A Tentative Offering

I found this little ditty a few hours ago in a long-lost writing folder, and I liked it so much I tweaked it a bit and now I'm going to foist it off on you. One thing - I have alternately seen "Dipsophobia" defined as "fear of drinking" and "fear of drinking alcohol". If it's the former, it's a good title. If it's the latter, not so much...

Comments welcome!

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Dipsophobia

Lizzy was a normal little girl in most ways. She had a cute little haircut, wore cute little shoes, said cute little things. You’d never know to look at her she lived in mortal fear since that day at the park. That was the day they had started taking her big brother away. Oh, he came back, sure – but he didn’t smile as much any more, and he seemed somehow more serious, less willing to talk to Lizzie than before. Lizzie was sure it had something to do with that fountain, and she was terrified of going near it.

“Look how tall he’s gotten!” mom had exclaimed, watching her son drink, unassisted for the first time in his life, out of the tall, green, bird bath shaped faucet which stuck out of the ground by the hotdog stand. The Summer had been going on forever, and while the heat was crushing it also was comfortable in a way, completely surrounding you with its presence, making you feel drowsy and safe. Lizzie loved Summer. She also loved her brother – he was her own personal sun. Until the fountain did something, and mom took him away.

She was only a year younger than he was, that’s what mom said. Lizzie didn’t know what that meant and she didn’t care. Every morning when her brother was leaving she opened her closet door and checked her height against the mark she had made (with her yellow crayon, of course) which was her idea of how tall her brother was on that day. She had almost forgotten about it over the Summer, since her brother was back and was almost back to normal again. Maybe he was cured.

Summer was ending, however, and when Lizzy opened her closet door she noticed that the mark was a lot lower than it used to be. She knew she hadn’t changed it, and ran screaming into the bathroom where she locked herself in and wouldn’t come out until her brother promised he would help her to make mud pies, which was her favorite thing to do. By the time she remembered she’d have to go to the park to do it, it was too late. She had already been coaxed into the car.

They pulled into the lot, and when daddy opened the door the heat leapt in and grabbed her, feeling like a bully today instead of a friend. Lizzy bolted for the sand pile, as if she could outrun all of the water faucets ever made, but her brother beat her there easily. A sure sign he had changed – he used to let her win. She refused to look over at the hotdog stand, however. Whatever else awaited her, first there were mud pies to be made.

Adoption Update : Major Milestone!!

It's been a while since I raised my voice on the ol' blog here, I realize. It seems as though I've been in the middle of one long stretch of living too much to have time to write anything about it. Well, that changes today.

Lots of you have been patiently waiting and asking what-the-fuck-is-up with our adoption status. Today we sent off the first of two massive FedEx packages to Great Wall Adoption containing a really ridiculous bulk of paperwork which we have painstakingly collected over the past few months. We have one more of these mailings to go, and then we're done with everything but the waiting.

The really good news (as if that wasn't good enough) is that the stuff we need for the second mailing is already done, pending the finalization of our home study, for which we've just completed our last mandatory social worker visit! Once we finalize the home study, we send that entire mess off to the U.S. Government for its blessing, and once we get it back we send our second huge mailing off to Great Wall.

The number of hoops, ladders, roadblocks, hazards, and general government fuckery we've had to jump though, climb up, navigate around or beat to a bloody pulp with our fists has been utterly, comprehensively mind-boggling, but it's DONE. We are THIS CLOSE to being done with everything but the wait. And MAN do we look forward to it! We were getting seriously tired of the guilt that would hit us during a day when we didn't have time to chase down that piece of paperwork, or call some government official to bug them about the status of our request for information. The last few forms are just for us to fill out and mail to people. We'll be getting that done as we wait for the return of our documents from the government, so that when they get here, we turn them right back around to Great Wall.

So raise a glass everyone, the hardest part is done! Done done done done done DONE MOTHERFUCKING DONE!!!

Success at Immigration!

As per my post from October 2, I have been waiting for Officer Griffin to call me when my "dead" immigration file has been resurrected. Well, surprise, surprise, I have heard nothing from her or anyone else at immigration since that wonderful day. So, this morning I took the bull by the horn and made another appointment to wait for 90 minutes to have my 5 minutes at the counter. Amazingly, I waited only 25 minutes this time around, and when I walked up to the counter, Officer Gilmore seemed much more sympathetic than his cohort. At first he said that they don't do that at this office (meaning that they do not possess the G-24, Certification of Documents, which must accompany a copy of my Naturalization Certificate in order for it to a Certified True Copy). Well, I gently insisted that Officer Griffin was in possession of one of these forms when I last was at the facility on October 2, and that she has not contacted me regarding my status since then. I also did not waste time in turning on the pathetic and pleading persona that I can feign when need be. I was ready to cry, if necessary. C'mon acting chops, go! My new strategy worked, for Officer Gilmore returned after about 15 minutes with the G-24 all ready to go. We are even closer now. Hooray for Officer Gilmore and HOORAY IN GENERAL!!!!!

We're Soooooooo Close

Finally, I think I have an employment letter that will suffice for our China Dossier!!!! It is only the fourth version I've obtained since January of this year. We began the year way gung-ho, and then we took a big ol' break for the majority of the year. We have been in super-completion mode for the last 6 weeks or so, and this was an important step for us. The first letter was no longer good because we let it lapse more than 6 months. Then, then second one was not notarized, so I had to ask for a third. The third was no good because the notary commission expired today. However, miracle of miracles, we have a second notary public in the building, so I was able to have her sign off on the fourth and hopefully last employment letter. I'm gonna fight with Immigration again tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!!!!!