Social Worker Visit

This evening we had a visit from our social worker, who we started working with since early last summer when updated our home study.  We are required to submit photos and reports to the state of Maryland and Chinese government after the one month, three months, six months, one year, two years, three years and five years.

Our social worker visits (we had four last summer) have been really nice.  Some of the early ones were extensive when she was collecting information for the home study report she had to send to China.  It was a nice opportunity for us to think about our lives and how the girls would shape our futures (and vice versa, presumably).

Even though things are going really well, there is still some tension around having someone come to the house to check in on us.  She does not seem judgmental at all, so there is no reason to be nervous, but somehow it felt important to make a good impression.

It turned out to be a good opportunity for us to show her all the girls' tricks.  They are raising their hands above their heads when their grandma calls out to them "big girls."   They clap when we do, stick their tongues out and make a kissing noise when we do.  All very charming.

I think we passed the inspection - now we have to start preparing for our three-month visit.  We can't sit back and rely on the "big girl" routine when she comes back in September.  We're going to have to raise the bar a little bit.  Maybe we shouldn't have shown all the tricks this time - it might have been better to ration them.