Meeting at Children's Home

We were invited to attend a meeting today at the children's home concerning the general "state" of the kids. These meetings take place about twice a year and involve a child's case worker, the directors of the home, and any adoption agency representatives which can come from the agencies that handle the child's file (generally from their home town). We weren't too concerned with this meeting because we know almost all involved and each of these folks are quite positive about our case.

Things turned out a little better than we'd planned, actually. The bulk of the meeting went really well, as Sylwia (the kids' case worker) explained everything in great depth...how at home the kids are here...where we are in the legal process...etc. Everyone was encouraged and expressed great interest in seeing things wrapped up on the 28th, at our hearing.

The unexpected thing came when we passed around a photo slideshow on our iPod for everyone to look at. We got many big smiles, laughs, oohs and aahs as they saw the kids at home here. After the short slideshow ended one of the woman began to tell us how thankful she was to have been there to speak with us. She told us about how she had been very discouraged for awhile recently and had been wondering if there was any sense to her job at all. She thanked us for encouraging her so much with our story and for the joy that she felt hearing about (and seeing) our kids! What a blessing that was for us to hear!!

Another great thing is that the notes taken today, including signatures from everyone present, will now be sent on to the court. As we move ever closer to the hearing that will be helpful to have even more positive opinions for the judge to read as he is thinking about how to proceed.