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.
