It's the final countdown...

So we had our home study/ interview with our licensing worker. I am not going to lie, it was rough. It was 3 1/2 hours of straight questioning with no breaks. It wasn't easy questions like your name and favorite color. These were in depth short answer questions regarding childhood, parenting style, and discipline. These are all things Mark and I have talked extensively about, but they just are so difficult to explain and put into words in an interview format. When the experience is over I was completely mentally exhausted. It was also a lot of heavy material so it wasn't probably the joyous moment it should have been.

All and all though, we survived and it is now done. We should be hearing the results in the next week or so. From that point we will find out if they are requesting additional tasks be completed or if we are finally going to be submitted to OLCR for final approval and licensing. Once the OLCR received it, who knows what could happen.

The biggest frustration we have at this point is absolutely the lack of any sort of expected timeline. We are just sitting and waiting. We have a completed nursery that just sits empty while so many children are in need of a home...

Life Safety Inspection

The life safety inspection is when an inspector from the state comes into our home and inspects it according to a list of guidelines we have been given. These guidelines are lengthy and very exact. I have had a lot of anxiety about this inspection. In fact, I have been dreading it since we first found out we had to have one.

Prepping for this inspection has been not only time consuming, but costly. Several nights were spent up late cleaning, organizing, and prepping.

The biggest and most expensive task we had was securing all of our fire arms. Now don't get me wrong, we would have had our guns locked up if we were having our own children as well. We would have simply put them into our gun safe though. For foster care, this is not acceptable.

 

I have a thyroid condition. Because of this condition, I have to take medication daily. Imagine my excitement when I found out that my medication (prescription, over the counter, and vitamins), must be kept under lock and key at all times.

 



 

 

All of the stress was worth it in the end because we PASSED!!!

What this means now is that we are in the home stretch. We are waiting on Mark's fingerprint card to arrive and a final meeting with our licensing worker. After that, paperwork is submitted to the state for final approval. I can almost smell those dirty diapers now. :)