...and her name is Janice

Our 1st face to face with the social worker!!!! In my mind, we were getting ready to meet the anti-Christ sent from a far away land to judge our intentions and parenting skills. I imagined a bitter woman with a doubtful glare ready to wag her disapproving finger at me at any moment. Luckily, the world in my mind is not the one we actually live in.

Thankfully, she was late for our 1st meeting. The time spent in the car waiting for her to arrive was just enough time for me to be nervous, second guess myself, panic and then recover quite nicely. By the time she arrived I had it all under control....at least that's what I like to tell myself. Shannon told me not to get all worked up over the mountains of paperwork, requirements, and face to face meetings. In her usual awesome friend way she said, "Don't even get all worked up over it all. You'll see....you'll get all worked up and in the end when it happens it will be anti-climactic at best. You'll be nervous and worried about the meeting and once it's done you'll think, 'was that all?'"

Yup. She was right. Leave it to Shannon to put things into perspective for me.

Janice turned out to be a normal person. WHO KNEW??! So we emerged from the meeting with no battle scars, no wagging fingers, no judgmental stares...just normal, pleasant adult conversation. Oh, and of course there was Seth, swiping the papers off the table, writing on my arm and leaving a trail of raisins all around the room....but that part was to be expected.