and here's a shock...its time to pay more money.

we received an envelope last week from our adoption agency. upon first glance at the mailing address, i have to admit that the thought, "how strange that they would contact us via snail-mail about a baby" ran through my head. but alas, it turns out they were just sending us a friendly reminder that the "contents of your file are about to reach the one-year expiration date". great, just what i needed. a reminder that another WHOLE year has gone by and nada.

the list of items to be renewed includes:

tax return info

state and federal fingerprints

background checks

dept of human services central registry clearances

letters of recommendation

physicals

house inspection

CPR/First aid

you know, the little things. *choke*

with the exception of the letters of recommendation, all of the above will cost us money. and, i wouldnt be surprised if our friends started charging us a fee for their recommendation services. which honestly, i would understand since it must take a tremendous amount of work to compile a letter of recommendation for me that doesnt include the words "lush", "angry", "psycho-man-hating-lesbian" or "somehow-manages-to-bring-every-conversation-back-to-the-topic-of-sexual-violence-prevention". and while i contend that all of the above are some of my best qualities, i guess the state doesnt want to place a kid with a mom who could be best described as girl-interrupted meets hard-candy. (side note: if you havent seen the film hard candy... you HAVE to check it out!! reason #472 to love ellen page and rape revenge films)

i digress...

we are going to take this "valuable opportunity" to officially change my last name to match NM's. its something i have wanted to do for a while but have been reluctant to start because of the reDONKulous amount of bureaucracy involved. example #8726 of the marriage benefits afforded to heterosexuals.

since i will need to do fingerprints for the adoption agency, we figure we can kill-two-perps-with-one-stone by filing for a name change at the same time. i figure if nothing else, maybe the name change process will give me something to write/rant about on this blog. *fingers crossed*