[robandjulie]

Tomorrow at 10 our social worker is coming to do our post-placement visit. We spent the whole day taking down our Christmas decorations and cleaning up the house after a couple of especially crazy weeks. Now I'm trying to focus on the actual discussion!

Anything you did/didn't talked about or asked at your PP visit that you wish you had addressed more at that time? I want to make the most of this rather expensive visit!

Thanks!

[JoshGuat]

We talked about attachment issues since that is what we were dealing with at the time. I am glad that we did as our social worker gave us resources and we were able to utilize them Hope all goes well tomorrow

[maccafan]

Our post-placement visit was mostly an opportunity to brag about DS! Really, our SW spent most of the time watching him play. We talked about his favorite foods, how he's sleeping, words he's saying, interaction with family members. It was very easy. There was nothing we didn't tell her, and nothing I wish we had talked more about. I think I concentrated on telling her about things DS does that make me laugh, or were really cute, stuff like that. I really like our SW and feel I can call her whenever if I have a question, so I didn't feel pressure. I don't think I even cleaned the house much! (...based on how little she looked at the house on previous HS visits.) Obviously, if you're having any adjustment challenges, this would be a convenient time to get some advice. I really think most SWs want to help us, rather than "score" us on our parenting skills. You'll be fine!

[cbmstephanie]

During our visit our SW mostly wanted to know how DD was adjusting. It was very informal yet quite informative. Do be as honest as you can, and if you have any issues or questions, don't be afraid to ask them...that's what he or she is there for.

[Disneycrazed]

For ours we were all on the floor playing and talking about Malea. The SW (I know we have the same agency but i don't know if we have the same SW)
Aksed how she was doing and wanted to see her do different things. Really it ended up being just a conversation that went in a few different directions. We did talk about Paperwork and the finalizing of the adoption etc....
We also talked a little bit about early intervention because at the time malea was a little behind in a few things.
Good luck and have fun with it!!!!

[Guatemom]

I was very disappointed that our PP visits for Cristian were done by a field s/w rather than the actual s/w that handled our process (due to our move 2 hrs away from the h/s office). It ended up being more expensive b/c we had to pay for the field rep's exps PLUS of course the PP visits themselves. Anyway, all she did was ask the standard Q's (is he adjusting, how are we adjusting, how was the trip, what are his habits, what are his milestones, has he regressed, etc.) It was a nice visit and she was very nice; but again we really had nothing to do with her the entire process so it was a let down that the one we worked with the entire time would not be the one to do the final PP's and actually see the fruit of our labor!
Also, whatever you discuss, be HONEST. I tried to sugarcoat some things b/c our field s/w had very little exp in dealing with int'l families/adoption (she said her primary visits are to foster/domestic situations) and in hindsight I think that was wrong. If the s/w does not have a lot of exp doing these or not a lot of exp doing PP visits w/int'l families, etc., this is a chance to educate them. You might be the only lesson in int'l adoption they have
Good luck and enjoy your visit

[Waiting4Zach]

Mine just wanted to know what he was doing and if he was attached to me yet. She wanted to play with Zach, but he was very sick and just wanted to be on mom's lap. I just had my six month and it was pretty much the same, but this time she got to play. As a matter of fact Zach would not let her talk to me much. He wanted to show off everything he could do.

[TheFoxx]

At our follow up visit the house looked like a bomb had gone off in it and Dylan had a black eye. She walked in and shook her head and said "yep, looks like you are all doing well".

We also spent the time just chatting.

[JustBarbara]

For ours - my SW and I were sitting on the floor with DS and we chatted, she asked questions re: sleep, eating, my adjustment, how DS was faring - it was almost like a friend had come to visit. Within the first 12 months home we went to visit the SW at the agency (again, a low-key interaction to see how he was doing).

[robandjulie]

thanks all!

It went fine, although I wish I had prepared the following, in case anyone else is facing one soon:

1. She needed all the medical stuff in terms of which tests we'd had done, when, and the results and our plan for follow up. We called our peds office and haven't heard back yet so most of that section was blank.

2. She asked what his expressive language was and we started trying to identify some of his words. This is always harder to do under pressure and we ended up stalling out of words at 25. She said that was ok but normal was 50; we were on the low end of normal and could qualify for EI and suggested we bring them out. After she left we figured we'd make a real LIST of words so we could have it for an EI review and came up with...78 clearly understandable words. 78! Not 25! So we spent a lot of time talking about speech delays when it's not really an issue. I didn't think it was, but DD was incredibly expressive at age 2 (talked in whole paragraphs at her 2nd birthday) and Jorge's right on track so he seemed a bit behind HER but obviously not delayed.

One odd thing: she asked about his bio family and we gave her the tiny bit we knew and said we hoped to find out more when we got the packet back. Then she started paging through this huge thick packet we got from teh attorney with the BC and adoption decree and showed us that--duh!!--the social worker report in Spanish and English was in that packet! We'd never even looked at it. So now we know Jorge's birthfather's name, some of his info, more of his backstory, etc.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences!