I finally got our home study application turned in last Friday, along with the $500 fee. After they receive your application (and money), they send you a giant packet of forms and instructions for completing the packet. 40+ pages! Next, they assign you a social worker.

We made our first appointment with the SW for Monday at noon. I'm pretty excited :). She's pretty much just going to go over the giant packet of forms and walk us through the process. I'm glad we can get things going so quickly, because the speed of the rest of this is pretty much up to us.

As soon as we finish all of the forms (some of which we have to submit to various government agencies for different background checks, etc.), we then submit the whole packet with the rest of the fee for the home study - $1,150.

After that, I think, comes two more visits with the social worker. And after we bring the baby home, we have a post-placement visit. That makes 4 total visits, if you're keeping track.

I plan on spending the next few days gathering documents (marriage certificates, copies of driver's licenses, etc) together to stay ahead of the curve. With only 113 days left to go 'til the baby is due, and the typical home study taking 90 days...I've got to get a move on!