Home Study Meetings Finished

Last night we completed the third and final meeting in our home study. This represents the end of a long road at the beginning of a long road. This is our third home study. It’s a grueling process in which a family spends weeks gathering documents and jumping through hoops. The state of Georgia demands access to our financial records, our medical records, and our family history. They wanted to know the nature of any 911 calls made from our house. We submitted to hours of questions about everything from how I was disciplined as a child to how we have dealt with our infertility issues. Friends and family members have had to submit letters testifying about our family life. In one week every member of the Cleland household went to the doctor including Maude the cat.

There are various ways one can think of this process. The positive view is that this extensive process weeds out many who shouldn’t be adopting in the first place. If you’re not willing to go to all this effort then maybe you’re not cut out to raise children. When I’m not filling out a 20 page questionnaire or standing in line to be finger-printed for the second time that’s how I think of it. At other times, while going through a check list that feels like it was made up by an undergrad in an entry level sociology course, I’ve begun to wonder if anyone who has ever given birth to a child has ever met every one of these qualifications. Forget sex education in the schools. Just send out a facebook message to every teenage girl telling her that since her cat hasn’t been vaccinated since last July she should avoid any kind of physical contact with her boyfriend.

Thankfully, for the third time, it’s over. And I should say that our case workers in all three cases have been fantastic. For the most part they seem to know that the process is invasive. But it’s the law of the land and so we submit believing that God has called us to adopt a baby.

If you’re considering adoption for the first time don’t be turned off by the home study. It’s a small price to pay. Jesus paid an infinitely higher price so that we could be adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God.