One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

THIS IS HOW I FEEL!!!

We are WAAAAAYYY past the point of this being funny (was it EVER?). I can't even believe that our nameless Social Worker has a JOB! We foolishly thought that we had finally made progress last week and that our paperwork was finally and safely in the hands of DCFS as of last Thursday. Our SW said that he would send us a copy of the Home Study for our files. Well...it arrived on Saturday and OMG - - I couldn't believe my eyes! It was filled with errors from start to finish!!! How was this possible??!

I have been stressed out to the max. There have been moments when I have been reduced to tears over the craziness that has been happening in the last month. Everything should be going along seamlessly and all we are encountering are roadblocks, speed bumps and detours!I was literally in shock as I read through the HS which had been approved and signed off by the SW, the Executive Director of the agency and a Notary Public. NO ONE caught any of the glaring errors! Of course, since I discovered this on the weekend and no one checks their e-mail or voice mail on the weekend, we had to wait until Monday to get anything addressed.

What amazes me is that they (the HS agency) started to sound agitated - - not at themselves, it seems - - but with ME! Don't they realize that DCFS would kick this HS back because of the errors anyway?? Why didn't they e-mail me a copy for review BEFORE they FedEx'd it to DCFS?! I would have caught everything! As it stands, it makes their agency look less than professional and less than qualified. Just to give you an idea, there were 10 major errors on this report starting at Page 2 and ending at page 12.

So...after many e-mails & phone calls and my desire to deal ONLY with the Executive Director (because I have little tolerance for the nameless one anymore), I was finally told that this would be handled. I sent the Executive Director a very detailed e-mail with all of the corrections (AGAIN) and he worked on it on Monday night. By Tuesday morning, I reviewed & approved it and the Executive Director drove it out to Springfield to hand deliver it to DCFS (I'm thinking it's the least he could do under the circumstances!). He sent an e-mail stating that all future correspondence should go through the SW who he has complete faith in. Right. I guess he's tired of hearing from me.

No offers to refund any of our fee. No offers of a discount on the 3 post placement Home Studies we are required to do. Nothing.

So...now we must wait AGAIN for the official blessing and approval letter from DCFS before we can get the "New & Improved" Home Study to USCIS for their blessing! This has gotten ridiculous. Meanwhile - - it's basically been confirmed that there is no way we will be traveling on November 4th. My heart just breaks. I just keep thinking of Jax spending another birthday in the orphanage! Argh!!!!! I just hope we can get to China BEFORE HE STARTS SHAVING!!!!