Our social worker had explained at the early June meeting that she is obligated to meet with each of us individually one time during our home study. We arranged these meetings for the 16th and 17th of June, a Tuesday and Wednesday. Our ‘homework’ for the next session was a series of questions that we needed to answer — 7 pages worth!

A couple of days after our meeting on the 9th of June, a friend arrived to visit for a week. We hadn’t seen him in a while (well, a few months for me but several years for Hubby). We really wanted to do some fun things while M was visiting, but of course we both were working full time as well. Fortunately, our friend needed to do some research and writing during the day, so was happy to be left on his own. We did go out for the day on Saturday and again on Sunday. When we were out on the Saturday I had a text from the social worker, asking if we could reschedule Hubby’s meeting on the 16th due to car problem the s/w was having. Clearly, as we had 7 pages worth of worksheets to fill out, we were happy to oblige. Then on the Monday, my boss asked me to re-arrange my working from home day so he could go to his son’s sports day at school. I asked the s/w to re-arrange, and she was happy to do so, expressing the sentiment that it’s important for parents to attend sports day! Fortunately for me, this meant I had another week to get my homework done.

Our friend left on the Wednesday, so there was no excuse for me not to work on the questions now. Hubby has a lot of down time at work, so he was able to get his done; he brought the hand-written sheets for me to type. I got most of that done, and most of my questions answered, when we went away for the weekend on the 19th-21st. I didn’t get any work done on my questions, but I was able to read one of the eight books that the adoption agency recommends.

The book I read was titled An Adopter’s Diary by Maria James. It’s a thin volume, and a really easy read. It was simply a diary of her adoption journey.

After the weekend I managed to get all of my questions done on Monday night. Hubby’s appointment was for that Tuesday at 3:30. The s/w asked me to arrive home at 5. However, when I got home they weren’t finished with their session, so I sat in the kitchen and read the next book on my list (Attachment, Trauma and Resilience by Kate Cairns). Hubby and s/w finished around 5:30, so it was then my turn. The topic was my family growing up and their influences on me. We finally finished at 7:45. I had a doctor’s appointment that morning at 7:30, so it was a very long day.

The next meeting is the first of July, but we have a training course before then.