First Post Placement Reports Due… Cookies in the oven

This is Roman and his friend Anastasia.  They have a few things in common other then extreme cuteness.
They were both born in Russia and called an orphanage home until this past September.  We now live three blocks away from each other.  Her Mom and I did not know about each other until after the adoptions when we bumped into each other at our neighbourhood Early Years Centre.  It turns out we left for Russia days apart, our court dates were the same week.  We both adopted as single women, had the same adoption practitioner for the adoption course and are with the same Adoption Agency. 
Cosmic crazy eh? 

Since our time lines are so close it also means that our post-placement reports are due about the same time.  For those that haven’t adopted yet, those are the follow up reports that are done by our Social Workers that go back to the Russia.  Each country is different but for Russia they are done at six months, one year, two years then three years.  They are intended to show officials the success of the programs and to keep the doors open for future families to adopt.  Canada has a very strong positive reputation in the world of international adoption partly due to our compliance in submitting completed and positive reports.

Anastasia and Roman will celebrate six months home next month (March) so we are both in the process of preparing our reports and having our home visits by our social workers.  Naturally we are both getting all Martha about it which is actually quite unnatural for both of us.  Lucy bought a pink chandelier for Anastasia’s bedroom and I sorted Roman’s toys into bins which I almost labelled.  We both bought cookie dough so that our interview would be conducted to the aroma of fresh baked cookies.  Everyone knows that you must be an excellent mother if your house smells like cookies. 

Both our interviews went very well and neither of us burnt our cookies.  I love any opportunity to brag about my boy genius so I spent my interview time gushing.  I found the most difficult part selecting only five to seven photographs to send in the package.  I have 968 photos on my iphone alone.