Getting Ellie's Social Security Card

Ahh... the joys of adoption just keep on going -- yes, this is sarcasm.

Friday Josh awoke with an ear ache and said he needed to go to the doctor. I was a little pleased that I had a "helper" for the day since Ellie and I had lots of errands to run. Since he wasn't running a fever, I gave him some Motrin and we hit the road for a day full of things to do.

One of our stops was at the Social Security Administration to apply for Ellie's SS card. Ahh.... I went to an office that I thought wouldn't be so crowded, but made the mistake of showing up at lunch time. It was crowded and we waited about an hour and a half. There were some entertaining waiters and Ellie was a hit so it wasn't too hard of a wait. Josh was extraordinarily good and decided to reorganize my wallet and the diaper bag. Not a bad deal if you can get it!!

When we were finally called back, I pulled out the application that Kevin had printed from home and I'd filed out (planning to save time) and Ellie's passport. The lady looked at it and me and said, "This is beyond my realm of expertise. I'm going to have to get someone else to help you." She finally decided we'd have to go back into the lobby and wait for the guy who does this to finish with someone else. Yay.

When it was finally our turn, I took my paperwork up (again) and Josh held Ellie. The gentleman asked me for my certified adoption decree. I dug and dug in the folder of all the papers I got in country. We had not taken any of them out so I was certain if I had gotten it I would find it. The only thing I had (in English) was a COPY of the translated adoption decree. It did have a copied seal on it. I had the original decree in Russian which I showed to him. He proceeded to get quite snippy and told me that he did this "all the time" and that he knew I should have a translated original certified copy. I told him I did not and that my agency must not have given me one. He said, "Well, I guess the person who does that was out sick that day, huh?" WHAT??? He finally said he could do it with what I had but told me to call my agency RIGHT AWAY to get an original or I'd likely have trouble down the road. WHAT??? So.... then, Ellie being her friendly self, is standing on the counter with her face poked up to the opening in the Plexiglas saying, "HI!" "HI!" "HI!". Finally I said, "I think she's talking to you." The man never took his eyes off the computer and said, "I know. I can't take my eyes off the screen or I might mess something up." Oh, great.

Finally, he said we should get her card within two weeks and we gratefully left the SS office -- hoping to not have to return any time soon.