grrlTravels

One, Two, Three...Wrastle!

I'm just not sure where things went so wrong. When we first started the adoption process, I was slightly disappointed to learn that we would not be able to have our adoption agency complete the home study for us. The agency is about an hour and a half from where we live, but located in another state. I was momentarily perplexed. And then it was just another item on a very long list. Add: Find home study agency. Continue with: Get home study done. Submit to government.

I thought it would go kind of like this:

Me: Here are some dollars.
Home Study Agency: Here is your completed Home Study.
Me: Thank you.
HSA: Good luck with everything.

One of the first agencies I spoke with told me the procedure, and estimated that the home study could be completed in about 5 weeks, give or take. And so I guessed that in 7 or 8 weeks or just call it two months we would have a home study in our hot little hands. A home study that would get us that much closer to getting our daughter.

But that is not the way it has turned out. No, it appears that we have to wrest the home study from the agency. First we have to beg them to see us, schedule us, and we will gladly jump through the necessary hoops for the home study. Gladly!!! Smiling and talking in exclamation points, if necessary!! Here are our fingerprints! Here are the piles of paperwork!! Here are some photos of family life! We are happy! We are excited about our daughter! Please say nice things about us! Then we have to wait patiently, oh so patiently, while sitting on our hands and humming to ourselves while they finish their paperwork and write up the document. And then we have to storm their offices and perform intricate and laborious wrestling maneuvers to get them to give up the goods.

The last visit for the home study was June 8. JUNE 8! It is now (hold on a moment while I check to make sure) August 21. We started the home study process April 7. And still, there IS NO HOME STUDY. Oh, we've seen it, read it, and reviewed it. We have been tantalized by it. We know that it does exist. But to have it, hold it, and send it to the INS, no sir, we can't do that yet. We have been more than patient, occasionally asking for updates from the agency as to where the home study may be, if only to make sure that it hasn't been mistakenly sent to the mothership or something.

But here is the way it really is:

Me (politely): Ummm, can you please tell me where the home study is?
HSA: We have it right here.
Me (even more politely): Well, can I have it?
HSA: No.
Me (excrutiatingly politely): Well, can you tell me why I can't have it?
HSA: You owe us money.
Me: We'd be happy to give you the money, however much it is, in exchange for the home study.
HSA: We will send a bill. Then you pay us. Then you get it.
Me: Soooo, can you tell me when you will send the bill?
HSA: We'll get back to you.

Oh, it's just a money thing at this point??? Please, please just send the bill so we can pay it and this process can be over. Please...

There is actually even more to the story, because when they finally sent the bill they emailed it to us and our email system at work decided that it was virus ridden or a threat to our internal networks or something even more deadly and so removed it from the email message for safety. But that's another story for another day. Suffice it to say that we should soon have a copy of the home study and will then be marching forward and making progress and singing songs of joy. Or we will be doing the Backbreaker Rack or the Fireman's Carry Gutbuster or the deadly Slingshot Catapult (I don't actually know what any of these things are, but they sound good, don't they?) and I WILL HAVE MY HOME STUDY.

Posted by grrlTravels at August 20, 2004 3:05 PM