[mountaineermom]

Well, I guess I should probably put this one over in the adoptive forum, but I guess anyone in the foster/adopt world can commiserate with getting a new worker.
We have been waiting for almost a year for the appeal to be released and file the adoption petition for K. We have to wait for C to have been in our home 6 months before we can file. A few days before the appeal decsion was issued, our AW quit. She said that she had everything ready to go for K's paperwork and she would send it in and get it approved immediately. Well, that was almost a month ago. Last night we finally met with our new AW. She says that it will be a miracle if she can get K's adoption packet completed and turned in before our next home visit (30 days from now). I know she has recently picked up lots of new cases, but as far as I know, theres really nothing left that needs to be done before she can turn in the paperwork. She was very nice, and I know she knows what she is doing since she has been an adoption worker for so long, but geesh!
She was completely confused as to which kid she needed info/documents on, also which kid was from which county, basically came to the homevisit without ever opening up either one's file.
We have been so patient with the whole case with both kids, and I just feel so frustrated with this process I want to cry. She said that she will probably do both girls together. I DONT WANT both girls done together! K's case has been in the adoption unit for over a year now, and We still have to wait until april before C's been with us 6 months! That would mean finalizing both sometime in MAY or JUNE. I really want to get K's finalized first. She had been with us longest and is older and I want them to have seperate "speacial" adoption dates. KWIM?

[greenrobin]

to be honest, we don't "celebrate" adoption day. it's kind of a mixed emotions day for all of us. it's the day that my kids think of as losing their first family because they were officially joined to ours. it's also a happy day because they were officially joined to ours. because they lost their first family.

but joined ours.

see what i mean?

i wouldn't worry so much about separate adoption days. i would, however, be just as anxious to finalize!

mixed emotions again!

what does it matter in the end? your older child will always be older, the younger always younger. you could look at it like this--we all became a family together on suchandsuch a day.

no matter when, or how many on that day, it will be special.

i do hope it's soon!

[dizzilee]

I totally get your frustration! It is so hard to go through the process and feel like you have done your part, then know that all the info is just sitting in a pile on someone's desk waiting for action.

I had a similar experience after my son's TPR. The AW who had been working with us for about 6 months or so pre-TPR, had collected all the info for the paperwork, etc. Then, right after TPR happened she informed us (5 families all adopting siblings from the same bio family) that she was resigning to go to grad school. A new AW was assigned and supposedly all she had to do was pull all the info together, but for the next few months she kept calling or meeting with me to go over a lot of the same info I had already submitted to the previous worker. Needless to say, with five siblings and five different Afamilies it was a complicated case and she had a lot of catching up to do. Then, before everything had been filed, this worker was in a car accident and put on bed rest! in the final weeks leading up to the adoption filing we were assigned yet another worker who had to tie up all the loose ends.