Pity Party for One

So, do you ever have a day (or string of a few days) where you feel like life is just handing you a steaming pile of dung? I think that is the best way to describe how I'm feeling right now. Before I get too deep into my vent, I should clarify first that:
1) we have had a super easy road on this adoption journey so far. I know that.
2) the stuff we are dealing with now is MINOR. I know that too.
3) things could easily get a whole lot worse at points down the road. I know this too, though I am in some denial on that one.

Now, back to my whining.

Tonight I am feeling pissy. There's no better, more eloquent word to describe it. We've had a few bumps in the road lately, and while none of them are major, added up they are making me cranky! First, we are still waiting on our I-171H form to come in the mail. For those not busy memorizing the purposes of various government forms, this is our approval to bring an orphaned child into the country. We sent our dossier off November 23rd, without this form, because at that time, we didn't need it. Well, Ethiopia just changed their rules, and now we do. So once we get it, we have to have it authenticated (separately from everything we already sent, so this costs more money) and then shipped over there (separately, so this costs more money...see a trend?). I am a little unclear on how this affects us as far as our wait. I don't think it really sets us back any time, since everyone else on our agency's waitlist is having to do the same thing, but it's just another hurdle.

And my other cause for pissiness (is that a word? it should be.) is our homestudy agency. I have not been a huge fan of theirs for a variety of reasons since we picked them. On Friday they sent out an e-mail stating that all families who have not yet brought their children home will now be held to a completely different set of education and post-placement requirements than we agreed to and signed a contract regarding. For instance, we had to do an 8 hour online course and each read 3 books prior to them approving our home study. We did this as asked. Now they have told us that we didn't need to read books (and they may not count for anything), but we do need to complete another 22 (yes, 22) hours of education prior to bringing our daughter home. Because, you know, we totally have 22 free hours just sitting open for fulfilling their new rules. We don't want to actually parent our existing children or anything. Oh, and, instead of needing 3 post-placement visits (per Ethiopia's requirements), our homestudy agency is now going to require 5, and we are supposed to pay for them, even though the contract we signed states very clearly that they require 2. We sent a respectful but assertive e-mail tonight, but I don't expect to get anywhere. I should state for the record that I am an absolutely huge fan of education, and I'm sure the extra post-placement visits will be extremely helpful as well. However, you shouldn't tell your clients one thing, have them do that thing, and then change the rules halfway through the process. We've had two months since we submitted our dossier that we could have been completing education, had we known we needed to. So yeah, I'm SUPER cranky about that one!

And just to clarify, this is NOT our adoption agency. I still am super glad we chose them. Want to know what I love? I love that I had a question a couple of weeks ago, e-mailed the program coordinator at 6 pm, she read it and asked me to call her at home, and then answered my question from home. I love that I felt like I was talking to a friend while we chatted. I found out that we are most likely in the single digits on the waitlist for infants, though families above us could be requesting a boy, or either gender (or they could all want a girl...who knows?). Our agency doesn't hand out a hard and fast number, and I think I like that. Just knowing roughly where we are in line is helpful. I don't think I want to be on pins and needles waiting to move up a spot. I know they handed out some referrals today, and I rejoice for those families, and for the fact that we move up a little too!