I spoke with our adoption agency yesterday and confirmed that our fingerprints have to be done and our I600A approved before our homestudy will be sent to Korea. So we are not on the waiting list as I posted here earlier. Not even close.

I am disappointed in myself for missing such an important step in the process. I’m paid to teach other people how to be effective project managers. The first step is planning, and the only way to plan is to know the process. Idiot.

I’ve been trying to reconstruct what happened so I can discover how I was so knuckleheaded as to misunderstand this point. I dug up the letter that the agency sent when the homestudy was approved; it did indeed say that our homestudy was “approved on April 13,” but it did NOT say that it was sent to Korea. That information was imparted by our social worker, who left a voice mail saying, “I just wanted to let you know that your homestudy has been approved, and I guess that means it will be on its way to Korea this week–I think they send the cables on Friday.” Or something to that effect–I didn’t save it.

Now, if there’s one thing I know from our first adoption, it’s that social workers are very blinkered when it comes to the part of the adoption process that does not directly involve them. To them, the homestudy is paramount, and what happens between the homestudy and the referral is like a big black box. Homestudy goes in; some function is performed; referral comes out. Since, for some reason, I600-A approval is not considered part of the homestudy approval process, “You’re all done” to the social worker means, “You’re all done with my part. Check with the program coordinator on what else needs to be done–I can’t be expected to keep track of every program requirement.” Parents, of course, don’t see the divisions in the same way–it’s all “adoption agency” to us, not “social worker and program coordinator,” and we therefore tend to believe the social worker when she tells us she is there to “shepherd you through the process.” Or we believe them the first time. Any parent that believes the social worker the second time, and doesn’t double-check every word that comes out of her mouth, is an idiot.

I am not feeling like a very useful engine this week.