Home Study and the Home Stretch!

Yesterday we had the 2nd of our 3 post placement visits with our home study social worker, not to be confused with our WACAP Thailand social worker, or our Thai social worker or our WACAP Family Finders social worker, all of whom have had a part in our adoption. Cheryl came yesterday afternoon and stayed for about an hour. It was a nice visit, and since she has been with us from the beginning she knows up fairly well, for spending a few hours several times a year in our home, we enjoy updating her and catching up. Max was in rare form, showing off for the company, working his hardest to draw attention to himself and to be sure that the visitor saw how well he throws a ball and talking non-stop. He didn't misbehave for even a minute and although his behavior was a little out of character for our fairly calm boy he played and chatted easily. Our next visit will be the end of November, we have it scheduled a little early in hopes that we can finalize this year, then we wait for an invite to the Thai embassy and go register his adoption with the Thai government. Although they encourage us to do this, technically we don't have to, everything will done in the U.S. and the registration is so that Max will be able to reclaim his Thai citizenship when he's an adult. I can't imagine that he will have any desire to do that, but who knows and I'm not sure we're ready to make that decision for him, we also are not ready or willing to put ourselves into financial strain over a trip to the Thai embassy, so I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But basically after the next post placement and then a court date the adoption is done! I can't believe it. A year ago we were hoping and praying that we would be presented for 1st approval quickly, we weren't. After Jan of this year, when we were finally presented, we hoped and prayed the the Article 16 would come quickly, it didn't. But now here we are on the cusp of finalization and our home study report's final sentence for this visit was that "this adoption has been successful." What great words to hear/read. Of course we know that anything can change, Max changes everyday, but he is loving and affectionate with us, he seeks us out when he is stressed he loves to be held and loved on. If we aren't touching him he is touching us, he looks in our eyes when he talks to us and seems to trust us. In two months hopefully I'll be blogging that we have a court date and things are about done!