We got home last night having driven 1200 miles in three days. No more box truck for me. Ever. By the way, it's 26-feet long, my quasi-trucker husband informed me.)
I was closing the laptop after having written my last post the other morning and stopped to quickly check my e-mails. So much for my "on with my life" attitude.
My D*C*F*S e-mail buddy C wrote me with a list of the tangible things missing from our home study. They were: our marriage certificate, relative forms for each of us, C*A*N Clearances for both of us, Criminal History Clearances for ME, and references forms or letters from each of the six required references for adoption.
They had most of that from our foster/adopt classes so I was confident that a lot of it had been sent.
Imagine my confusion, though, when I learned that the state was missing my state Bureau of Investigation and F*B*I clearances, not O's, as Nicole had told me the previous Friday.
Imagine my further confusion when I read the following:
"The home study did not mention the family’s contingency plan and that person or family also needs to be personally interviewed and assessed as to their complicity to care for a child this couple might adopt. "
You know why our home study didn't mention it? Because Mia never ever asked us about it. Not once.
And this was the icing on the cake:
"I also did not see evidence of the first and second family consultations during the GPS process. If these are documented separately in the narrative of the record, please submit these."
Know what that means? That there is no mention in our home study of Mia ever being in our home for either our first home visit or our second home visit. Nice thorough home study there Mia.
I was just so disheartened. I thought that finally FINALLY we might be "there", where once the missing paperwork was mailed on Monday, the SW would have everything she needed to review and hopefully approve our home study. But that clearly isn't the case. We've never even discussed our contingency plan with anyone, and those people definitely haven't been personally interviewed.
I e-mailed Nicole immediately, asking about the fingerprint mix-up, and why this was the first we'd heard that they needed written documentation of our contingency plan and to interview anyone. Oh, and also why our home study didn't reflect two of the three visits we had with Mia.
She wrote back immediately, apologized for the confusion, said she'd contact C to find out exactly what remained to be done, and she'd get back to me. Instead, I gave her the name and e-mail address of the worker who actually has our file at the state office. I don't think I'm supposed to have that information, but I've got it. She said she'd check with her and get back to me. I'll give her the rest of this week and then I'll be back to her on Monday morning to set up an appointment to complete our homestudy and for her (or whomever) to sit down with my in-laws to interview them.
I was talking to a foster mom friend the other day and we were marveling how people who aren't proactive and organized like we are ever get anything at all accomplished with D*C*F*S.
Anyway, the rest of our trip was fun. We stopped and had a nice dinner on the way home last night and fell happily into our lovely king size bed, thankful for our 500-thread-count-sheets and to be home sweet home.
I was closing the laptop after having written my last post the other morning and stopped to quickly check my e-mails. So much for my "on with my life" attitude.
My D*C*F*S e-mail buddy C wrote me with a list of the tangible things missing from our home study. They were: our marriage certificate, relative forms for each of us, C*A*N Clearances for both of us, Criminal History Clearances for ME, and references forms or letters from each of the six required references for adoption.
They had most of that from our foster/adopt classes so I was confident that a lot of it had been sent.
Imagine my confusion, though, when I learned that the state was missing my state Bureau of Investigation and F*B*I clearances, not O's, as Nicole had told me the previous Friday.
Imagine my further confusion when I read the following:
"The home study did not mention the family’s contingency plan and that person or family also needs to be personally interviewed and assessed as to their complicity to care for a child this couple might adopt. "
You know why our home study didn't mention it? Because Mia never ever asked us about it. Not once.
And this was the icing on the cake:
"I also did not see evidence of the first and second family consultations during the GPS process. If these are documented separately in the narrative of the record, please submit these."
Know what that means? That there is no mention in our home study of Mia ever being in our home for either our first home visit or our second home visit. Nice thorough home study there Mia.
I was just so disheartened. I thought that finally FINALLY we might be "there", where once the missing paperwork was mailed on Monday, the SW would have everything she needed to review and hopefully approve our home study. But that clearly isn't the case. We've never even discussed our contingency plan with anyone, and those people definitely haven't been personally interviewed.
I e-mailed Nicole immediately, asking about the fingerprint mix-up, and why this was the first we'd heard that they needed written documentation of our contingency plan and to interview anyone. Oh, and also why our home study didn't reflect two of the three visits we had with Mia.
She wrote back immediately, apologized for the confusion, said she'd contact C to find out exactly what remained to be done, and she'd get back to me. Instead, I gave her the name and e-mail address of the worker who actually has our file at the state office. I don't think I'm supposed to have that information, but I've got it. She said she'd check with her and get back to me. I'll give her the rest of this week and then I'll be back to her on Monday morning to set up an appointment to complete our homestudy and for her (or whomever) to sit down with my in-laws to interview them.
I was talking to a foster mom friend the other day and we were marveling how people who aren't proactive and organized like we are ever get anything at all accomplished with D*C*F*S.
Anyway, the rest of our trip was fun. We stopped and had a nice dinner on the way home last night and fell happily into our lovely king size bed, thankful for our 500-thread-count-sheets and to be home sweet home.
