First Social Worker Meeting

Our social worker came to our apartment on Monday morning to chat. She approved our apartment as being child-worthy, picked up the small stack of documents we had ready for her, and talked to us a while to make sure we had a reasonable idea of what we were getting into. Now that we have her contact information, those of you writing us reference letters will soon be getting your forms. This process is moving much faster than last time--our first agency meeting was only a few weeks ago!

Notary Date

Due to a happy excess of caution, we don't have to order more birth and marriage certificates. We ordered extra for Gus's paperwork in case something was lost, and we had enough left over for this dossier! Of course, if something gets lost we'll have to order more.

Had a notary date today. We had so many of these last time we eventually named them. We meet in halfway between our usual places, get things notarized, have lunch, and scatter again. This paperwork really is easier, because we can get everything notarized at once, near the beginning, rather than in spurts throughout the process. We got 9 forms notarized and mailed out all our requests for background checks (3 states each, one twice).

Also tonight we started our Hague parenting training. Taking a parenting training class is a new but a good thing. We're watching a series of DVDs; the first one was really interesting, about how children who haven't had optimal circumstances in the first few months/years of life need extra help in good brain development to process sensory experiences. We can help build good brains by mixing lots of sensory experiences with our presence and physical touch. We did these things very intentionally with Gus, just from the perspective of attachment instead of brain development. Bonus!

The Paperchase Begins

But it's not as exciting as it sounds. We had a meeting at the agency last Wednesday to go through the pile of paperwork to make sure we understood every piece. Happily, it's not as scary this time around, but it's still tedious. Now to fill out lots of forms, order copies of birth/marriage certificates, and get reacquainted with our local notary.

We also scheduled our first meeting with our new social worker for Monday. It sounds like a getting-to-know-you/are-you-sure-what-you're-doing/do-you-understand-all-these-forms kind of meeting. So not terribly exciting either, but all progress.