AUTHOR: M. DATE: 9:20:00 PM ----- BODY:

Today we finally sat down to fill out the initial application to sign us up with A Red Thread and start our home study. This is the beginning of what those in the adoption community call "The Paper Chase," which is a nice neat handle for describing a 2-6 month long process of collecting forms and letters to document every penny you have ever earned, job you've held, disease you've been diagnosed with, substance you've been addicted to, parking ticket you've refused to pay (oops, did I say that out loud?), and person you know who will vouch for your potential to be a wonderful parent. The initial application doesn't go into quite so much detail, but instead is cleverly designed to introduce many of these issues to get you thinking (I assume). As a result, we found ourselves, in half a line or less, trying to answer questions about alcoholism, arrests, therapy, and other light and fluffy topics that of course will have little bearing on the process (hmmm). Maybe the application is designed that way on purpose: they're betting that if they give you no space to explain yourselves that you'll continue with the home study process so they don't think you're total and complete ingrates who are planning to run off with your newly adopted infant to the circus so as to avoid that outstanding warrant for your arrest from that eensy, weensy run-in with the law during that trip you took in college would be less than ideal parents. Anyway, does it help that I'm a big nerd and get some satisfaction out of paperwork well done?

--------