You may recall our list of required social worker visits and reports, and it now looks like this:
3 Years After Adoption (May 2015)
5 Years After Adoption (May 2017)
That means we only have 2 reports left, one next year, then we get to skip a year (and there will be much rejoicing!), and one when L has been home for 5 years. Then we are DONE with our reporting to China....... unless they change their rules, which is always a possibility (please God, no!!!!).
Not to be a whiner or anything, but today's appointment came at the end of a very long weekend full of drama, drama and more drama. It started on Thursday when Jay drove to work and his car died about a mile from our home. We had it towed to our friend's shop and almost $500 later, it's running again. CRAP! On Friday, Super E was running upstairs to play, his foot slipped off a step and he came crashing down, hitting the stairs with his EYE! Oh, how he screamed and how it ballooned up and turned as purple as an eggplant. Shortly thereafter, Jay came home very early and announced his back was out. He has a herniated disc and while it hasn't flared up in the 2 years since we've been in Texas, it sure is rearing it's ugly head right now. He spent the entire weekend upstairs in bed watching TV hoping the muscles would stop their spasm. I ran out on some errands and Super E vomitted back at home. Worried it was from the head bump, I called the nurse who told me to just keep a good eye on him. It was a long night of checking up on him every hour or so. Then on Sunday night I was making a chopped salad for dinner and accidentally cut a good portion of my thumb. It was bad enough that I left the kids home with my husband and went to urgent care for some steri-strips and dermabond. No stitches thankfully. Oh, no, it doesn't stop there. My husband ended up sick in the bathroom all night on Monday night. He's scheduled for a fresh MRI this week to see if his disc is worse than in years past. Yeah, Memorial Day was awful.
The visit today went well but you can imagine how I wondered what my social worker would say to all of us, minus the girl and Super C, being banged up. Today's visit was much more detailed and I shared a little bit more of the ugly that this year has brought. You see, this second year home with our Quiet Tiger has been harder than the first. There may be a post about it later because I know I'm not the only mom who has struggled more in year 2 than in year 1. Today I laid it all on the line and told my social worker about all our struggles. She too assured me that it's all normal that she wasn't concerned. She didn't offer much advice, but she said it's all typical adoption stuff.
But what I really came here to share with you were the required photos and accompanying captions that I was to send with the report. It was much harder to choose with a full year in between reports, so I sent more than the standard 15 photos. With the cheap cost of prints at Walmart, I didn't mind sending more pictures.
5 PICTURES OF L ALONE
(I chose more)
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| 7-22-13 L on her 3rd birthday with some gifts [My agency may choose not to use this because our dog is in the photo, but we'll see.] |
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| 7-22-13 L with her Cookie Monster birthday cake made by mommy |
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| 8-16-13 L at Sea World She loves getting wet on the water rides |
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| 10-13-13 L's first visit to Ikea in Austin, TX She loved the store |
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| 1-31-14 L in front of our home on a cool winter day |
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| 2-2-14 L in her qipao on Chinese New Year She gets a new qipao for Christmas every year to wear on Chinese New Year |
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| 2-14-14 L on Valentine's Day |
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| 4-21-14 Cooking outside over a campfire at a friend's house in Illinois |
5 PICTURES OF L WITH MOM & DAD
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| 12-3-13 L and Mommy all dressed up and going to Daddy's Office Christmas Open House |
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| 12-21-13 L and Mommy at Horseshoe Bay, Texas |
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| 12-24-13 Family Christmas picture in front of our Christmas tree |
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| 5-4-14 Mommy, Daddy & L at church |
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| 5-21-14 Mommy, Daddy & L at home |
5 PICTURES OF L WITH SIBLINGS, EXTENDED FAMILY & FRIENDS
(I sent more -- too hard to choose)
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| 7-2-13 Our 3 beautiful children at home |
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| 7-4-13 Celebrating America's Freedom on the 4th of July |
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| 5-27-13 Out to dinner with Aunt Patty (paternal great-aunt) [China likes to know the relation.] in Kingsland, Texas |
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| 10-31-13 Halloween costumes Darth Vader, Minnie Mouse and Obiwan Kenobi I tried to get L to pretend to be scared, but she was laughing |
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| 10-27-13 L and her brothers were invited to a birthday party at a gym with inflatable bouncy houses! She thought this was the best place ever! |
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| 12-3-13 Our 3 kids visit Santa Claus L was scared at first of the man in costume, but she quickly warmed up to him and told him what toys she wanted for Christmas. |
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| 12-21-13 L and her brothers with her 2 cousins (paternal) from Dallas, Texas. |
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| 12-22-13 Beautiful Christmas lights at Sea World with our new friend whose daughter was also adopted from China! |
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| 2-2-14 Chinese New Year Lion Dance. It was a cold day and I had to put a jacket over her beautiful qipao. |
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| 3-6-14 Long time friend Eileen from Minnesota visits Texas. Eileen and her husband Vern spent many years in China on sabbatical. This was Eileen's first time meeting L in person. |
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| 4-14-14 L with her Godparents from North Carolina who we met for lunch in Chicago! This was the first time they met in person! Their son in the white shirt was adopted from the USA and he and L were fast friends. |
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| 4-15-14 While in Chicago we met with other children who came home from China around the same time! This was great fun for all families with children from China! |
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| 4-15-14 Dinner with Grandpa Collins (paternal grandfather) in Chicago. |
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| 4-17-14 Hugs from Grammie (maternal grandmother) at her home in Chicago. |
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| 4-21-14 Easter Sunday hunting for plastic eggs filled with candy outside. Uncle Todd (maternal uncle) and cousin Emme visit from Minnesota. This was the first time they met L in person! |
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| 4-21-14 L and her Uncle Todd. Uncle Todd travels to China annually for work. |
Happy Gotcha Day, Quiet Tiger!
