Paperwork, paperwork!

Yesterday was a busy day as far as paperwork is concerned. Since our meeting is only a week away, I'm trying to get this all taken care of. So far our list to complete includes:

Birth certificates

Marriage license

Physicals

Fingerprints

TB tests

Fee Agreements
Privacy Act

Adoption Application

Background checks

Autobiography

Essay Questions

I sent off requests yesterday to Brown County for my birth certificate and our marriage license and had the request emailed to me from Sioux County, Iowa to get Rob's birth certificate. The poor girl at Sioux County shouldn't have given me her email address because I rapidly fired off a succession of email questions that I had. It's not difficult but compared to Brown County, it's quite a bit more work. And I just don't want to screw it up. Rob's in Lead for a school conference this week so I'll have to wait until he gets home to have him sign in front of a notary...good thing his secretary, Marlene, knows what we are doing and is a notary. I've had about 50 million physicals (well at least it seems like it) in the past year, so I just have to send the paperwork to my doctor and they'll sign off on it. Unfortunately, I haven't had a TB test done in the past year so this is going to be a little tricky. I have to go in one day and then go back 48 hours later. I thought I could do it in Watertown on Friday until I found out I have to go back. So then I thought I could drive to the lab at the hospital in Aberdeen. They don't do it. I have to actually go to a doctor. I don't want to do it in Redfield because I know even though things are not supposed to get leaked out, they do, and it's no one's business to discuss this except Rob's and mine. If I tell someone, that's my right. It isn't their right to tell anyone else. But it's happened to us way too many times and that's why we're keeping this to ourselves. Sorry, I got off on a tangent there. So anyway, I don't know how I'm going to do this TB test. I wrote my autobiography. As you can imagine, it's quite lengthy. The essay questions are done for both of us. When I go to Watertown on Friday I'm going to get my fingerprints done. The background checks require a listing of every address we've had since birth. Well, you all know how many times we've moved. I had a heck of a time figuring out the five street addresses we had in Highmore. The three in Elk Point weren't that long ago, so I could remember those. So now I'm just waiting for Rob to get home so he can sign, date, sign, date...

Did I mention he called me flaky? I countered with gullible. We had to list ten words or phrases about ourselves, ten about our spouse, and ten about our marriage. I could have listed "annoying when he wins games and a sore loser when he loses games" but I didn't. I was nice and said competitive.

Some of you know my penchant for odd dreams. I tell you...they're coming at me like crazy this week. Usually when Rob is gone, I sleep GREAT! Sorry, Babe! Seriously though, Billy usually waits for Rob in the living rooms so it's only Bob and myself in the bed and I have plenty of room. When Rob left for active duty, Billy waited for a few weeks and then finally decided that he better come to bed. If they'd start to crowd me, I'd just pick up my legs and move to the other side of the bed. That tended to be a problem when Rob got home. We're seriously getting a king size bed. So anyway, back to the dream part. My friend Cara has been a wealth of information about adoption. She's given me websites to check out and books to read. I have this little problem called OCD and I really like lists. My budget is done for a year ahead of time (in Excel no less), I enter all of the school events in my calendar before summer even starts, and I'm already making a packing list of stuff to take to Colombia. You'd think that with as obsessive as I am, I'd be able to get birthday cards out in time. I'm not sure how that ability was lost on me. Anyway...there is a lot of stuff to take! I don't think Rob's going to be able to take any clothes! He always packs heavy anyway. I pack just enough because I don't like to carry the suitcases. Good thing I'll have a big, strong husband to do that for me in Colombia, eh? :) OK, back to the dream thing...since I've been obsessed about this lately, I dream about it at night. Every night. So it's totally interfering with my week of good sleep.

All right, well that's probably all for now. If you know me, you won't question my ramblings. And since no one knows I'm typing this (not even Rob...he'd roll his eyes at me) I have to spill my guts somewhere! We do have some people we can talk to about this and we're very glad for their support. Next week when we go to Pierre, we're staying in Highmore with our friends Mike, Marilyn, and Max. They know what we're doing as Mike is one of our references. But for anyone else who knows we'll be in Highmore, I had to come up with a reason that we'd be going to Pierre overnight during the week. I'm not a good liar so what we're going to say is that we have a meeting for something for our church. Which really isn't quite a lie. It is a Lutheran Social Services meeting and we are Lutheran.

So until my next rambling...see you later.