Climbing Everest Has Highs and Lows.

I have been climbing Mount Everest for almost 4 years, and I reached the first two base camps in the last week! 

On adoption day (in February of 2022), we took home the Adoption Decree that the twins signed with the judge. 

The Report of Adoption, however, was never given to us. 

Both documents are required to obtain birth certificates. 

For years, I’ve been reaching out to the caseworker and our attorney.  DHS say it’s our attorneys problem. Attorney says they don’t have it, DHS does. And round and around we go. 

I told kasey how frustrated I am and she was inspired to have chat create a step by step checklist, simplifying the monumental process into manageable steps. 

Step one: obtain adoption decree. Done! 

Step two: obtain report of adoption. Doh! 

I spent many phone calls pleading my case to Vital Records, hoping someone down in Little Rock could help me out. And one of those calls paid off, because one lady said, “if they’re adopted, go down to the Washington county courthouse and ask the judge to sign it! 

Judge Z had retired. Bummer! 

But that got me thinking I might have some luck with the county clerk. 

Tiffany came with me for moral support abd we took a little trip to Fayetteville and begged a county clerk to help me. Since I had the Adoption Decree, couldn’t they give us a copy of the report? 

Turns out there WAS a report created on file and it had been sent to (drumroll please…) the caseworker! Yes, the very caseworker that I have YEARS of email and text and phone call correspondence with her telling me to go ask my attorney. 

And what’s worse, the “decree” I had was only a temporary keepsake decree, with the juvenile court case number on it. A final decree as well as a supplemental decree had both been filed by the judge AND SENT TO DCFS, and no one would give it to us, or even tell us they exist and are necessary. I almost nailed the juvenile decree to Little Rock in a Hail Mary attempt to get birth certificates, but couldn’t bring myself to put it in the mail bc it’s the only documented proof I have that these babies are adopted and I am their legal parent. I had decided to go for gold and show up at the court clerk’s office to try to obtain the Report of Adoption myself because it was literally the ONLY thing I could think to do. 

Success! The clerk is an adoptive parent as well and totally understood my predicament. She printed signed and sealed everything I needed. I left with 1 sealed and certified Report of Adoption and 2 sealed and certified copies each of the final decree AND supplemental decree. It was a red letter day that emboldened me to really test my luck and continue on this journey after years of getting nowhere.

On Monday, Kasey pulled up at 5:45am and we drove to viral records in Little Rock. As previously demonstrated, we did not have all the information correct, BUT I did have the correct documents, a support system, and a friendly smile.  

They kept my original copies (and gave me photo copies at least. Good thing I got a backup original of the decrees!)  Gottem! The worker who brought the certificates out to me in the waiting room announced, “congratulations, it’s twins!” 

What a perfect day! 

That was Base Camp 2. 

On to obtaining social security cards. I spent 90 minutes ON HOLD with the SSA yesterday.  Once I had a live agent on the line, she confirmed that an appointment is required for getting SS cards post adoption. Unfortunately, the state of Arkansas shows no live appointments available at this time, so please call back in 1 week and try again. 

Whyyyyyyyyy

This. This is why the children are 10 and had no paper proof they exist until now. I’m so tired of this fight. 

“Wait are you for real? There’s NOTHING?” 

Affirmative. Nothing open and nothing she can do about it in Pennsylvania at the central SSA scheduling office. She gave me the laundry list of required documents for adopted children who have no copies of their prior ss cards. Yeah right did DHS give OG cards to us. I remember when we found out after we had fostered them for a YEAR that they’d given us bogus SS numbers, too. They owned up to that at least. I know there are actual copies of their cards somewhere in that office though, because I still remember the day a lady named Mona (you never forget a Mona) called to give me their accurate numbers over the phone, but I digress. 

I’ll be gathering up said documents and heading to Fayetteville next week to see if a live agent in person can schedule an appointment for us. Maybe I’ll get triple lucky and they’ll see me right then. One can hope. We’ve certainly waited long enough.