Home Study Part I

Last night went great. Our social worker came over about 7 o'clock. To date it was probably the most informative meeting that we have had. She not only has three biological children but also has an adopted girl. She was able to give us a lot of information about international adoption and to tell us the differences and similarities between her own children, which we found very interesting.

We found out that the first meeting is more of her giving us information and the second meeting with her is more about her asking us personal questions, like how we are going to discipline. We learned that adopted children can have attachment issues, so it is good to have the child sleep in your room for a while and it is good to give him a bottle, even if he is too old for a bottle, so that the child will get attached to the parents. This is the opposite of what you would do for a biological child.

Another point to our meeting was to make sure we did not live in a card board box. Also, to make sure that we did not leave all of the shotguns, pistols and machine guns out. We don't want our little boy coming home and starting a cold war. Just kidding.

I guess in retrospect there were a lot of things in the meeting I had just never thought about that could be issues in raising an adopted child. I look forward to the challenges and the honor of raising this beautiful child in America. Dee Dee and I both are excited and nervous about the next couple of months but we are definitely looking forward to the plane ride home with our new son.

We have one more meeting with the social worker next week were it will be a little more one on one. We will keep you updated as things go.

Thanks

Bradford