We had our first (and only) post placement visit yesterday morning and it went very well! Our social worker B did our home visit for our home study as well as our post placement, so it was really nice to see her. It’s amazing how different this visit was compared to our home study. Before the home study my husband and I were so nervous and had cleaned the house top to bottom and talked about how we would respond to questions and all the normal pre-home study antics that go along with being interviewed in your home by someone who is going to determine if you are capable of adopting, raising and parenting a child.

Our only concern for the post placement visit was if we could keep Ella awake past her naptime and not have a totally cranky baby on our hands. B was running a little late, so Ella’s morning nap was late by almost an hour and a half, but she did beautifully! You would have thought we had worked with her ahead of time so she would show B the amazing things that she does everyday.

The visit started with Ella being interested in B, but wanting to stay in my arms. Score one for mom :) B was very happy with this and said it showed that she is attached and has bonded well. We all sat on the floor and played with the baby and let B gush all over her! We basically just talked about how we were doing, how Ella was doing, how the trip was and things like that. Nothing too deep or involved.

At one point she gave Ella a sticker and watched her to see what she would do. Ella wanted to put the sticker back in the sticker book and worked for a very long time to get the sticky sticker off of her fingers and pressed back down into the book. Score another for us ;) B was impressed that she didn’t get frustrated with having the sticker stuck to her and she said it showed that her problem solving skills were advanced. Well, maybe she didn’t say advanced, but I think she’s advanced ;)

The visit lasted about an hour and B will write up the report and send it off to our agency. From here on out we’ll be responsible for sending reports and pictures to our agency, who will in turn send them to Viet Nam. It's strange to think that we'll have very little agency (home study and placement) involvement from here on out. We're on our own now! :)