Adoption Ain't For Pussies.

It seems we've hit another roadblock on Adoption Avenue. I called DSS ( Child Welfare ) today to inquire about adopting an infant from the foster care system. It turns out that they would require us to

1. Have a whole new home study done. Ugh. For those not familiar, home studies are very long and involved processes where every dark corner of your life gets uncovered and you are grilled to the nth degree about just about everything save for your toilet habits. Basically you are left a mere shell of the person you were when you walked in the door. ( at least that's how I felt ) And then when you are done with that, there are the endless amounts of paperwork that need to be completed. This would mean another CORI ( police )check, a DSS ( child abuse )registry check, another physical, more parenting classes and another home visit. Here I was thinking that a home study was a home study...but apparently not. There are international home studies and then there are DSS home studies.

And..the real kicker..

2. They require us to remove our paperwork from China as child welfare does not allow people to pursue 2 adoptions at the same time.
Excuse me ? Did I hear that right ??? Remove our paperwork from China ? Surely you jest...
It took MONTHS to get our paperwork done and then we got it to China by the skin of our teeth. Remove it from China......NO THANK YOU.

The lovely, but mostly unhelpful, woman I spoke to at DSS this afternoon told me that she's gotten tons of calls from people who are waiting to adopt from China whom are interested in adoption from DSS.

Why am I not surprised ? Perhaps they all got the same door slammed in their face that I got slammed in mine.

What I truly don't understand is that ( supposedly ) there are thousands of children out in the world in need of a home. Ok, where the hell are they ? Cause we sure as hell can't seem to find one.
I guess this is back to square one for us. I'm not sure what we're going to do now. There was much screaming, tears and frustration at casa Rafferty yesterday.

( And not surprisingly some of our family members have been less than supportive. )

As I've said before, anyone who says that adoption is the easy way out needs to be slapped repeatedly in the face VERY HARD and quite possibly have their genitals lit on fire. I'm not kidding.

I might lose my fucking mind before this is all over.

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And for those of you who are interested in the continuing cat puke saga....the hypoallergenic cat food seems to be working. We had two very small puke incidents during the night. The quantity of puke seems to be getting smaller.It seems as if he is actually digesting his food now. Did I also mention that we had to get a new food receptacle ? The vet suggested that we use a cookie sheet ( I did not use one of my cookie sheets, I bought one of those little foil jobbies from the supermarket. ) for the food in hopes that the cat would not put his face in the dish and gorge himself - which was also part of the problem. I hope this new food & dish combo is the answer to our prayers.
Chablis, however, was NOT HAPPY about the new " diet " ( we removed the old food ). For an animal who cannot speak she can sure make her point known. Last night she pulled Tupperware out of the cupboard. Yep, reached right in there with her little paw and pulled all the shit onto the floor. Then...she hopped up onto my sideboard/credenza and almost KNOCKED OVER MY BRAND NEW POTTERY BARN LAMP !!! There was almost a feline homicide last night. Brock fooled her pretty good this morning. She was still protesting the new food by refusing to eat it. So Brock took the new food and put it in the cabinet where the old food had been. He waited a minute and then poured a little bit on the cookie sheet. She totally bought it ! She ate the new food like it had been there all along. HA !

XO


Bunny