Maybe I overreacted a little
Okay, so I’m almost done with my dossier. Yeah, I’m a little surprised, too. It’s amazing what having gone through this once does for your ability to pull together a bunch of mundane information in an incredibly small amount of time. That, and the fact that I’m doing this at the office, where I have a notary outside my office. All I’m missing right now is my police report and my medical letter, both of which I will get early next week (if I can figure out how this traveling notary thing works). This is by far the most productive I’ve been in months; quite likely the most productive I’ve been this year, in fact.
Anyway, to add to the great success of the day, I was able to finally program my remote control, allowing me to watch television for the first time since June 20th. This is huge to me. I’m not one of those people who think that they’re more intellectual than others by virtue of the fact that they don’t watch tv – or even better – they only watch certain erudite programs. Ha. Not this girl.
We moved in June into a lovely house that had recently been remodeled. All of the rooms had been wired for cable, of course, but the owner of the house IS one of those guys who doesn’t want to be known as a tv watcher, so none of these cables were actually pulled through the walls. Some guys I know were able to rig up a cable box to the movie projector (yeah, the owner doesn’t watch tv, but he did build a home theater, I guess to watch really smart films), but I needed a fancy remote control to actually use the cable box, which is in a utility room away from the theater. SO, enter the Logitech Harmony something or other. Very fancy – very complicated (it’s taken me two evenings to figure out simply how to change the channels, let alone adjust the volume or watch a dvd) – very pricey. But very worth it. I just changed channels without walking down the hall and through the garage to the utility room. I love technology and I heart this remote.
Repressed memories
I’ve launched myself full-force into my dossier for child #2 today. Can I tell you how much I hate this aspect of adoption? I agree that the sending country has every right in the world to ask for the things they require. I would be a little suspect of a country that didn’t ask for all of the basics (for those of you bio moms, the basics include over a dozen notarized documents, certified financial information, medical clearances and highly specific letters of reference – all of which must be certified at the county, state and federal level). Must say, though, that even though they have every right to ask for it, it is still a pain to produce all of this. I’m fairly certain that this aspect of adoption is one of the reasons that a lot of people automatically reject the notion of it.
My current frustration lies with the bank letter. In concept it’s no big deal, but the country I’m adopting from wants language from the bank that my financial future looks positive, that I have made good investments and that I am financially capable fo providing for a child. Yeah, that’s going to happen. All of these statements are true, but notwithstanding the fact that I bank with one of those “private” banks, there’s no way they’re going to make those statements. Of course, this just means that I’m going to have to enter into a protracted negotiation over what they’re willing to say. Obviously, the result is well-worth the frustration, but it’s annoying nonetheless.
My dossier for Vietnam must have been like this, too, I guess, but I seem to have repressed all of the negative memories of Oscar’s adoption (aside from my wait for visa approval – that I’m going to keep with me a while). Okay, enough whining, must return to the task at hand.
