...In Which Carrie Rants

Three weeks ago, when we "signed up" with this agency and were chosen to adopt this little boy, we talked to the agency and asked them if we needed to be fingerprinted. LDSFS was telling everyone they had to, so we figured this agency would be the same. "Oh no, you don't have to be fingerprinted..." they said.
They said.
Fast forward THREE WEEKS to this week when they call us and let us know that hmmm, I think we actually do need to be fingerprinted. Would we mind taking these fingerprint cards to our local police station, getting fingerprinted, getting two money orders payable to the U.S. Treasury, and then mailing them to them so we can then mail them to the FBI in West Virginia for processing?
Seriously?
Three weeks ago you didn't know that we'd need fingerprinting done? We've been sitting on our thumbs for three weeks waiting for everything to happen and NOW we find out about this? So now, instead of just waiting for our bonehead attorney in Florida to call (us or even make some sort of contact since his initial (and ONLY) call 3 weeks ago) and let us know when we can come out, we are also waiting for the FBI to receive our prints in the mail, process them, and then send them back. I don't have a time-frame on how long that's supposed to take, but it's the FBI in WEST VIRGINIA and the USPS. You do the math. I'm thinking 3 weeks minimum. If it turns out we have to wait another 3 weeks before we can pick up this baby I...well, I can't easily describe how I'll feel or what I'll want to do to certain people. I can't really do anything about it. No one can make up the time we're losing every day we don't have our son with us. He's almost 3 months old. When we started all of this he wasn't even 2 months old. Some things you can pay back. When time with your child is lost, you can't get it back. We're already going to have to deal with lost time when we go to Ethiopia. I was hoping we wouldn't have the same problem with a domestic adoption.
So this morning we got up and headed over to the police station where a friend of ours in our ward (who happens to be a police officer) did our fingerprinting for us. I then headed over to the credit union to get two money orders and then I headed down to the agency's office (I wasn't going to wait for the postal system to send these to Sandy when I have LOADS of free time on my hands.) where they inform me that the policy just changed and now both Zack and I have to sign the letter that goes with our fingerprints to the FBI. It used to be the agency could just sign it. (Are you kidding me? I want to ask. Is this the first adoption you've ever done? I want to ask. But I don't.) So, what do I do? I drive to Zack's work and have him sign the letter. Then I head over to the post office where I try to over-night this letter to West Virginia. The lady there tells me that "over-night" really means it's only guaranteed within 2 days and this letter will get there on Saturday if I over-night it today (since it's going to such a rural part of the country, so she says). If I used priority mail it will get there on Monday. Get there on Saturday and sit until Monday, or just get there on Monday...? I decide to save $15 and just have it sent priority mail.

And that's my day.
It's 4:00 in the afternoon and I haven't done anything I had planned on doing today. But that's okay. My motivation to do anything worthwhile and in preparation for our baby kind of lost steam when we got word from the agency, who talked to our attorney (who's paying this guy, anyway?) who told them that he's trying to see the judge this week to "finalize everything". Whatever that means. And he's at a funeral today but his secretary is working on things. And if he can't see the judge this week he's tempted to drive up to where the baby is and just get him. What in the crap does THAT mean?

My plan for today was to deep-clean the bedroom, trim the roses for winter and do some weeding. I think I'll have time to do that next week now. Instead, I'm going to make cookies, sit on the couch and read the book that I was saving for my flight to Florida.

They say having to go through stuff like this is "labor" for adoptive parents. At least when you're in real labor you can have drugs.

*Update: I could't make cookies because don't have any butter or margarine. Could this day BE any worse? That's it. I'm just eating the chocolate chips.