A few more steps...

1) I made the corrections to our homestudy (12 major errors, too many typos to count, two pages in all) and signed the new Certified copy last Tuesday.

2) The Adoption Laison and Adoption worker came over last Thursday for the Presentation of the child (which really ought to have its own blog it was so great)

3) Today, I got an email with an Adoption Application attached, and I forwarded to Mike. Then he proceeded to improve the form so that he can type into it and then email it back! We will likely fill it out and return it so fast their heads will spin.

So, we're still waiting on something called the Subsidy Packet, which we will also fill out and return in record time.

The thing is that I thought perhaps we were moving quickly toward a year-end or first-of-the-year Hearing, but the Laison said "It will probably be about three more months at this point." Yet another waiting period. You all know how I feel about that by now, so need to flog a dead blog.

Is anyone even reading this anymore? Not that it matters, because it makes a great dairy/journal/writer's guidebook...but just curious.

Anything you'd like to know? Not know? See? if you were reading this as a book, what have I not discussed or touched on that you wish you knew more about?

Also, please let me know if any of you would be willing to read (and especially, to PROOFread) first drafts of my book. I will be self-publishing it.

Thanks in advance for your time, thoughts and ideas.

The Latest Bureaucratic B.S.

I don't want to get my big girl panties all in a bunch today, but I do want to blog about "where we are" (social workers love to use that phrase) in the adoption process...for my book if nothing else. I will often post in my Facebook Status Updates about the daily happenings, but I don't want to neglect to come here and flesh it out a bit before I forget all of the inane details of the bureaucratic purgatory in which we've found ourselves.

We had a Team Decision-Making, or TDM, meeting here at our home last month. Present were Mike and I, the kids, our Ariel Case Manager Michelle and the Adoption Worker Donna. It was a caomedy of errors with the Adoption Worker telling us all abouthte adoption process and what she has "just found out" that she has to do: The Presentation of the Child. This is a meeting in which she will present to us the child's history, including abuse/neglect, foster placement(s) and the long-term financial, medical, physical and social needs of the child including any referrals for therapy.

Can you imagine a relative stranger telling you all about your two-year-old's infancy and the current as well as future needs (which you have already thoroughly considered)? And this is yet another meeting that can be postponed, especially because it is on their turf. I don't know if kids are welcome but we plan on bringing all three of ours just to liven things up. Ought to be funny.

Anyway, back to the meeting. The topic that we spent the most time discussing at the TDM meeting was our Home Study. The Case Manager from Ariel had brought a copy for us to read and sign. Mike read it, laughing out loud at one point*, and then signed it. But when it came my turn to read it, I was astonished at how many factual errors were contained in the first paragraph about me alone, so I refused to sign it (and asked who I ought to speak with about the fact that it was so inaccurate and poorly written on top of that). So now, another meeting this Friday. I LOATHE how they like to have meetings about every.little.thing. Why couldn't I simply submit my issues with the home study in writing? I've just this moment decided I will, and I am going to tell them I am not going to drive an hour in traffic Friday morning with my three children for *their* incompetency. Their mistakes should not inconvenience us.

*What Mike had laughed out loud about was that the person who wrote the homestudy wrote, "Michael's father has decreased his drinking." And you could say that he's decreased his drinking, since he is DEAD.

I'm so riled up about this right now that I can't blog about it any further. I took detailed notes while reading the home study, because we are not allowed to have a copy, so I have a written list of the numerous errors (I stopped at two pages). I'l share them here when I've been able to put enough distance and/or time between myself and the gross errors to calmly type!