I believe Blogger is finally back online after a nearly three day shortage. I wrote this blog last night, but alas, had no place to put it. So here it is.
Completely off topic, as I prepare to finally update this blog, I am enjoying an incredibly delicious gnocchi in fontina sauce with Target brand dried gnocchi (of all things). I also added peas, which seems like a nice touch. Totally unhealthy, but SOOOOO yummy. I know she won't have Gustafson genes, but I hope our child enjoys rich, yummy homecooked foods. My father is an awesome chef and my mom made some pretty amazing food as well. I feel like I'm coming into my culinary own.
Anyway, back to business.....
Ever have one of those days in which you are entirely busy, you can’t take a break, and you finish your day exhausted, but you look back and wonder?, “What the heck did I do all day? I have nothing to show for it.” We have made progress in our adoption, but it is invisible progress. For those of you who are not actively involved in this adoption (namely, everyone who is not Craig and I), progress does not seem to occur until we get that referral (and that’s a long way away). We have advanced several small (yet important) steps in the past week.
· We received our Pennsylvania child abuse checks. They were scanned and emailed to our home study worker (hoping to expedite the process) and also mailed (for good measure).
· Craig received his passport, so he is now free to flee the country to seek asylum somewhere else if he so chooses (but we hope he doesn’t). I still need his birth certificate back from the Department of State, but what is another couple more days?
· I received clarification on our authentication. Most of the documents have to be authenticated in Oklahoma from a notary whose commission does not expire in the next 18 months. The rest are travelling to all ends of the US to be appropriately stamped and stapled. Unfortunately, our favorite (and most convenient) notary’s commission expires in May 2012. So, now Craig must find us a new notary.
· The non-Oklahoma documents are packaged and ready for authentication (with the exception of Craig’s birth certificate, which is on its way). Each state (or Commonwealth) has very specific instructions about what you can and cannot do. The authentication process has taught me something new about myself. I may have a total of 20 years of formal education and several years of life experience, but I am completely confounded by FedEx’s prepaid shipping and air bills. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to figure out what forms I’m supposed to use and whether those are the forms the state (or Commonwealth) wants. I don’t know the difference between the different shipping types or why I can’t enter weights less than 1 lb. I also can’t figure out why I can’t use a FedEx envelope for the cheaper ground service. I hope I did it right. I must not be that bad since I FedEx’ed our contract and that got there just fine. Either way… frustrating. I am Fedlexic.
And then there’s Iowa. If you remember correctly, Iowa was refusing to run a child abuse/background check on former residents. Our home study worker informed me that she would call last week (as in the week of the 2nd) to verify that this was true. For those of you who know me rather well, I am a control freak. I can be the stereotypical “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” person. So, it took me quite a bit of strength to hand this task with Iowa to another person. When we received our Pennsylvania checks, I emailed our homestudy worker and asked if she had received any word from Iowa about the check. I received a short, abrupt response, “No I have not heard from Iowa.” No explanation. No elaboration. Grrr….. So, I had to take matters into my hands again and called Iowa, asking them to send me a letter, verifying that they do not do background checks for former residents. I got a nicer woman on the phone, who verified verbally that they won’t do background checks for former residents. However, she couldn’t get me anything in writing. I had to call the county. I called the county, but DHS in Iowa is restructuring. The worker I need is working two counties and he wasn't in that office then. I called the other county. The worker I need is there, but is in conference until Monday. Grrr- squared. So, Craig faxed the request to Iowa and hopefully, next week, someone will fix our little problem for us.
Either way, progress is progress.
Progress is definitely progress!!
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