April Fools?

Ok, now bear with me on this.

When I spoke with Caseworker #3 the first time yesterday, she said that in my conversations with the Senator's office and CIS, I should mention our son's needs as factors necessitating swift action and expedient travel. She called back moments later to ask, "You haven't made those calls yet, have you?"

Turns out, the CIS has a special form for children with special needs. Because we didn't start out thinking Waiting Children, we didn't know about this form, nor did we indicate interest in special needs when we completed our I-600 (the beginning of the immigration paperwork). Well, Caseworker #3 talked to a colleague after our little chat and learned that we did NOT want to say that special needs would necessitate anything, because it would mean someone might start thinking, and then we might have to fill out that form, and since it carries with it a turnaround time of 12 weeks, that would hinder our travel plans. She assured me that we were ok without the form, and that the Homestudy Addendum which we would carry with us to China would take the place of that form for the CCAA.

Well...two things happened today.

The first was an email from the courier handling our visas. She said that the Chinese Embassy noticed that we're employed by a Christian organization, and they want us to write a letter promising that we will not proselytize while we're in China. We can either fax those letters to her or overnight them, but we will not be getting any visas until we've given those assurances. Mind you, back last year when we sent our dossier off, we mentioned to Caseworker #2 that a coworker had to write a similar letter when he adopted from China. Did we need to include such letters or send them later, we asked. Nooooooo, no worries there--we shouldn't have to do any such thing, she assured us.

Except that we do, now, it seems.

The second thing--and perhaps you should sip your coffee before you read on--go ahead, swallow it--was an email from Caseworker #3 this afternoon. As it happens, China announced today that effective immediately, all parents adopting children with special needs must have--you guessed it--an I-290B, that special little form for kids with special needs, from the CIS. This comes now, in spite of 20 years of Chinese adoptions without this requirement.

So what happens now? I skip work again tomorrow, and I hightail it up to the agency to pick up the papers I need from them, print out the I-290B, make out a check for $585--remember, it has to be a Cashier's check or it will take longer!--and overnight it to Memphis. Then I have to begin a new round of Senatorial phone calls, to see if our situation can be expedited so that we don't have to wait another 8-12 weeks for that form to be processed.

And if we do have to wait 8-12 weeks? Well, that would put us into June or July, and by then Yo-yo has to have another ultrasound, and we'd have to restart the I-600 process and get new fingerprints, because we'd come too close to the expiration date on our I-171H. CIS is kind enough to offer one free extension to parents. That's good, because our agency's Hague accreditation was denied--long story involving Russian adoptions--and the only country bothered about that is China. If we had come this close and had already used up our free extension from the CIS, we'd be encouraged to GO TO ANOTHER AGENCY AND RESTART THE WHOLE PROCESS. No, really. I don't think I have to spell out what that would mean.

At this point, I feel like anything else will just sell more copies of the book once I get this boy. I must admit, I really did not see this coming. For that I chide myself.