Moving On

Social Worker

            The next day, Kurt and Noah were sitting in the social worker's office.

            "Alright," she said, "Let's get started. My name's Amanda and I'm going to be overseeing your case."

            "I'm Kurt, this is Noah," Kurt said nervously.

            "So, you two are interested in finding out more about Shane and Maisie, is that correct?" Amanda asked.

            "Yes," Kurt nodded.

            "You met Shane at the hospital three days ago, right," she said and they both nodded.

            "There were a few boys picking on them," Noah told her, "We only met him for a couple minutes, but a nurse mentioned he and his sister were in foster care...""

            "And that peaked your interest?" Amanda asked, "Why? You've never fostered both and you know both children are sick, so why were immediately interested in adopting them?"

            Noah and Kurt exchanged looks.

            "I was sick about eight years ago," Kurt explained, "CLL. That's actually why we were at the hospital. I hadn't been feeling too great and Noah wanted me to get checked just to make sure everything was fine."

            "And is it?" Amanda questioned.

            "Yup," Kurt nodded, "Everything was clear."

            "Well good, glad to hear it," she smiled at them, "Now, today we're going to be going over everything that would need to happen before we can really go ahead: background checks, finances, talking to friends and family, a house visit, and obviously you would need to know more about Shane and Maisie's circumstances. It'll probably take a while, but we'll try to speed it up as much as we can since Shane and Maisie are a special circumstance. With them being in and out of the hospital so often it's important for them to have some stability. So, assuming everything goes fine, hopefully that's what we can achieve here." She smiled at them and they nodded.

            "Ask away," Kurt said, "We just want the same thing, so anything you want to know we'll tell you."

            "Good, honest answers will get this done much quicker." She pulled out a clipboard and pen. "Now, there will be a more extensive interview that will go along with a questionnaire you'll receive to bring home today and bring back for your next appointment. Right now I'll just be asking some basic question for information we're going to need to check. So first, why are you interested in adopting? Not specifically Shane and Maisie, but in general."

            "It's something we'd talked about doing one day," Noah said, "Obviously we can't have them biologically so we figured we'd adopt."

            "Why not use a surrogate?" Amanda asked.

            "This is going to sound really cheesy," Kurt said, "But why bring another kid into the world when there's already so many waiting for a home?" Amanda smiled and scribbled something on her board.

            "How do your families feel about you adopting?" she asked.

            "We haven't actually told them yet," Kurt admitted, "It all happened so fast and we wanted to get the ball rolling a bit first."

            "Alright, well we will need to contact that at some point during this process so you may want to call them soon." Both boys nodded.

            "Do either of you have any criminal convictions?" Amanda asked.

            Kurt shook his head, but Noah shifted nervously.

            "Um, not really me, but my family..." he said slowly.

            "For what?" Amanda asked.

            "Um, noise complaints and... domestic... issues," Noah said.

            "I see," Noah scribbled something on her clipboard and Kurt reached over to grip Noah's hand.

            "Um, I don't know if this makes a difference, but I was a kid when most of that happened and I don't actually have any contact with my family anymore."

            "It's something we'll have to look in to," Amanda said, "But if we find that you were a minor and not involved then I wouldn't worry too much."

            Noah nodded and breathed out, but still couldn't help worrying that he might have just messed everything up for them. They answered several more questions and then Amanda gave them a giant stack of papers.

            "Fill those out and we'll see you in three weeks," she told them.

            "Thank you so much," Kurt and Noah shook her head and then left, making their way home.

            "Now what?" Kurt asked.

            "Now, we call your dad."

What do you think? I did some research in the types of questions social workers might ask, so I hope this was alright!

Barole in the next chapter! Thanks so much for reading and let me know what you think!