What I thought was Pre-Placement

Here is my story about C (who is a 10 year old little boy in FL): I found C on a FL heart gallery at the beginning of July, and I submitted a 'more information' form for him via the website. A few days later I received an email requesting me to email my homestudy to C's SW. I immediately attached my homestudy and forwarded it to the SW (making sure to cc my caseworker, as well). On July 7th I get a call from C's SW. She spends about 30 minutes asking me questions to clarify my homestudy. She then sends me a confidentiality form via email and asks me to sign it and email it back to her because she wants to send me reports on three boys (N, W, and C). I get the email, sign the form, scan it, and email, it back to her. With in 20 minutes I have the reports on the three boys - all of whom are up for single child adoption. The SW asks me to review the reports and call her the next day with any questions. I review the reports. N is out of my age range (which is 6-12), but happens to be C's older brother. W seems to be too much for me to handle as a single parent. But C seems to be - well not perfect - but a good fit. I did have questions, which I called her about the next day. She answered my questions and told me that the next step was for me to come down to Florida and meet with the people involved with C's case. She said that since I am traveling a long distance that I would also meet C. She even went on to talk about how if the meeting went well that we may be able to push ICPC through fast enough for C to transition before school starts in late August. We talked a little about schedules and then decided to email some potential dates to one another. It was eventually decided that July 30th would be the day that I would meet with the people involved in C's case and meet C. :drive: I then called my caseworker and informed her that I was traveling to Florida. She tried to get in contact with C's SW, but they still have not managed to talk. Well, I talked to yesterday and found out that the meeting that I thought was a pre-placement meeting is in fact a full-disclosure meeting. :grr: At no point in any of my conversations with C's SW up to this point has she stated that they were going to continue looking for other families. Apparently they are. I had to come straight out and ask her. I wouldn't have even asked if my caseworker hadn't told me to.:mad: They hold these full-disclosure meetings with 2-3 families per child/sibling group. I asked her how soon after my meeting would I know if I had been chosen as C's family and she told me 2-3 weeks. So I won't know if he is mine for over a month!!! If that's the case then we would never have been able to get ICPC finished in time for C to transition before school starts in late August! And here I have been thinking that I was matched with him for weeks. Making fantasy plans/dreams. It was a difficult phone conversation. All I can do is hope and pray that my meeting goes well. His SW asked me - a few weeks ago - to prepare a photo album to share with C when I meet him. Well, I emailed a copy to her to get her input. During our phone conversation yesterday she gushed about how much she liked it and how she called over her boss and coworkers to share it with them. So, hopefully that is a plus.