Thursday, July 19, 2007

Labor never hurt this much...

Sometimes I think this adoption paperwork is physically harder than going through a pregnancy! At least when I was pregnant with our first two babies, people held doors open and I got a few naps in.

Today, we ventured out at 9:30am -- and hit the road for Norwalk, CA. That's the location of the LA Sheriff's office where we needed to get our police clearance letter. We got there at 11:15 and waited in line outside for 30 minutes. We finally stepped up to the counter and were informed it would take an hour to get the letter together and signed. So we took off for the local Chuck E. Cheese to let the boys run around and grab some lunch while we waited. When the hour was up, I called the office to confirm the letter was signed and we should head back. At that point, I was told the person who was to sign the letter left for lunch. I continued to call every 30-45 minutes until 2:30 when we just gave up and went back to check on things. We waited several more minutes before the woman came out with the signed letter... the signed letter with a big, fat ERROR. So she had to go back and re-do the letter and have the long-luncher sign it again.

I went outside and tried to stay calm. It was now after 3pm and we were in the same place as hours before. The woman peeked her head out and told me it would be 5 more minutes. After waiting 10, I walked back into the office to see what was up. Another woman asked me if I was still waiting so I updated her -- told her the other woman said 5 more minutes. At that point, a woman I had never seen before starts YELLING at me! "Are you the one waiting for the adoption letter?" she asks me. I said I was. "You're going to have to step outside and WAIT", she yells. "There was an error and she's upstairs getting it re-signed", she informs me ever-so-politely. I explained to her that I was aware of that and was just answering the question of her colleague. "Oh -- I thought YOU asked HER", she says. Of course in type, it never seems as dramatic and frustrating as the actual moment but I'm telling you... irony was rearing its head. I was about to get myself arrested for assault while waiting for the "I have no criminal record" letter.

Ha. Just kidding.

But I did consider jumping that counter and going after her.

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Wow, how horrible! I can't imagine having to jump through so many hoops and wait so long just to get a police clearance letter. Here in po-dunk Indiana we got ours in 5 minutes, and they didn't even charge us anything. Good luck on your journey towards your little one!

The family of six said...

Wow that sounds frustrating! I'm so excited to have found another SoCal mom with bio boys adopting from Taiwan and even using Heartsent! We must meet! How long did they tell you it would be to referral?

The family of six said...

That sounds frustrating I am so excited to meet another mom from SoCal who has bio boys and is adopting from Taiwan and even using Heartsent!! We must meet! Did they tell you how long your wait to referral will be?

JackieMacD said...

Thanks for the support! Now days later, it's a bit comical. :)
Marina - they gave me the 6-12 mos referral time with the average being 9 mos. Has it stayed the same for you? Where are you located? We're up in Valencia.

shelley said...

Sorry about the horrible sheriff's office...ours was about like that. They kept asking us why we were still there....UHHH, we need our letter...

shelley
www.letsgototaiwan.blogspot.com

Andrea M said...

What a mess! Government offices are so fun aren't they? Trust me we all have a story. We went to the embassy in Frankfurt for fingerprinting (3 hrs in rush hr traffic - and they close at 11:30!) Ten minutes out, my son throws up all over himself, the car, the carseat. And the prepared momma? No extra clothes or anything, poor kid to tough it out for 30 mins outside waiting to get in in October.
Write it down for the memory book, maybe you'll laugh someday :)