World's worst kept secret

Most of y'all already know. Yup, Evan's meimei is on the way. I've been working on this blog entry and debated whether I should really post all this belly-aching for the world to see. Oh well, what the heck. It's not like I don't gripe and moan in person. We may not have had to go through pregnancy and labor the regular way, but this is our version of labor.

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One morning while I was still in China (I believe it was 10/19/2012), I received an email from Hubby early in the morning–we had received a referral for a little girl! There were 2 photographs and a couple of PDFs with her info. She was 3 years old at the time. Hubby had wondered before I left on my trip what if we get a referral before I got back since we knew or mini-dossier was being sent in October. I didn't think it was all that likely. Our visit to the orphanage was sort of supposed to make a good impression. Perhaps the face time actually worked. We actually got a referral! 

Sister and I went down to breakfast. In the elevator, dad asked, as usual, if we got any news from home (usually something from family). Sister chuckled a little. Boy, did we get news. It was a bit of a surprise. She was a little older than we were expecting, only 8 months younger than Evan. And since girls develop a bit faster than boys, she's probably more mature than Evan at this point. Hubby and I emailed back and forth a bit. I got to talk with sisters and dad some during the rest of our trip. Will Hubby and I be able to handle this pair of "virtual twins?" After some consideration, we signed paperwork to accept the referral the day after I got back (while I was seriously jet lagged… it was all a blurrrrr). The next few weeks was a whirlwind of getting all the paperwork ready. Our CIS approval had expired. We had moved and Hubby had changed jobs, so a full home study update was necessary, including begging friends to write reference letters for us (thank you, guys!!), getting physicals and reports notarized (I don't think my doctor ever wants to see us again), live scans, police clearance, financial statements, and a boatload of other documents to sign and notarize (our local Mailbox, Etc. guy knows us real well now). We had to do our home study paperwork and dossier paperwork at the same time. Finally, everything was sent out mid-November. It was quite an accomplishment, I tell you! We had our visit from the social worker in December before Christmas. Then we just sat and waited for all this stuff to be authenticated, certified, approved, etc., etc., by faceless paper-pushers supported by our tax dollars. We sat and waited, waited and sat. Some paperwork came back to be re-notarized because the notary used an older form that didn't have the correct wording. We got it redone quickly. We thought if there were going to be any hold-ups, we didn't want it to be because of us. There will be enough holding up as is.

Come mid January, our agency called me and said our dossier would be sent by the end of the month. I was like, what?! it hasn't gone yet? Ok….bureaucracy must do what it does, so we waited some more. Late February, I checked in with our agency about our dossier. It STILL hadn't gone yet!!! I was getting steamed. And Hubby and Evan can both attest to this. You just don't wanna get Mama fired up. There's a reason Mama is the Hulk. So I called and emailed, bitched and moaned. Not that it did that much good. I was just told that it was almost ready to go.

The adoption process is truly a saga. It was with Evan's and even more so this time. The next day our agency called me and said that USCIS (immigration) is setting a new requirement/process that require all families that have been matched up to get a document from Taiwan certifying that the child is free and clear of the national registry. Last year, Taiwan put in a new law requiring all orphans to be put on this national registry for 45 days to be offered to Taiwanese couples to adopt. If they are rejected (something like 3 times) then after 45 days they can be offered for international adoption. For our little girl to be matched with us, she already had to have been clear of the list. But USCIS wants official paperwork from Taiwan. Then they would give us a "pre-approval" (which would take 2-3 months). Then it goes to AIT and we wait for travel approval. With the travel approval, the case goes through the Taiwanese court which would take however long. So basically delaying everything for a llooooonnnggg time while paper-pushers on both sides push paper and our lives are sort of on hold. Uugghhh!!! This applies to all families who won't have their case in court by April 1st . I was told that dossiers that were sent in December weren't even in court yet (WTF??!!!!) so we would be completely out of luck. So we were resigned to not traveling until maybe the fall or even December. Then last Wednesday, our agency called again saying there is ONE more piece of document (a translation) that has to be notarized then taken to Sacramento to be authenticated, then comes down to TECO to be authenticated there. THEN, our dossier can be sent to Taiwan. *Sigh* I just wanna shake my head and throw up my hands. HOWEVER, if we can get this all done very very quickly, there is a chance we could get our case in the courts by April 1st (I guess St. Lucy's is going to try to haul ass), then we can skip over all those new regulations. But there are no promises, of course. So we're keeping fingers and toes and everything crossed for now. If we make it by 4/1, maybe we might travel by Summer?? I know… the HEAT! That's big maybe. I don't know how long the court takes in Taiwan.

Next life, I want to work as a government employee where I just push papers and play with rubber stamps all day long while people's lives are on hold, and I won't even care!