I have failed in writing frequent blog posts. Truthfully, nothing exciting has happened or been worth reporting on the foster care front or home in general.
-John started his crazy semester. He was told under no circumstances should a seminary student take Moral Theology and Systematics in the same semester. I mean the titles alone say taking the classes at the same time is a bad idea......but what did our fearless leader do? He decided to take both classes at the same time. I'm sure this is all in good fun, but really it is nutty. Did I mention he is also taking Hebrew? Yeah this may end up being worse than the time he waited until his very last semester of college to take Physics. As John would say, it is an adventure! Work is going well. The church is moving right along into its busy fall season. Pumpkin patch, financial campaigns, and of course, the preparing for Christmas [Husband edit: "Christmas is coming" are the words of my house for all time].
-My own job stuff is going smoothly as well. I am enjoying my new job, love my patients, and am learning a great deal. With the exception of some not fun car issues 2 weeks ago, things have gone well.
-We have a new dog named Pippa. She is very sweet and I think will make a good companion for kiddos, if not the cats.
-We were able to finally get the opportunity to spend some time with some of our best friends who are finally moving back to Texas.
-Kids' room is finished. I will hopefully get pictures taken and posted this week.
-Basically, we have finally started to fall into a rhythm and routine which has been absolutely amazing. I don't do well with chaos yet.
In terms of our current situation with foster care, we are waiting. Waiting and waiting... and waiting seems to be more like it. After an exhaustive amount of online trainings we finally finished. At the very beginning of April I had issues getting fingerprinting/background check completed because of a misspelling with my last name. It probably doesn't help that I didn't do any name change paperwork until a year after our marriage and only then did I change my name on about half of my documents. Now I only have my driver's license and credit cards to change over, but I finally got my professional license, insurance, SS, and some other random documents into my married name. I love my husband with all my heart, but if men want women to continue to change their names, someone needs to come up with a better system. It is not pleasant. Like the loving wife I am, I made John go with me last year to the SS office. I was not about to deal with that mess alone. [Husband edit: Spoiler alert- it was a very hot mess.] We walked into the office at about 11:00 AM (which was our first mistake) and proceeded to the electric kiosk. From there we had to choose one of the options as to why we needed to be seen. To be fair, I felt there might have been some slight ambiguity in which category we were supposed to sign up with. I made a selection and received a number, at which point time becomes strange. I get number B202 or something and quickly look at the progress screen- which is currently on B97. About 30 minutes pass and now we are on B110. Executive decision: this isn't working. I suggest John go and get a separate number from one of the other categories/lines. Maybe one of those is moving faster. John makes a choice and gets number E98 and they are currently serving E46 (I can't quite remember our exact numbers, but you get the idea.). I am overjoyed. Surely the new and wonderful E line will move faster. It does not. In fact it quickly becomes apparent that this race is almost neck and neck in terms of which number will be called first, so I guess the joke is on us. Or karma or something. It must be some social experiment the SS office does to see who tries to game the system. A painfully long 2 hours and 20 minutes later John's number comes up. We go to the super "friendly" SS clerk who briskly asks, "What are you here for?" I say, "Name change." She says, "Oh. You have the wrong number. That isn't E." An infinitely long moment passes. I must have given a death stare because she quickly informs me that she will let it slide...just this once. I think, "Good lady, 'cuz I ain't getting married or changing my name again. This name will be on my tombstone so no need to inform of what will or will not happen next time." [Husband edit: Baby, you SO gangsta!] After that experience I was good for a while on the name changing experience so I didn't do any other documents for about 6 months.
-This encounter does inform a later one:
So back to foster care. There was an issue in April. I waited and waited. Our agency tried to fix the issue with no luck. Finally, just last week, our agency informed us that I can go and get my fingerprinting requirement completed. I took the soonest appointment in a small town about 45 min away. I get there ready to get this over with (remember this has been an issue for months). A lovely individual calls my name and I walk up to the front. She says, "I need your paper and DL." She proceeds to look at both and here is the best part, "Oh ummm, ma'am you cannot get this completed today because the name on your SS card and name on your DL are different. Another infinite moment passes. I want nothing more than to scream and hit someone. Mostly myself. I say, "I have my birth certificate, marriage license, professional license, anything you want. Please trust I am me and I have to get this done today." I don't know if she was fearful of what I might do or if she saw the look of desperation on my face and was moved by pity, but she said she had a plan. "Okay well I guess I put your married name under and alias or something." I'll take it", I said. 10 minutes later, shockingly without the loss of life or dignity, I had been federally fingerprinted and put in the system.
Literally, and I mean literally, every single piece of paper is completed and ready for approval. We are just waiting on the official signature of the agency VP and we will be licensed and on the list. This has been a crazy roller coaster and lesson in patience. Probably something that will come in handy with kids.
Almost there! Then more waiting, for a call...
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