The beginning of...the middle

Tomorrow, it comes.
Our adoption homestudy.
I don't remember the social worker who is assigned to us, but Eva does. Eva and others have told me the man is very mellow and laid-back, which is a good thing. Conversely, I have heard that these social workers tear apart your life and deliberately try to goad you into losing your temper. Not a good thing.
It irks me a little, to own the truth: in order to adopt children, we have to prove to a complete stranger that we are...what? Competent? Even-tempered? Intelligent? All of the above? What do people having children 'naturally' have to prove? A healthy pelvis on the female, I guess, and that's really about it. We've gone through over twenty hours of classes, most of them centering on negative aspects of child-rearing. We've written over a hundred pages of material on our lives, and friends and family have contributed another twenty or more. And after the homestudy, which will take two or three months, we already know we must complete a rather daunting household checklist. All tools, locked away. All prescriptions, ditto. A battery of shots for our cats, who, at 13 and 9 years old respectively, have never been outside and are therefore free of communicable disease.A first aid kit that must be approved by Children's Aid (not my wife, a former nurse's aide.) I'm all for childproofing the house to a reasonable degree, don't get me wrong...but at this point I am half tempted to ask the social worker if the children come with their own bubble wrap or if we need to purchase that item ourselves.
Our old-fashioned values present one obstacle, as far as Family and Children's Services goes. My mother may present another: I'm not sure. The fact I was spanked as a child presents a third. They feel that in moments of stress I'm apt to lash out physically at my children. Anyone who knows me knows that's a crock. But that's the point. These social workers don't know me, they don't know Eva, and quite frankly I doubt they're better qualified to raise children than we are.

More tomorrow, after the Inquisition..