Social Worker, part 1

Last Monday, July 9, was a very special day for three reasons:

1. Our social worker was coming for our very first visit!  We were filled with excitement and a touch of anxiety at the same time.  We spent HOURS organizing every shelf and every drawer in our house, along with dusting every surface and nook and vacuuming every inch of carpet.  Necessary?  Probably not.  But we didn't know what to expect, and we missed Spring cleaning this year ;)
 
2. It was our second anniversary.  Really, is there a better way to spend/celebrate an anniversary than meet with our social worker and take a giant step closer to our babe?  We decided this will probably be one of our more memorable anniversaries!  On a side note, it was not only our anniversary, but we also learned that it was our social worker's anniversary as well!  She walked in the door and one of the first things she said was "Hey! Happy Anniversary!"  We looked at each other a little stunned, wondering how in the world she knew it was our second anniversary.  She went on to mention that she happened to glance through our personal profile sheets and noticed our anniversary because it was the same as her and her husbands.  Great first conversation starter, and a great way to kick the initial jitters.

3. Curt went and got our mail at lunchtime right before our social worker was due to arrive.  In the mail were two envelopes that looked pretty important, and maybe just maybe what we have been waiting for.  Curt tore him open to find that our FBI background check came back (and of course, we were clear)!!  Now this might now seem very exciting, but we were told that these could take a LONG time.  Months.  We were VERY pleased to have them back in roughly 4 week or less.  This was one step that could have potentially slowed up the process a bit.

We spent about two and a half hours with our social worker, and it went very well. She is very easy to talk to, and she is genuinely interested in us and our lives.  We got to talk to her mainly about our relationship with each other, from beginning until now.  We also talked about how God led us to this big decision in our life and how He is continuing to work through us and others to bring our precious child home.

We will meet with our social worker again on Tuesday of this week for individual interviews.  I will spend about an hour with her, and then Curt will spend about an hour with her as well.  We will wrap up our time together on Saturday morning for a couple hours to talk about........

....PARENTING!  Yikes!  Nephews and a niece, babysitting kids, volleyball camps filled with young girls, a class full of energetic first graders..... those seem easy compared to parenting! :)  We are very excited to begin the journey of parenthood when God is ready for us to have this child, but oh how difficult it will be to not get wrapped around that sweet babe's little finger!