The adoption process seems to creep along for us this week. We met with our social worker, Jennifer, on Tuesday. I really like her. She seems down to earth. She left us a bunch of papers to complete, financial and otherwise. She comes back in two weeks. She'll meet with Kevin and me together on that visit. We'll have two separate interviews on other occasions and a final meeting together again.

We have to be fingerprinted by the ABI for background check and criminal clearance. One frustrating aspect of that is that my suitability has already been determined by the Alabama Dept. of Ed., but DHR doesn't accept their clearance and vice-verse. What a crock! I still have to pay another $75 to have my prints scanned, even though the same ABI just did it last January. Another aggravating aspect is that Kevin called the ABI yesterday and was passed around for twenty-minutes while he got four different versions of the proper procedure to be fingerprinted. In the end he left a message with a department head who never returned his call and a switchboard operator told him he could come in between 8 and 5. So, I rush in from school Thursday afternoon ready to drive to Montgomery. I called to get directions and after the same yo-yo experience Kevin got the day before (& his call still hasn't been returned...SHOCK) I was told that I couldn't come in without an appointment, plus more run-around. By now, I'm picturing some woman sitting behind her desk filing her nails like the one on Will & Grace. Long story short...we have an appointment for today. Government beaurocracy just kills me. That's another reason why I'm getting out of teaching.