I realised I hadn't bloggeds about our home study.. so here it is :0)

The house was reasonably ready.. it's usual state of several things needing to be picked up but school needing to be done was more important. I had the timer on and the plan in place. School, baking, lunch, pick up, study..

School migrated from the school room ot he dinning room table so I could give instruction and dispose of several pounds of apples into an experiment cake and apple sauce. I LOVE it when school work sticks together and you could literally eat it up!

Jacob was on a mission to finish as much history as he could, Emma was finding several ways she needed help so she could come over and get instruction and apple slices, Benjamin and Hannah were pretending they could play Othello and making up a game all of their own .. and for once NOT arguing. I had just got eh cake out of the oven and while it was cooling had popped into my room to dispose of the pile of cloths on my bed that had been washed between peeling, teaching and listening that morning. The last sock had been thrust into a door and the buzzer had gone off to let me know the cake was cool and I still had time before the study to feed the children and pick up when the door bell rang.

Jacob burried in school work called out.. "She's here.. quick.. look like you are working!" I passed him on the way to the door and reminded him that he WAS working :0) "oh yes.. " he said as he put aside yet another sheet of history facts.

On the door step was the social worker and one dog torn between giving her a true labrador/shepherd welcome or rushing off to chase the cars that were passing.. she opted for entertainment choice two , for which I was extremely grateful and rewarded her with not buzzing her for chasing cars! Anne the social worker was most apologetic. She had been int eh main town near us and was on her way back to the office, she was very early, she is never early she told me. but she was passing .. I told her to come on in and not to worry about it. So she walked in to our home, little ones had discareded the game and were sitting at the counter munching celery sticks, peanut butter and apple cakes, Older ones surrounded by history work sheets and colorig pages and so the visit began.

The children shook hands and introduced themselves adn then told her they were ready for her to ask them questions. Anne was a little taken aback and told them that children were usally at school when she came to visit. The children were quite disappointed as they knew why they liked each other, they liked me and they wanted to be foste brothers and sisters. Anne told them that if she were to place an older child in our home they would have to go to public school. Hannah began to cry and Benjamin told her he didn't like that idea. She asked why? Benjamin told her that if a child was going to come into the home he wanted that child to stay at home and enjoy all the fun things they got to do during the day and be part of the love of the family, he didn't like the idea of them going off without their new brothers and sisters. :0) The social worker looked a bit surprised and we explained that that was the rule, Jacob then asked what if the family was already homeschooled.. what then. Once again she looked a bit surprised and told us that teh homeschooled families didn't usually need foster care and she had never thought about that before because it had never been an issue. Meanwhile Hannah is still sobbing LOL! Anne starts to look a little uncomfortable so I cheerfully joked with ehr.. "way to go Anne, come early, traumatise my children.. would you like some apple cake or shall we look at the house." Then she spied my spinning wheel "oh do you spin?" andwe find out we both love to knit, she looks at my yarn, we swop information in projects we are working on right now. Hannha stops crying and we go to look at the house.

Again to cut a long story semi short.. Jacob give the grand tour of his room.. complete with opening his closet for inspection and telling her that he has some special things he'd rather a child not break so he will be putting them up in a chest we are going to get with is nameon. The other children will have special thing chests too and we will have spares to fill for other children who come to stay with us, These will be their's if they stay a day or a lifetime. Again Anne looks astonished and comments on what a nice idea that is and that this is obviously a family project. I tell her what we ahve done to try to prepapre the children for what may be ahead.

We go into the girls room, again a guided tour of speical things and Jacob opens the girls closet. Emma had actually had a cleaning spat that moring and organised her closet of her own accord.. Jacob steps back in amasement and says "wow it is amazing how much tidier girls closets are than boys".. at that point I manage to encourage them to other activites or this is going to take all day!

We look at our room (Ididn't show off my closets!) and then head down stairs. She just wants to see what room we have and states that we have plenty.

She asks me a few questions about why we want foster children, she specifically asked if we are trying to build a large family. I told her that I thought we already had a large family and that we were open to as many other children in it as was meant to be. I explained that I had wanteed to adopt since I was 8 years old and that the thought of little ones not having someone to read to them, play with them and love them unconditionally was a hard thought to have and not do something about.

She seemed happy with all our answers, kept saying how vibrant and socable the children were and that any little one would be happy to be part of our family. I thought that was a nice thing for her to say.

As she got up to leave the children came to the stairs and asked if we had passed. She told them we had indeed. "So are you going to give us children now?" they asked. She said she would try to place children in our home that would be a good fit here.

We have told her that for now 0-3 year olds are what would work best with the home schooling and ages of our children.

And so now we wait....

OH and she actaully commented on our path way!!!! She said it was fun how it curved and snaked.. I told her she needed to come back after we have planted the lavenders and lemon grass.. :0)

So thank-you for praying, it was a great visit, she got to see our house and our home and the hearts that reside here.