Communication is important....
At the end of April I contacted my Social Worker because we finally received some new clearance documents that the agency required in our state. We had not spoken to my SW since the first week in March and basically a month and half passed before we spoke with her via email or anything. When I spoke with her via email at the end of April, I told her that we wondered what was going on because we had not heard from her since the first week in March when we did our 90 day service plan.
Our last conversation (early March) consisted of us talking about scheduling the final home study visit and completing the profile. She said that any remaining documents could be picked up at our home. I don't know if I have shared this or not, but I carry a tote with all of our essential documents related to the adoption that is photocopied. So, in the event I need to fax something or resend something, I will have it with me organized. It also helps me keep everything together and organized because I am able to keep track of what I sent and when I sent it.
Well, the month of March was an eventful month for me. Then, April came in and we were still pulling some minor things together that we needed to have by her visit, however we still had not heard from her. Anyway, to make a long story short, it was miscommunication. She stated that she was giving us time to complete the last bit of information and we were waiting on her to call us with the final visit day. We just figured she was extremely busy. So, after I contacted her via email, things quickly turned around because I was asking questions left and right as I was before. She was emailing and calling me etc trying to get dates available for our last visit and be accommodating.
I spoke with a couple friends and they also stated that really your SW should be contacting us on a regular basis, at least monthly to see how things are going or just to check in to see if we need any assistance. This was a little unusual, but we are at the end and I didn't even get upset. We had been so busy pulling things together in the nursery and working on other projects so we really did not have time to bug out about this communication thing.
We scheduled our final home study visit which will be brief and we are pulling together our profile book. She initially said that she was going to bring some examples of profile books with her when she comes for the final visit. However, we thought that we would have had that visit in April, to be honest. We started pulling things together on our own, so hopefully, we will have the book completed when she arrives at the house versus having to look at examples and then start on it. I wanted things completed by early June.
This just goes to show you that things occur and we run into bumps in the road with our journeys, but we are so at peace and moving along doing what we need to do. While this was some sort of communication error, it did not really stress us out. At one point, I questioned whether or not we were truly doing the right thing, because after all this is where we were led. In the end, we know that God is truly in control of this journey. I know that my patience and faith have been truly tested with this adoption process.
8 comments:
You sound so patient in your post about the misunderstanding. I would definitely be frustrated, but at leas you seem to be on the ball and are already seeming to be ahead of the SW. It is all in His timing and maybe this bump in the road was hand made by Him to lead you right where you need to be. :)
Ah yes, communication! Rarely happens the way we think it should.
I remember well submitting our profile for review in October and waiting to hear back. Finally in December going in to review it to become active.
The important thing is to be at peace with the speed you're moving. And it sounds like you are.
Glad things are moving along for you. Have fun making your book. Do you get to include a lot of pages? We could only have one page front and back which really limited the scrapbooker in me.
Nevididi,
I am learning to be more and more patient through this process. This has been the only area that I have run into thus far that has burned my nerves a little, but luckily we are at the end of the process, so it is all good. You are right, it is all in his timing and thats why I am not stressing over it. Everything happens for a reason.
Debbie,
Yes, I think that everyone goes through a few things during the process. Yes, we are at peace with everything and we will be finished after this visit! There is not a limit to the profile book pages, so I am enjoying pulling together things. I am loving my hubby's MAC right now because it organizes all of the pictures that we take. It makes it so easy to pull pictures from iphoto and place into documents. I will let you know how it turns out when it is completed. I will also try to show some pictures of it on a slide show when it is a finished product. I think this is the fun part for us because we can be creative and show it in our profile book.
God's timing is perfect!!!! I am glad you are at peace with the pace.
Thanks Kelly. Yes, I have grown and I am still growing in the area of patience. This is all God's work and that is why we are doing our part and we are going to sit back and let him do the rest.
It's good you guys are taking this in stride and are not being consumed right now. It's really good.
Angela,
Yes, we are taking this in stride. Thats what i meant when I told you that this is a learning process for me because adoption is not in our control and it teaches you something. It is new to me because I have never adopted a child before. We know that everything is in his will and I am at peace with that totally. I have experienced this in other areas of my life before and God had his own wonderful plan worked out for me and I liked his outcome better than how mine would have been under my own guidance!
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