There we were, cleaned, pressed, and ready to face the social worker. Our appointment was for 3:30pm and we were ready. At 3:10pm the phone rang. It was Karen our social worker. She was stuck in traffic and was going to be late. I told her not to worry, we would be here and all would be well. The 91 Freeway frequently resembles a Used Car lot rather than a moving freeway. It did not occur to me to ask where she was. This was mistake #1. At 3:50pm Karen called again to say traffic was really bad and she didn't know how long it would take. At that point I asked where she was. "Anaheim Hills" she said. That meant she was still more than an hour away in traffic. I once again told her not to worry and we would be here. At 5:20pm the phone rang. Karen was still in traffic and this time had just barely passed the 71 fwy. Things were still very, very slow. She apologized & said she would call when she got close so we would know she was here and I told her that we would still be here. Michelle was taking a nap by now. I was bored out of my mind. At 5:45pm the phone rang. Could it be that she was finally here?? No, it was Charter cable calling to tell me that my High Speed internet access and cable TV bill would be going up. How nice!
At 7:05pm Karen called again. Michelle, fresh up from her nap, got the call this time. I was waiting to hear that she was still in traffic and somewhere around Tyler. I heard Michelle say, She's here! Of course I didn't believe this and went on playing a video game on the computer. At 7:10pm there was a knock at our door and the social worker had arrived! Right on time if your are in Michelle's world.
At first we thought there must be some mistake because a Jamaican Grace Jones walked through our door. But no, it turned out that was Karen, our social worker. She was very, very nice and extremely apologetic for being late. The 91 freeway claims yet another hapless victim. She was grateful for the use of our restroom and the munchies we had set out for her. She received an immediate cat scan from our three fuzz buckets and was deemed acceptable. This concluded the cats participation in the events as they all went to their respective places and promptly took a nap.
Now the fun begins. We showed Karen around our apartment. She glanced in each room and did not take out her white gloves, Megan! A cursory glance was all it took. Makes all that cleaning seem somewhat unnecessary. She was pleased that there were two bedrooms and two full baths. She commented on the large size of our kitchen. Then we gathered around the coffee table for a little Q&A. The meeting was really to get a basic overview of who we are and what we understand about this undertaking. She felt positive about us as a couple and was impressed with the amount of research that we had done and how many of her topics that Michelle and I had already discussed at length. We were prepared with answers to some questions like "how do we feel about discipline" and "what would be our parenting style."
Overall it went very well. We have three more meetings with Karen before our home study is complete. One meeting with each of us alone and one last meeting together. Michelle begins her round of the Newlywed Game next Saturday! I will go sometime after that depending on schedule. We will probably get this done within the month if our schedules remain flexible. The rest depends on how quickly we get responses from places like the INS and FBI. If all goes well our dossier could go to the facilitator for translation into Chinese by the first week in June.
We are on the move now!
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