We are done, done, done with Bethany. Well, almost. I still owe them some pictures and they owe me a letter for the tax people verifying what some of the receipts we got in China are for – but once all that’s done I can wash my hands of them completely.
We had our last post placement meeting (#4). We had another new social worker, so we’ve now worked with a grand total of 5 social workers through 1 agency to complete Ava’s adoption.
They handle me with kid gloves now. I imagine that there are probably big red stickers all over my file indicating what a difficult ‘patient’ I am but I’ve gotten progressively more vocal over the problems we’ve had in dealing with the local office and Bethany in general. Something must have finally clicked after the last survey I filled out though because I finally got a call from the local director a couple of weeks ago asking if we could talk. We had a lengthy conversation where I provided very detailed and specific examples regarding the issues I had and I think that she finally listened. I hope so.
Anyway, the last visit took a grand total of about 15 minutes. I felt like we were rushed in and out, which was okay by me, and I’m not sure the social worker really listened to or cared about anything we said which was, again, okay by me. I’m sure she’d been told to tread carefully. I think she barely spoke to J at all and only acknowledged Ava once or twice.
Ava behaved wonderfully. She explored the office a bit with J in hot pursuit and then sat down on the floor beside the couch with a book in one hand and a cheese cracker in the other. She was pretty much good with that for about 8 more minutes until she decided to get my purse and drag it to the door saying “go, go, go” at the top of her lungs. Sounded like a good idea to me so we did.
We went to the mall afterwards. That’s a whole ‘nother post in itself.