Catholics rule, Lutherans drool

We had our home inspection this past Tuesday. It was nothing like we expected - a lot better actually. The social worker came to the house and sat down with us first to go over some of the requirements or things that we agree to do/not do. Then she took a tour of the house and asked out plans for it re the kids, and we explained. She made a little rough drawing of the layout and that was it. Pretty painless. She also said I shouldn't worry about keeping the house clean for her...does she know I am Jeanne's daughter? Someone tells me not to clean - NO PROBLEM.

When she sat down with us she had pages of things we had to agree to do or not do, and requirements that we had to acknowledge. First thing, it is important that we keep specific information about the child and their background confidential. It is fine to discuss the process of course, but we shouldn't be telling anyone, for instance, what specifically happened to the child that brought them to our house. When they get older, they can make the decision to share or not share their experience. And it makes sense - imagine I slip a detail about the child or their birth parents to someone and they may promise not to tell but we all do, sooner or later. And if the child over hears the wrong thing, or they know that people know these intimate details, it could exacerbate the situation.

Now on to some of the other requirements - that we have running water. Hmmm. Check. The form she used is statewide, and so there is a large section about the water because of rural areas. Still, slightly amusing. We then had to sign in no less than 5 places that we would keep our hot water under 115*F - because a child was scalded before. Accidents happen but come on! No corporal punishment. No going longer than 14 hours between meals. I was like WTF - who would do that? Then Robin pointed out that most people do it - its called eating dinner and then not eating again until breakfast. Pshhh. Not in my house - its the one thing Skipper and I have in common: always hungry and always looking for food. The social worker would have done better to advise me not to feed to often! No punishing them by denying access to people they love. Not saying that if they play ball in the house we couldnt say, no you cant go to the park with your friends. They mean withholding a phone call to a relative or something. We also had to agree that if they break something not to withhold more than 50% of their allowance to pay us back. And that we will let them do additional work to earn additional spending money. We were really surprised that those things were being told to us - its fine, it makes sense but that you actually have to mandate that. I dont know it was weird. It was like for every very useful thing (the website you can go to find all recalled items) there was something weird or no-effin-duh (let the child go to the bathroom by themselves).

They also said that we will respect the religious wishes of the child. We agreed but my concern was this: we are Catholic and what if the kid we get was raised Baptist. Do I have to take him to a Baptist church? Will I not be allowed to send him to our parish's Catholic School? She said that the birth parents, until the adoption is finalized, still have control over the religion of their child. We must have had some look on our faces because she quickly added that this is more to ensure kids who want access to church get it. She had a case where an older child who wanted to go to church was adopted by non religious parents and they had to make sure there was access to church. I dont think she wanted to discuss it further. But Jerry's friend who went to LCFS said she did so because she wanted to make sure they understood her desire to send the child to a Lutheran school. Now you would think Lutheran + Lutheran = no problemo but that doesnt answer what they do with non-Lutheran Protestants and Catholics. I know there is prejudice against Catholics, but over and over again we were told and we read that you dont need to be Lutheran, that it doesnt matter (but I am half!!!). So I dont know. Hopefully I am just over reacting.

Also, I am more confused now about the next steps. She said that she doesnt want to schedule our one on one interviews until we attend class. I didnt realize how much class there was - 27 hours! Im sure she told me but with everything else no wonder i forgot. So we registered for classes but they do not begin until April 24. It is FIVE saturdays from 930 - 430 with an hour for lunch. yes, i love school but those are LONG days!

And we got mooooooore paperwork. Gotta love it.