SERIOUSLY!!!!!

I was so happy last week! Energized. Excited! Thrilled! Feeling so great that we were well on our way to Jackson! China has given us the green light! Pack your bags, grab your tickets...DON'T FORGET YOUR PAPERWORK! And then...the train wreck happened!

We have been [not so] patiently waiting for one last piece of documentation to get to our Social Worker (who will remain nameless for his own protection) so that he can get our Home Study update in the hands of Illinois DCFS in Springfield for their blessing. Once they bless it, they send it back to the nameless one so that he can send it to us and we have to turn around three times with our eyes closed and send it off to USCIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services) for their blessing! Once that happens, we can finally be issued a new & improved I-171H form which we need to travel.

Is this confusing? Oh-ho-ho...I haven't begun to hit the tip of the iceberg (and I feel like I'm on the Titanic!!!)!!

This last weekend was incredibly stressful! We waited for a month for our FBI clearances to come back (we needed to do a Home Study update because there were a few minor changes that needed to be made). In the past, we always got the results back in 10 - 14 days. Not this time. Our HS is being held up and can't be submitted to IL DCFS until the nameless one gets these clearances. Well...Friday came along and Michael called me to say that our envelopes arrived (Hooray!!). When I arrived home and opened them, I was ready to scream - - Michael's came back fine - - mine came back "unreadable!" What?! I was frantic!!

I called my China Coordinator (from our adoption agency) at home - - poor thing couldn't advise me because it's an "Illinois requirement." My SW wouldn't return my calls (he had his cell phone turned off - - nice, huh? Doesn't he a job that requires him to be on call?!). I made a number of calls to a number of people trying to find out how I could resolve this but came up dry.

We had breakfast on Saturday with our friend who works at the FBI (who is also our Mandarin instructor) and I told him his "pals" in West Virginia were not being kind to me! There wasn't a whole lot he could do to help, but he was supposed to be meeting with someone on Tuesday to discuss and see if he could help. After breakfast, since I hadn't heard back from our SW after leaving 3 VM's & 1 e-mail, I made an executive decision to drive up to the North Side of Chicago and beg them to help. (Trust me when I tell you that I am actually making a much longer story short here! Suffice it to say that there was more drama involved!)

Anyway...although I pleaded with them to do the prints electronically, their hands were tied because I didn't have a "magical" form with a special number on it (I understood). They re-inked me and told me my prints weren't very good because of repeated use of anti-bacterial cleansers, hand sanitizers and lotions (Hellllloooooo...it's cold & flu season and people everywhere are contracting H1N1 - - I can't afford to get sick! We're on our way to meet our son and he lives in H1N1 country! Oh no!). So I paid for another set of prints and off I went to write a cover letter explaining our plight and begged to be expedited because our travel arrangements were pending. We paid to overnight the letter to the FBI in WV. At 5pm, I received an e-mail from my SW's boss (whom I had cc'd on my original e-mail) - - he apologized for our SW's lack of response and SENT ME THE MAGICAL FORM I NEEDED! Argh!!! It arrived about 8 hours too late!

He got back to me again on Monday stating that they called the FBI and clearances are taking 4 - 6 weeks to be returned and he urged me to go get electronically printed so they could get the results back in 10 business days. So off I rushed during my lunch hour (with my "magical" form) and got printed for the 3rd time in a month (and charged another $50).

So...Tuesday rolled around and I spent my lunch hour on the phone with the FBI in WV (thanks to my good friend who provided me with a contact number). They told me that my electronic prints were processed and sent out to the Illinois State Police on the same day...MONDAY! I couldn't believe it! So I then got on the phone with the ISP and, after being on hold for about a month, they confirmed that they received and sent off my print results to the Home Study agency on...MONDAY! SERIOUSLY!!!

My nameless SW (whom I am NOT a fan of - -can you tell?) was, of course, out of the office. I left a message for his boss and then proceeded to hunt him down via his cell phone, which he actually picked up! He claims not to have received the e-mail from ISP with my clearance and then said, "I'm not lying." Who says they're not lying unless they're lying?? Ugh! He basically told me that the "intelligence" that I gathered from these two agencies was incorrect!! I proceeded to give him transaction code numbers that the ISP provided me with (this would PROVE that I knew what I was talking about). He said that since he was on the interstate, there was nothing he could do (I'm not sure he does much when he is IN the office - - ouch...that was mean). Basically, he said he would get to it when gets to it. Meanwhile, I'm dumbfounded by his lack of compassion!

So...now we wait some more. It is now WEDNESDAY and the nameless SW STILL hasn't sent it out! When I spoke with him today - - he was on the road again - - he said he'd get to it on FRIDAY! (He keeps telling me to trust him and that he'll beg, plead, get on his knees or take blood from his children in order to get DCFS to expedite - - oh...and I'd better pay him in full or he can't release our HS!) We were supposed to travel one month from this past Sunday on November 4th. I have been so frustrated with this Home Study agency. The previous SW I worked with was wonderful, always available and she always took care of things immediately. This new guy doesn't have much experience, is always apologizing for his own ineptitude and, we are apparently his first international adoption family. He has no clue what he's doing! I re-wrote the HS report, I have tracked down information & clearances and all he has to do is print the HS on their letterhead, sign & date and get it in the hands of DCFS! They're the ones that I worry about - - they could take weeks to get us the info we need! The HS agency also had the nerve to charge me $100 MORE than what I paid last year!! "Sorry folks...prices went up." (REALLY??! But the service went down!!)

The bummer about this whole thing is that we received our TA on 9/30. The U.S. Consulate apparently just changed their rules about updating I-171H forms on 9/27. As of that date, they will no longer allow parents to make travel arrangements/Consulate appointments until they have the I-171H form in their hands (prior to 9/27 you could have it wired to them if you were in the process of updating). Can you believe it?

So...we are now at the mercy of these agencies. I've been reduced to tears a few times since Friday. We may not get to travel on 11/4 (I'm praying for a miracle - - I BELIEVE, I BELIEVE, I BELIEVE!!!!).

Bottom line - - I KNOW that everything will work itself out, but the timing of our travel was absolutely PERFECT! We would be home a week before Thanksgiving and in plenty of time for Jax's 6th Birthday! (Sigh)