Post placement report number three has come and gone. Well almost: Our social worker came to the house last week for a visit, but there are a few bits of paperwork and photos that still need to be gathered before everything can be shipped off to Russia.

As I have written before, Russian authorities view the post-placement reports as being as critical--or more--as any piece of paperwork that preceded it in your child's adoption. I have been told, many times during the long, long wait for re-accreditation, that late post-placement reports are the key reason why some agencies have not yet gotten their new licenses to operate in Russia. And, under the new accreditation law, Russian authorities could use late post-placement reports as a reason for revoking an agency's licence down the road: The law mandates that an agency must be 100% compliant in its post-placement reporting. (I'll take this opportunity to say, again, that if you are remiss in any of your post-placement paperwork, clear it up now.)

But even after our fourth--and final--post-placement report is turned in next September, I think I'll keep doing one every year. Are you nuts, Virginia?, I hear you asking. Don't you just want to be done with all the paperwork that comes bundled with a Russian adoption? There is, after all, no shortage of paperwork for mothers even without adding in an adoption.

Here's my reasoning: I can see a lot of benefit to taking a clear-eyed, annual assessment of my kids' development. Let's face it, even if you write a letter to the relatives every year at the holidays, it's a summary of the year's highlights. We don't--most of us that is--write that little Johnny or Annie's temper tantrums aren't as bad this year as last.

Before I sat down to meet with my social worker this year, I did what I've done for every previous post-placement report: Write an honest assessment of where my child stands in physical, social, emotional and educational development. I use it as my talking points for the social worker interview, and I give her a copy. And before I put a word to paper for the new report, I re-read all my past self-assessments. I have been very pleasantly surprised to see what real progress has been made. I think that maybe these reports will become every bit a part of my kids' life stories as the photos of their home towns.

So tell me, what have you done for your post-placement reports?

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