2nd Post-Placement Meeting

We met with our social worker today for the second of four meetings before finalization. The meeting went well! The girls were little hams, as usual!

BUT, we got some bad news...

Apparently our agency is in a bad way financially, and b/c of that they are letting go of all of their staff...our social worker, the birth parent coordinator, receptionist, intern, etc... They are bringing in the former director who retired in 2001 to run the place, but there will be no one there full time. And the social workers and birth parent coordinators will be used on a contract only basis only.

So where does that leave our adoption, you ask?

Mary Ann (our wonderful social worker) has said that she is going to do everything possible to continue working with us to finalization. However, she has to find another job, so if she finds another job, will she have the time to help us along? Who knows! And that worries me! Especially since there won't be someone there to answer the phones when I call in 2 months requesting our 6 month meeting.

Then I asked about our birth mother. What happens when she needs someone to talk to or wants to give us something for Chipmunk? Apparently, if she calls needing help, she'll more than likely have to leave a message, and when the director finally gets in touch with her, she'll have to contract the counseling out, and more than likely it will be to someone who has no prior relationship with her. Isn't that SAD??? I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Poor Shannon!!!

So I asked how we were supposed to get in touch with Shannon with updates. And Mary Ann said that Jill is working to get the birth mothers in touch with the adoptive families directly. That is entirely a breach of the contracts that we and Shannon both signed. We were told that the agency would act as a go-between for us. And we needed that until we were able to establish a good enough relationship with Shannon and felt comfortable enough to exchange contact information. Our situation is different in that we did not meet Shannon until the day she handed us her baby, so there's no relationship there other than a few letters and pictures. Yet we're supposed to be ready 4 months later to exchange personal information? I think we're just going to start with an email, and then we'll work from there. I hope she'll be open to that. I would hate to think that this letter we just sent to the agency today would be the last one she receives. My heart is breaking over this.

Keep in mind that we have already paid them $30,000 for this adoption! We are worried that if the agency closes before our adoption is final we will lose all that money. They have been adamant about the fact that it's not closing, but it doesn't sound good at this point!

What exactly do we have to do to have an adoption go through without any major snags??? Please pray for this situation. It's so very sad, and I feel so badly for Shannon. Here she placed her baby for adoption thinking she was going to get all the help and comfort that she needed whenever she needed it, and now it's all falling down around her. Please pray that the agency will allow Mary Ann to continue working with our adoption through finalization on a contract basis so that it will go through as scheduled. And please pray for the staff who was basically given 2 weeks notice that they were losing their jobs!

I think my blood pressure has gone up over this. My heart is racing! I need to go rest!