They Don't Know

The day started out just like any other Monday, headed off to work with grump written all over my face. It wasn't too long into the day when I received an email from our case manager. In conclusion, no one knows a single thing more about our adoption today than they did a month ago. I am pulling at strings for positives these days and about as good as I can get is that we actually got an email at all saying something, even if that something was that they don't know anything. The normal sequence of events involves me just stalking my email and seeing nothing. I am trying to view this as process.

I also got an email from a fellow adopter from our agency. (Sorry I haven't written you back yet!). I wish I could go into more detail about the email but the main thing is that they don't know anything about their case either. Their last update was the same day as our last one, July 3. Everyone keeps telling them to trust that the attorneys are doing the right thing, and like them, we just can't trust anyone at this point. It is really sad that it has come to that. I also found out some interesting tidbits about our agency that only begin to explain why they have completely dropped the ball. A lot of it comes down to a single person in the agency attempting to handle way too many cases. Our agency pretty much works like this:
1) Get people to sign contracts, and pay the contract fee of course.
2) Make promises and give clients the sense of hope.
3) Collect all fees from client.
4) Go back to step one.
The idea is to get as many people on board with the agency as possible to maximize profits. Once the profits are collected, it is time to move on to gathering more clients. No one yet has realized that it would actually be more profitable to hire more staff to service the current clients and keep them happy so they tell everyone in the world how fantastic the agency is. I am currently in contact with three other families adopting from my same agency. Every single one of them is having serious issues with our agency. Maybe I would understand if it was just one of us. Nope. Four for four is not good odds that there is a fluke.

On a lighter note, I had an amusing conversation today with someone who didn't know. I'm glad I am not all sensitive about certain things and I can realize when people just don't know things and when they are being rude. Marcus and I were at the post office, waiting in a really long line just to drop off a package. This woman in front of us was smiling at Marcus, just doing things that weird people often do when babies are around. Then she asked me, "Is he yours for keeps?" It was such an odd question and one that I wasn't really expecting that I couldn't even come up with some witty comeback. Instead I just slowly said, "Yeeesssss." Then she said, "I assume you got him from somewhere, right?" It was then I was sure that she just didn't know. She wasn't trying to be rude, but quite the contrary. Sure, she was being very bold but I think she was trying really hard to ask intrusive information politely, so I kinda give her points for that. (Greg said I should have told her we got him from Ikea. He was inexpensive but we had to assemble him ourselves.) I said with a smile, "He was born in Guatemala." I had hoped that was the end of the conversation but instead we ended up exiting the post office at the same time and the conversation continued. She said, "I have some friends that got themselves some little Chinese girls." Seriously, she actually said that. I was visualizing these friends of hers heading off to the local Chinese Girls store. This woman went on to tell me all about how horrible the orphanages in Russia are. I said, "Nice talking to you," and started to walk away. It was then that, just in case I hadn't realized it already, she really let me know that she didn't know. She yelled across the parking lot, "I just wanted to thank you for adopting! You are doing a service to the whole world!!" What? When? Last time I checked I was just being a mom to Marcus and gearing up to be a mom to William. Perhaps if I was solving some global environmental issue or creating world peace, then I would be conducting a service to the whole world. Really all it comes down to is Greg and I having love to give. Doesn't everyone have that? How is that a service to the whole world?

In the hour that Marcus and I were doing errands today, we had three people come up to us and comment on how cute Marcus is. Obviously we are well aware of this but it is still nice to hear. I asked Marcus in the car why he thought that today everyone was talking about how great he is. He decided that it was likely because he was wearing a sleeveless shirt and showing off his guns. I agreed.

Last thing, and then I swear I am going to bed. Last month at Marcus's 15 month doctor appointment the doctor was slightly concerned that Marcus only had one word. His only word was "up". Although no action was necessary at the time, we agreed to talk more about it 6 weeks later and if things hadn't progressed, we would have him assessed for a language delay. I was hoping that he might pick up one more word over that time. Now this is his list of words. (Please note that mommy and daddy are not on this list! Obviously he loves the dog more than us.)

Up
All Done (this is really one word that is more like ahhdaahh)
Papup (roughly translated this means Peyote, which is the name of our dog, this is not to be confused with the name my niece called my dog when my niece was little which was Pap-poo)
Hi
Whoa
Woof (the sound that Papup makes)
Burr (what you say when the a/c starts blowing on you)

Pretty good! I know I don't add six words to my vocabulary over the course of a month!