Red Tape

Here is an example of the kind of red tape I'm talking about.  I believe that the way to qualify for adoption is to see who will actually go through with all the mountains of paperwork! It's a weed out process.  Not only do they require blood and every bit of personal information about you (including when you lost your virginity) , they also require my dog's shot records.  But the most recent ridiculous event happened on one of my many trips to the Secretary of State's office in Austin.  It is required that even though every single official form be notarized, it must also be "certified". You then must send all of those notarized form to the Secretary of State's office to be "certified", which is basically a stamp to verify that the notary is actually a notary for the state. Oh, plus a fee for each stamp.  So this past Thursday I thought it would be fun to make it a girls/shopping trip to Austin as well, because my business at the SOS department would only take 10 minutes. Two of my sweet girlfriends decided to go!  We had a great time until I actually got tho the SOS office found out that the state had no record of the "registrar" for which I needed certification.  Did I mention that the document I am needing certified is Phillip's Death Certificate? Yes, I need that for adoption.  For 11 years his official death certificate has been accepted for many different things, but now the state says they have no record of the registrar that signed Phillip's Death Cert.  Needless to say, it is not a document I like to tote around and look at often anyway so I was not happy.  Then she says that I need to go to the Vital Statistics office and get a new certificate.  Great! That should be an easy fix!  So we all three head across town to get a new certificate and the pleasant people there tell me that they have no record of Phillip's death..... Really!!??  They say that a certificate has never been filed, and even suggest that he may not have died!   WOW! He did a heck of a job faking that!!  But seriously, after 5 hours, many phone calls to Tarrant County, and even speaking to the Secretary of State herself, they suggest I go back to Tarrant County and try to get one with the current Registrar's name on it.  At this point I'm feeling so bad for dragging my friends along that we decided to leave it at that and go shopping!  The rest of the trip was a blast, eating Sushi, shopping vintage stores, outlets, eating Chalupa's Cancun (which by the way is going to be my last meal if I'm ever executed)  and visiting with an old friend-PollyAnna. It was by no means a wasted trip and I decided that there is a perfectly good reason for all that nonsense.  God knows what it is even if I don't yet!

The end of the death certificate drama is that Tarrant county vital statistics at first acted as if there was nothing they could do. My blood started to boil, and I guess Michael could see it because he calmed me  down.  In the end, a supervisor there WAS able to help me with a new certificate and $21! Yeah!  So now all that is required is another trip to Austin!


Red Tape experience # 2 this week.  One of the many things required for adoptive parents is FBI fingerprinting.  I originally did that in Haiti, but the US has no record of that even though it was done at the US consulates office. No big deal, I'll redo them.  Well, for 3 months I have been trying to get this done! Today I get a phone call that finally I have an appointment to have my fingerprints done.  While speaking to the Homeland Security Officer I stupidly mention that the form she needs to send me should go to my new address. "NEW ADDRESS" she says? "Your application is based on your home study which shows you live at another address."  Which by the way, to prove that you are capable of adopting a child you must produce pictures of your home, places the child can play, sleep, eat, the square footage of your home and the Mortgage statements!  All of which is completely reflects what sort of parent I would be.... hope you can read through to the sarcasm.   Anyway, because I mentioned that we have a new address, I may have to have my home study amended!! UGH! How much time and money will that be?? Please say a pray that it doesn't effect things negatively.  And pray that from now on I can keep my big mouth shut when it comes to information they really don't need.