long way to go before we even start getting placement calls. That's okay! This feels like it's going by a lot quicker than I expected.

It's hard to believe that we might have a second child in our home by the end of the year! I'm excited about that thought!

Labels: adoption #2, adoption paperwork, foster-to-adopt, fostering, home inspection, Homestudy