New Social Worker

This morning we meet with our new social worker...she is wonderful. From the moment she walked in the door it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of our chests. She was so easy to talk to, told us about her family and how they prepared for their adoption, talked about Lydia and her adoption, and about grants and fundraising options. It was so relaxed and exactly what we needed to give us the push to continue moving forward.

Funny little story...when Justin went to answer the door Lydia followed right behind him. The social worker said hi and introduced herself and saw Lydia standing behind him and said, "you must be Lydia". Lydia took one look at her and said, where's brother or sister, you not bring them with you"....lol. We had previously told her a lady was coming to the house to tell us about brother/sister. I guess she thought she was bringing him/her as well.

Anyways, she answered many of our questions and if she didn't know the answer she was straight forward with us and told us she didn't know but would find out and let us know. A lot better than just plain out telling us she didn't know or making something up like we have dealt with in the past. We spoke with her about the concerns of the homestudy and the financial end of the adoption. She told us that she has not read the homestudy entirely but has read over it enough to tell us there is nothing to worry about. Hearing this now from two different people has helped. As far as the financial end of things she told us where we can find grants and told us to apply for everyone we came across. She also gave us some really good ideas for some fundraising projects.

As far as the grants, we asked what she thought our chances were of getting one. She said that like many loan/credit card companies, they look at your debt to income ratio...which is the reason we have been denied for everything under the sun. Since our debt to income ratio is so high, she told us to write in the comment sections of WHY we have so much debt so that they can understand our situation a little better. By seeing that much of our debt (credit card) is previous/current adoption expenses, school loans, and infertility treatments it looks a lot better than seeing debt for a third car, boat, second house...etc. We pray that we will get one or more of these grants so that some of this financial stress can be lifted.

We also spoke more about time frames and what to expect in the coming months. The main contact person over the Taiwan program spoke with her last night and wanted all of the Taiwan families to prepare for 2 years and if it happens sooner...congratulations. However, this is the quote for a healthy child under the age of 1. Since we are open to a boy up to the age of 2 with a special need it could be sooner. It's just one of those things you never know. We also decided that we wanted to be put on the waiting child list and she presented us with a case today of a little boy from Taiwan that is just over a year old. His needs have not fully been diagnosed and Justin is worried about some of the long term affects. When she showed us his picture my heart just melted, but we need to look more closely at the need and see if he is the right choice for our family.

Another thing we found interesting is that in our homestudy approval letter it stated that our time starts when the homestudy is completed. We found this odd since we were told it doesn't start until the dossier is submitted. If what the paper read is correct we have actually been officialy waiting since July 23. That would be a nice change of pace if that were true:)