Nick Postagulous
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Freaking Out 101
Or, really, we've been freaking out so much lately, I'm sure it's a 600 level course by now. But in any case, remember that letter that we've needed for such a long time. That letter from the Interstate Compact office of the state of Alabama. The letter we need because, even though we don't need Interstate Compact permission to get our kiddo across state lines, Alabama told the US Consulate people that there was a pre-adoption requirement that we have a letter from the Interstate Compact office saying we met all pre-adoption requirements. But, the state doesn't require that, and thus they won't give us the letter, but the Feds think we need it.
Remember that crap?
Well, Monday we, alledgedly, got the letter.
Crap on me once, Shame on You
So, I decide that Alison and I need to go out to eat to celebrate. We drive to Decatur, a medium po-dunk town, but they do have the only Steak and Shake in north Alabama. I get a double steak burger, Alison gets that chili on spaghetti noodle thing, and we share a large cheese fries. I have a root beer, non-diet too. So decadent.
Well, we get home and before we go to bed, I actually look at the letters that came in the envelope. Neither is signed, but Alison said that Anna said they never are. And the real kicker was that the May 2003 dated letter actually said we hadn't met the pre-adoption requirements. The other letter, July 2003, was just a cover letter for a homestudy update. However, it said, "approved homestudy", so we decided that was good enough.
But I still wasn't at ease. This was crap. But...
There is a gal who just got back from China, and to make my very long rant a little shorter, when Alison emailed her asking if they asked for the letter, her response was "I don't think I ever got a letter from them. What are they in charge of?" Which is a great response. Much better than, "We were stuck there for a week waiting for them to fax it."
Try To Be Nice
Call me an elitist, which I'm not really, except when it comes to coffee, and maybe Playstation games, and perhaps auto detailing and maintenance, but sometimes I just don't like socializing with the sheeple. And now, I'll be going to China with a bunch of strangers.
We had our conference call yesterday. The good piece of info I got out of it was that the SARS temp check places are still set up. So we need to make sure Pei Xi doesn't have a fever over 100.5 or we'll be denied entry to our plane, or whatever we're trying to get on. Tylenol will keep a fever down, and we have those temp strips that can be stuck onto a person.
I could go into detail about the lame questions that the people asked during the conference call, but overall, I think it'll be fine. They want to meet up in the San Fran airport, which we will anyway since we're all on the same flight out at 1:30 in the morning. (Just typing that made me tired.)
But, in general, I'm nervous. I've had to dose myself with benadryl the last two nights to get sleep. And I took off a half day yesterday since I hadn't gotten hardly any sleep the night before.
In one week, we leave.
Oh, and they have broadband at most of the hotels we'll stay at, so I can update, but I'll keep a real log of our travel in my Palm IIIxe and then upload it when I get home.
