I can't blog about my adoption, but nothing is preventing me from blogging about other adoption-related topics, right? (I think. The rules are a little vague on this point.) So I have this friend -- and I am truly talking about a friend, I pinky swear -- who is also adopting internationally right now. We started at about the same time, so we've been at the same stages so far.
When she got the draft of her home study, her agency had made some errors in the details of their lives -- not a big deal since the agency had only known them for, like, three hours or something. She sent the changes back to them. The next draft came; the changes had not been made. She wrote back again. The next draft came; they fixed one thing but not the rest. At this point, she sent them a polite but "seriously, WTF" email, and they wrote back a rude response. So she wrote back again (we are both lawyers -- so paying attention to details and winning arguments are kind of our thing), and she explained that this is a legal document and the details need to be correct and should match the other documents being submitted to the foreign country. I'm not even asking you to fix the typos, she said (slam!), just please fix the factual errors.
Ah yes, they wrote back, we're so sorry. You're right. They changed the errors and sent it back to her -- with a new factual error that hadn't been there before! She finally got it sorted out. And then...
wait for it... (little homage to Barney Stinson for ya)
The agency sent her an invitation to a stress management course with a strong suggestion that she attend! Bwahahaha! OK, that's not actually funny (and shows a stunning lack of self-awareness). I would have had a stroke if I received that email, though I've had similar (not nearly as egregious) experiences with my home study provider too. So this little story demonstrates the first important lessons I've learned in adoption: #1 The agency is always right. #2 You will be perceived as high maintenance no matter what.*
*And of course, it will all be totally worth it. Just look at the blogs of anyone who's ever adopted :)
