Yesterday was the last time we'll ever have a visit from Joanne, the social worker that's followed us along as we've become parents to Little J. She did our home study, visiting us in our old house, then did all of our post-placements. She wasn't the person who gave us our referral for Little J or who processed our paperwork, but she's been the one who gave us the okay to adopt. She's been in our house. She's seen how we live.

In case you're wondering, post-placement visits are rather painless. Once you've been through the homestudy you will have no problem with the post-placements, since they are basically making sure everything is okay with the child and checking on safety. The social worker will ask you to describe a typical day with the child, explain what you like to do with him or her, and ask you questions about development and health. Joanne always asked us if there was anything she could do for us at the end of the visit, so I imagine if we had a problem or concern she would have tried to get us some assistance.

Post placements are done a little while before the 6 month mark, the 12 month mark, the 24 month mark, and the 36 month mark. They are actually due at those points (6, 12, 24, and 36) so the social worker typically comes out ahead of time in order to get the reports in on time. I imagine this changes depending on the agency as some agencies are able to get translations done quicker than others. Frank, the agency we used, has so many Russian employees I think they're able to cut it fairly close to the actual date.

I also remember Joanne coming really soon after we were home - like 3 weeks or so - so perhaps there used to be a one-month PP due, although maybe that was our agency's practice instead of the Russian government's, to make sure that we were doing alright.

It was a little bittersweet, saying good-bye to Joanne. I wonder if we'll ever see her again - probably not, if we don't adopt again. But maybe in a year or two we will be calling her up, asking her to come out and inspect our house from top to bottom in the hopes that we'll have a new little one soon!