October 3, 2006

Adoption Social Worker Meeting One

This morning we got moving a little early and drove out to Glad Tidings Church on the other side of town to meet our new Social Worker from Bethany Christian Services. In the last couple of days we've each prepared a 2-3 page autobiography, and collected documents on our birth, marriage, and life insurance. Gathering all those together, we headed out to meet at 8:00 this morning.

We found the church, arriving about five minutes early. Everything was locked, no one was in sight, and the sign on the door said office hours started at 9:00. She had also told us to meet at -Good- Tidings Church, not -Glad- Tidings Church, but the street address was the correct one, and the phone book didn't have a Good Tidings Church. Oh, no! Were we in the wrong place? That was when we realized that Jacquie hadn't given us her phone number; so far we'd only communicated via email. So we called the New Jersey office, which is the only one we had a number for, and while they were contacting Jacquie, she pulled into the parking lot.

Apparently someone at the church had agreed to come open up early for her, but then was unable to make it. So we began in the back of Jacquie's SUV. First, she gave us a bunch of paperwork to read and sign, some to return to the Bethany office via mail, and some to hold for her until our next meeting. We gave her our autobiographies, and then she had us begin a "Self-Study". She told us that typically she would have each spouse in a separate room, so we were not allowed to talk or exchange looks or peek at each other's paper. *heh* SO much like a test at school! Our self-study was five pages of questions about ourselves, broken down into categories: Personality (my own strengths and weaknesses, personal achievements and disappointments, goals, etc.); Childhood (happy and unhappy memories, how I was as a child, my parent's relationship); Marriage (our relationship, his and my strong and weak points, common interests, how we settle differences, our relationship with our in-laws, personal priorities); and Children (how it will change our lives, what qualities we want to instill and how). While in the middle of our self-study, someone finally came and opened up the church, so we moved inside where we could write on a table and not our laps.

After we finished the self-study, we gave her our documentation, which she copied information from, we reviewed what we needed to do next, and we made some small talk. And that was that.

After our meeting, Lanse and I went out for brunch, where we very briefly commented on our morning and then tried to not talk about it and take an emotional break. We went to Staples after food to get filing stuff for all the paperwork and headed home.

I've gotten all the filing done, Lanse is in bed sleeping, and now that I've caught this up I'm going to join him. I'll probably post later with what my feelings were on all these events. Right now I'm still processing. :)