Our home has been officially studied

We're done with our home study! Amy, our social worker, just left our home a few minutes ago. We were surprised to find that the experience was actually pretty enjoyable.

Several weeks ago, we had our first meeting in Orlando. It was a group orientation meeting with several other couples adopting through America World. Amy used this time to get to know us, and also introduced us to topics we'll continue to study such as attachment, and what it will be like to bring our child home.

Last Wednesday was our second visit. For this one, Amy came to our home. She took a brief look around (all that cleaning for a brief glance in each room!), and then the three of us talked in the living room. She asked us questions like: how we had decided to adopt from Russia, how our families felt about it, how we planned to discipline, etc. We had already discussed all of these things, so it was easy to tell her about it. It only lasted about an hour.

Today was her last visit. This time, she talked to Ben and me separately (it counts as visits 3 and 4). She asked us questions about our families, how we grew up, our personalities, what we liked about each other, and how we thought life would change after we have a child. Again, not too hard. (But don't you always hate the question: "Tell me about yourself. What do you like? What are your strengths?" Arrgh! So hard!) Again, she was only here a little over an hour.

So now, she will type up a 12-page home study report summarizing her visits. She said she should have it done in about two weeks. There are a few other documents she will need to sign for us as well. Once that's all done, we'll be ready to send everything to Russia!

Our Little Man, Vlad

Thanks to our creative UF Nav students, Baby Nugent has a temporary name. It began during our Martin Luther King weekend trip to North Carolina. Everyone wanted to know what we planned to name our son, and then proceeded to start making suggestions (of course!). Eventually, "Vladimir the Impaler" was thrown into the mix. And for some reason, it stuck! Now Ben and I both refer to our son as "Vlad," as do the students. It makes me smile when we are praying with them, and a student prays for Vlad in Russia. It does make him seem much more like a real little boy, then just calling him "Baby Nugent." The problem will be when we have to pick an actual name... We'll be so used to Vlad by then!

Oh, and another process update: This Wednesday, our social worker will make her first visit to our home. This will be our second home study meeting, but the first one on our turf. She said it should last about an hour and a half. We're not exactly sure what we'll be talking about, but we're not too nervous. We met her a couple weeks ago during our first meeting in Orlando, and we really like her. She was even involved with The Navs when she was a student at Auburn: what a small world! We look forward to letting you know how it goes.