Home Study, day 1

We met our social worker this evening. She spent two hours in our home, helping us to put together our paperwork this evening. The timing was crummy, as poor L-- feels as if she has been abandoned by her parents. Not only do I leave her crying at her school every morning, but this evening I left her crying at the playground after dinner. I'm sure that the move and the visitors has compounded the stress for the poor little girl, but she clearly feels abandoned by us. Its heartbreaking... and wonderfully comforting to leave her with her loving Nana. Our friend Amy is spending the week with us, and has been a wonderful help with the girls as well.

The visit with our social worker left us both uplifted and frustrated.

Uplifting because we like her, and we feel confident about the process to come and her ability to lead us through it.

Frustrated because most pieces of documentation we had already gathered for the dossier proved to be incorrect. We've just spent two hours at Dave's office, making minor changes and photocopies. Hopefully our paperwork will now be in compliance with the Chinese government.

The gathering process has been more difficult than it ought to be. Each document generated in the US must be authenticated by the state government and then by the Chinese Embassy. The Embassy has rejected my birth certificate at least twice so far, on strange grounds each time. And the documentation in China proves no simpler. Dave asked his assistant to gather our police background check for us - we've been advised that this should be done by someone fluent in Chinese. She called him from the post office - you do realize that if you adopt a Chinese baby, she won't be able to leave China? Dave explained that this is not the local police's decision. Seemingly questioning what we would do with the child in a year or two when we leave, she said So, you're sure you want to adopt a Chinese baby? Dave said he's sure.

Overall, the first evening was a success. We will go into tomorrow's day of interviews feeling not quite rested, and feeling guilty for sending L-- to school alone. But otherwise confident and even enjoying the process.