Paper chasing...

...A term so often used in the prep work for adoption. Its a good description, really, because you're just running through different governments and agencies and asking for paper, waiting on this piece of paper so that you can qualify for your next piece of paper. And you do this for months.

I've chased paper 3x now, and you'd think it would get easier. You think you've got it down. You think you've seen it all before. You think you've got a plan, a system. You think you've set your expectations low (waiting on afore mentioned various govt. agencies).

However, the paper chase, at least for me, always, at some point, feels like all you are is a dog chasing its tail in circles. It's deceptive like that. For a time, you feel as though you are making progress, until all of a sudden you've realized you've circled round and are right back where you started from. Alright, admittedly, you do eventually make it to the end of this great paper chase so I supposed technically its more of a spiral, circling backward but not quite all the way to the beginning.

And that spiraling can make you quite dizzy and not thinking straight. This is the point that you realize that despite all your efforts at organization, your low expectations, your previous experience with the process, your hard work, your diligent checking and rechecking that you are so turned around and confused you really don't have a clue what you're doing or why you were doing it in the first place.

An example was when we were nearing the end of a section of paper chase we could taste the finish line - we thought we were going to manage to survive the spiral and remain standing. We faltered a bit, when we realized we missed a new step but quickly recovered and sent out the trusty fed ex to the latest govt organization - and then received an email tracking that led us to believe we had somehow switched the labels and had really sent the fax to ourselves (super-saver no, less) and were now awaiting our docs to go to the holding facility and return to us so we could again attempt to send it across the country to the govt agency. The bright spot is that when you are this dizzy, the thought of paying to send yourself a fax and delay your progress is nothing but hysterically funny for some reason, a great source for many fits of laughter. This example even comes with a happy ending because while we were tossed to the ground from the spiral in fits of laughter with nothing to do but act hysterically, we found that really, the wrong email had been sent and indeed, the FedEx was sent to the proper place after all.

And then you do make it to the finish line, but really, the first finish line is just a waiting period before a flurry of secondary paper chasing, which is frantic but gets done and is busy bringing your kids home, just to come to the realization that still yet more paper chasing still lies ahead, and its all the same spiraling headache. For example, I thought I was kinda in the homestretch when one of my son's citizenship papers arrived - only to find out that they marked him as female (whoops - best not try to head across the border lest we have to explain why his papers don't exactly match!).

Anyway - best of luck to all you paper chasers out there! My only advice is to set the bar low and expect lots of speed bumps... but keep up the good work... it pays off royally in the end!

*note* - this is not meant to be negative. Sometimes things do get hung up because of a mistake on some one's part (like my son being listed as female) but lots of times, its just the way the system works (or doesn't...) ... the nature of the paper chasing beast... and not the fault of adoption or govt agencies.