First Post-Placement Report

Those of you familar with adopting from Russia know that after parents and children return home, licensed social workers come to visit you once every so often to observe your family, write up reports, and submit them to the Russian Ministry of Education.

Our furst post-placement visit was this past Tuesday. It went well and our social worker was pleased with what she saw. She asked about Ashton Beau, how he was adjsuting to life with us, what he liked to play with, how he is developing, what kinds of therapies he's attending (e.g., physical, occupational, speech).

The Russian Ministry of Education requests photos with each post-placement report. So we culled through the litrally thousands of photos we've taken in the last 3.5 months.

Before showing you some of the photos, allow me to remind those of you reading this who are adoptive parents of children from Russia, one of the few things you can do to help ensure continued and expiditious adoption of more children from Russia in the future is to timely submit proper post-placement reports. Please do what you have to to show officials in Russia what a fine home your child has and to reasure them that by helping more adoptive parents - instead of putting picyune obstacles in their way - they will be doing something good for the children of Russia's orphanages and the families who love them.

Here are some of the highlights that will go with the report.

Family photo with Nungesser, DW, and Ashton Beau.

Ashton Beau practicing his walking technique with DW.



Ashton Beau wearing his U. of Florida Gators jersey from his cousin Jonathan. Thanks Johnny!



Ashton Beau playing with the drawers on the bench in our front foyer.



Ashton Beau looking up the stairs at me from the foyer.



Ashton Beau going for a ride in his new bicycle trailer.



Ashton Beau trying on a dinosaur Halloween costume.