On the road again...

Another week and another road trip to Richmond. This time for a less stressful purpose. Yesterday, Hunter, Richard and I were due at Children's Home Society of Virginia (CHSVA) for our third and final supervisory visit with these nice ladies.

It will probably be the last time we meet with the staff of the agency in any official capacity. Our next step in our adoption of Richard will be in the hands of our adoption attorney. But that won't be until at least October.

It's amazing to me, this journey of ours. We started out as two bewildered people who didn't know where to turn for help with our wish to adopt. We finally found CHSVA. They have done an amazing job as far as we are concerned. Sure, we went through some tough times with some of the staff as in this episode. We also encountered adoption professionals from other agencies with varied results such as these folks.

But I am glad we stuck with CHSVA. The social workers were always there for us. I don't know how they deal with hopeful adoptive parents and not get burned out. Hunter and I are pretty easy to get along with. But I understand the desperation of some couples and I imagine it's not easy being in the hot seat when an adoption is taking longer than a couple thinks it should. So my hat is off to these ladies and their colleagues. Thank you for a job well done from our family of three!

Home Study Update

Today we had a meeting with our adoption agency's social worker to update our Home Study. Our Virginia Home Study conducted in 2009 is valid until May 2011. But the agency that is handling the placement is in Texas and there, Home Studies are only valid for one year. I thought we would just be able to go to the agency for a meeting. But no, the social worker needed to come to our house.

As you can imagine, there was a frenzy of cleaning going on this weekend, Monday and Tuesday. I'm talking about going so far as washing windows and cleaning ceiling fan blades. I even got home a little early to do some last minute tidying up this afternoon. And then I panicked about our basement which is still in the progress of being finished. Should I write something up showing how we would spend the next few months putting the final touches on the basement? Would she insist on seeing it like our last social worker did when she came to visit us a year and a half ago? Even though we have done this before, I started having all kinds of paranoid thoughts. Maybe she would check the cabinets to make sure we didn't have any cleaning products within a child's reach. And on top of everything, she was about a half hour late allowing me more time to let my imagination run wild.

And in the end, she just sat us down at the dining room table and we had a lovely hour or so with her explaining the paperwork we needed to fill out. Most of it is just an update of forms we have filled out before. She did ask a few questions about what our plans were for maternity leave and child care after Baby comes home. But that was it. This is our third social worker at this agency since we started and this was our first time meeting her. Well, I hope she sticks around. We had a great chat with her and she was so helpful in so many ways. And the only time she left the dining room was to use the restroom just a few steps away. Ah, all that extra cleaning (and worrying) for nothing.