Glad it's the Weekend!!

Yesterday was stressful for me. My morning started with a voice message left for me from Melissa at our home study agency.

Let me backtrack for a second. Last Tuesday (the 23rd) we had our home study visit. Then on Saturday (the 27th) while we were out exploring the area, I got NUMEROUS calls from Melissa asking me various questions about our paperwork. I made sure to put everything IN ORDER as shown on the checklist that they provided on their website. First the 911 Call History was missing... then she found that but couldn't find the one for Wake County (she had Holly Springs). I had to explain that Wake County is the county that Holly Springs is in... it's not a city. Then she called about not being able to find Steve's drug-screen results (his doctor listed on the paperwork).

It was literally, one call after another. She obviously had not looked through everything very carefully, because everything that she was "missing" was in fact there (of course it was... I double/triple/quadruple checked EVERYTHING to make sure nothing was missing!!).

Then she called to say that our financial form was done incorrectly, so Steve had to sit down and do that.

The last thing she said was that they were still waiting on our GBI clearance. Let me explain what the GBI clearance is and how the system works (it's rather complicated if you ask me). GBI stands for Georgia Bureau of Investigation. I had to preregister us into the GBI system a day before going to get our prints taken. I paid online and added all required information into the system. All we had to do was show up at a location that has the COGENT system and we'd be all set. When I put our info into the system, I had to provide a reason for needing the prints (adoption) and a code for the organization requesting the prints (our home study agency). The code was provided to me by our agency, so I just had to follow the very clear instructions from their website.

After the person(s) has their prints scanned (it's called a livescan), the prints go through COGENT and are sent to GBI to run the prints and do the criminal background check. Then GBI sends the prints back through COGENT and they notify the agency (based on the code) that the background check is ready for pick-up (electronically).

Because there are so many different reasons why someone would need a GBI check, and it's for the entire state of Georgia, once the individual has their livescan done, the organization requiring the scan has 30 days to retrieve the information.

We had our prints (and all our required home study stuff) done on September 7th. On our way home from getting our livescan, I called Melissa and told her that we had just finished our scans and that they were free to pick up the info. I was given a receipt from the lady at the livescan location that had a confirmation number and proof that our prints were in the system. I included a copy of this receipt (and a note showing the date and time that I called Melissa to inform her that our prints were taken and ready to be retrieved) in our home study paperwork.

Okay... so on the 27th when she said they still didn't have the prints from COGENT... I wasn't sure how it was possible. I immediately said to myself, "I bet they never went into COGENT to get the results and the 30 days passed."

Okay, so my voice mail left for me by Melissa basically said that our home study report was done, but they don't have the GBI results, so we may need to go and get them done again.

EXCUSE ME???? UM NO!!!!

I was livid. So I called her back and she was frustrated and kept telling me that they called on the 30th and 31st and that they were getting nowhere with trying to get our prints. She had called a Cheryl Peyton at GBI to find out what the problem was, and Cheryl said that she could see our scan and that she'd send the results back through COGENT. This happened twice (apparently) and Melissa was mad that nothing was coming through. Cheryl told her to call COGENT and find out what the issue was.

So her basic statement to me was that I needed to call Cheryl because she wasn't getting anywhere with her, and maybe since they're my prints, I could get her to fax the prints to Melissa. WHAT???? Good Lord... anyone who knows me well, KNOWS how much I HATE talking on the phone. Especially to deal with crap like this.

She said if we couldn't get the prints, we'd have to go get them done again. Which pissed me off because it was $70 and we followed the protocol. How was this OUR problem??? But her view was that it clearly wasn't HER problem and she threw it off on me to deal with. She didn't care when I said that Steve can't take a day off work to go get prints, and he's traveling with work and it's Summit season-- his BUSY time of the year. She didn't care.

Okay, so I called Cheryl at GBI. As soon as I said who I was and started to explain our situation, she cut me off and laid into me with how she'd already told Melissa that she's sent the results through. TWICE. I said that Melissa had told me that and thought by having me call, maybe there'd be some progress made. This pissed Cheryl off more than anything. She point-blank told me that GBI DOES NOT deal with the public. No individual should EVER call them. They only deal with businesses and organizations and it's for a reason.

I apologized and told her I didn't know what else to do. Thankfully, she softened up and said she wasn't mad at me, but it was a shit-move by Melissa to try and use me as a power-play. She said she'd call COGENT and find out the problem. I said that Melissa had told me that she called and was not helped. Cheryl said that Melissa should have called her and told her that, and she could have called COGENT on their behalf... but Melissa should NEVER have given me her number and told me to call. Yes, she was pissed.

She got my name and number and said that since she never got a number from Melissa, she'd call me back and let me know what she finds out. GREAT!

Like ten minutes later, I got a call from Melissa saying that she got a call from COGENT saying that they'd be running our print results at 3pm. She said they wouldn't be at work, but she'd call me in the morning (today) to let me know the results. Her last statement was, "Don't call Cheryl yet..." I said that I had already called...

DUH!! Why the eff do you think COGENT called you???? Just randomly?? NO! It's because Cheryl called COGENT because I CALLED CHERYL!

Anyway... like two hours later, I got a call from Cheryl and she said that everything looked good with COGENT but she found out some information. She said that our prints were taken on September 7th. This means that Melissa had 30 days to get our prints (October 6th). The prints were not retreived in the 30 days (AH HA!!! I KNEW IT!!!) and the first attempt to get them was on OCTOBER 30th (which is WELL over a month). The second attempt to retreieve was OCTOBER 31st!!

So she wanted me to know that WE did nothing wrong. All the blame is on Melissa and so she said because she felt bad for me, she wanted to help me out so she went ahead and pulled out our info from the system and sent it through COGENT. She asked if she could get Melissa's number from me because she wanted to personally tell her that SHE screwed up (not me). She wanted to make it VERY clear that she is to NEVER again give their number to a client, and they are to check the system before the 30 days, and there will NOT be a second chance again. YIKES.

I ended up getting a call from Melissa at 2pm letting me know that the prints came through and we're all set. The home study report would be finished and sent to us early next week. THANK GOD.

So that stressed me out (as you can tell). I finally got a call today from Babies Can't Wait about making Gus's first appointment for therapy. I found out that LaTasha and Rebecca (2/3 of the people who evaluated Gus) will be on our team! LaTasha is our BCW coordinator and Rebecca will be our Speech Therapist (which is AWESOME because she has an OT background as well)! Hopefully she'll be able to help with the speech delays and the SPD at the same time!

I'm feeling REALLY eager for Christmas to arrive... so I've been getting my Christmas music gathered from iTunes. I'm ready to make a playlist and sync it to my phone, so I can listen in the car. I love the holidays!!!

We have no plans this weekend and I'm so glad to be able to just relax and not do anything. We're supposed to go to a craft fair with Lesley and Jason tomorrow and meet them for breakfast before. It should be a fun morning!!

:-)