The Last Interview

Last night was my last interview with the social worker. She asked me to have my son there, and one of my references, preferably the pastor, since having someone in a position of responsibility vouch for me would impress the Russians. Fortunately, my pastor wasn't in class and was available that evening.

After the social worker arrived, she kicked me and Rick out so she could talk to the pastor privately. Rick went to his room, and I went for a walk outside with the dogs. I don't know what that man said to her, but when I got back, she told me I should pay him anything he wanted for all the nice things he said about me. He chimes in with, "....so, about that donation for the church...." (Like I said before, my friends must love me enough to tell some BIG whoppers!)

She let the pastor leave, and threw me out again while she spoke privately with my son--for what seemed like a LONG time. After he was allowed to leave to work on his homework, she told me how impressed she was with him. (Well, okay, I kinda am, too!) She interviews a lot of adolescents in the course of her job and says she's usually lucky to get a shrug and a monosyllablic response or a grunt from them. (Sure sounds like she's describing my son.) She was pleasantly surprised that he was articulate and polite and willing to discuss any topic she chose to ask about. (Wait a minute--is she REALLY talking about my son???)

Then she went over my finances. She decided that I'm in good enough financial shape to support Sergey in the manner to which he has not yet been accustomed, so I'm good to go.
Her one concern is my heart condition. In her experience, Russia would throw a fit about it, and she is rather puzzled that the placing agency (WACAP) thinks it will be accepted. She'd rather not mention it in the report at all, since I'm so obviously healthy at this point, but we both agreed it had to be in there, because I'm on prescription heart medications and it would show up at some point and just look like I'm trying to hide something if it doesn't get mentioned up front. I think the reason WACAP was okay with it and thinks Russia will be okay with it is because I have documented that I am stable in the normal range of heart function. But now I'm a little anxious about that possibly disqualifying me. Can't let myself sit around and stress over it though; I'm just going to have to pray that whoever reviews my dossier takes a good look at the fact that I'm stable and probably healthier than s/he is, and won't let that matter when they're trying to find a good home for a child they haven't been able to place for 10 years because of his deafness.

It's time to sit and twiddle my thumbs at this point. Nothing to do while the social worker is writing up her report over the next 3 weeks. Time to hit the school books and pretend I'm actually studying!