Party hardy, drink Bacardi...

I've been doing the "Ultimate Blog Party" thing for a couple of years, and it's always a great way to "meet" new people and find out about them. For my regular readers, the handful that still keep reading my blurbs, the UBP is basically where you meet other bloggers and can actually win prizes. Some of the prizes kick ass, if I do say so myself. If I won anything, the one prize that would really come in handy would be the $250 gift certificate to a Hilton hotel, especially with our upcoming road trip this summer. ;)

Granted, I haven't won anything yet, but you never know...

For those of you that are new to this blog, I'm an ever-so-impatient, waiting mom for a child from China. So far it's been a very long process. When my husband and I started out, we were told that we would have a child within a year, but things changed...slightly.

Next week we'll have been waiting for 43 months. FORTY THREE long months. I'm not going to bore you with all the things that have led us to this point, but suffice it to say that this is the hardest thing I've ever been through. This wait has, in essence, drained us; emotionally. Who would have thought that it would be *this* difficult to have a child? But I digress...

The two things that have kept me somewhat sane throughout this process have been my wonderful husband of almost 14 years (is it wrong that I just referred to my husband as a 'thing'?), and my cat, Deuce.

If any of you new(er) folk would like to leave me a comment, I'll be sure to visit your blog.

Seriously...?

As I mentioned in my last post, we had met with our new social worker just this past Thursday. I just checked my email and the update is complete.

Seriously.

I'm absolutely stunned that since first talking with her on March 1st, that we were able to get all the documents complete, meet with her, and she was able to do our update. I'm sorry, but I'm just not used to this kind of prompt attention from a social worker.

Now if the CCAA could just hurry up...

Wow...just wow.

[Does anyone actually read this blog anymore?]

This past Thursday (yes, April Fool's Day and the middle of Passover), Josh and I met with our new social worker. We decided to schedule the meeting during Passover because: a) the house would be at its cleanest and,
b) Josh had the whole week off to help me with cleaning and preparing.

I can't get over how great she was.

We sat for just over two hours (she even ate my all-too-dry passover cake and said it was delicious) and talked about *everything* - including what's going on with our agency...

She wasn't a "typical" social worker, or at least what I've come to know as "typical" over the past 4+ years. She wasn't stiff (again, unlike the cake), she was *gasp* human. We talked, laughed, joked about things. It was totally bizarre, but in a good way.

She went over our original home study, page by page, but really only touched on the major points. She didn't even bother to comment on our first update because there really wasn't any substance to it. A few comments were made about our previous social workers (by her), which made me snort. ;)

When we got around to the topic of education, Josh mentioned that he had gotten his MBA during the time we were doing our original homestudy and that he had spent three weeks at Cranfield University. Our social worker's mouth dropped open. She told us that her second daughter was born on the grounds of the university (in a res). It was all a little bizarre considering how small the university is (in case anyone is familiar with the area, it's near Milton-Keynes). They spent about 15 minutes talking about the scenery, etc.

At the end of the meeting, we asked her if she wanted to see the rest of the house. She looked at me, and said that "your previous social worker saw it two years ago, that's good enough for me." (I wish I had known that before we cleaned it from top to bottom). :P

She told me to let her know when we're close (about a month or two before we think we'll get our referral). She actually schedules her vacations around referrals, so if she knows she's got a client who is getting theirs, she'll make sure she's in town.

We had such an enjoyable (I never thought that was possible) time with our social worker that when she left, I had to stop myself from hugging her. If any of the GTA folk need a social worker, leave me a comment and I'll pass her info on to you...

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, THANK YOU, LISA for giving us her name. We seriously can't thank you enough.

Click all as read?

Are you sure? Yes!

I had to do this to my google reader, so sad too bad. If I missed anything important on your blog, leave me a comment.

I had computer problems the last few days and the only access I had was through my Pre. I don't know how I made it through, honestly. :P

...hear me roar!!! ***UPDATE***

Not the best picture, but so sad too bad. ;)

Today marks 42 months of waiting. FORTY TWO months. *splat*

To answer Dreamer's question, the charm was chosen by my MIL. It's representative of Josh's Hebrew name which translates into "lion". :)

What a difference!

Last Monday we started working on our update for our neverending adoption. We wanted to switch social workers, due to a few reasons - none of which I'm going to on here, and we went with a suggestion from our BFFs. The social worker turned out to be better than I could have ever imagined.

Seriously.

We have been in constant contact with her via email and phone calls. She's always there, even in the evenings AND on weekends. I've had more contact with the new social worker than I have been with both of the others, over the past four years, combined. Scary, isn't it?

We sent her our entire file on Tuesday, she sent us all the forms we had to fill out and sent them back to her. Everything was complete by Saturday (except for our physicals which occur at the end of March).

On Saturday we went to do our police background check, because we're such big criminals. Anyways, when we got there I asked the lady behind the counter how long it would take to get the paperwork back from the police. She told me that, on average, it would be about ten days. I told her that it was for an adoption. She asked me if it was the last piece of paperwork we were waiting for and I lied said yes. She told us to have a seat and five minutes later she handed it to us. How about that for efficiency?

With all this completed, we still haven't even met our social worker or even paid her a dime...but everything is complete. Is six days a record for getting the paperwork done? ;)

With everything we have been through, it's about bloody time that something goes smoothly. It's gone so smoothly, in fact, that with my nature I'm almost waiting for the other shoe to drop. How sad is that?

Captain obvious...