Social Worker Visit

Procedures
We have yet to explain the procedural process (i.e., jumping through hoops) that we will have the pleasure of going through during our stay in Karaganda. Within a week after the 14 day bonding period with our child, we will attend a brief pre-court session at which a time and date will be given for our formal court appearance (typically one week after pre-court). Once we’ve attended our formal court session, we should receive the judge’s decision a couple days later. Keep in mind, ALL of these meetings and timelines are subject to change. One Belgian couple we know had to appear in formal court THREE times before receiving their final approval. After the decision has been made, we are then allowed to depart this lovely city for HOME! But wait, there’s more….after a brief reprieve at home (usually 3-4 weeks), we return to Karaganda to pick up our prized possession – Samantha. During this period at home, the Karagandan government is preparing Samantha’s passport and birth certificate, along with a few other legal documents proving that we are her legal guardians.

Surprise Visit
As a lead-in to the procedural festivities, today we visited the Social Workers at the Ministry of Education. We knew to expect this visit soon, but without any prior notice, learned this morning that our appointment was a 2pm today. We had been forewarned by other adoptive parents at the B.H., that this would most likely not be a pleasant “getting to know you” experience. After a quick prep session in the car with our interpreter though, we were pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the meeting went. It wasn’t so bad after all.

The Interrogation
The questions focused primarily on our financial situation. They wanted to know how much of our mortgage was paid, were we concerned about our jobs in this troubled economy, how much money we made, etc. The only questions about the adoption/parenting process were: 1. did we have any concerns because Samantha is not Caucasian (of course not) and 2. how do we intend to discipline her (no spankings, just time-outs). In the car, our interpreter informed us that we had “passed” the Social Worker visit! One milestone down…a few more to go!!