Blatherings - Stuff - Responses

...or, "I can't think of a title to cover the bases."

• Answer to Mrs. H (in case you didn't go back to the comments on that post): it's a little of both. If someone sends something to our email, I'm screening it. If some are legit, I'm going to flip them to our attorney after conversation has been made. If people want to call, they can call the attorney directly or our case worker directly. We do not have a phone number to us directly on purpose, and certainly not our personal and work numbers.


• Answer to Amber: I didn't e-mail any attorney, with one exception, and that exception because I have had previous e-mail communication with her. From my boss, an attorney, I contacted one attorney; I also contacted an attorney (this one only by email) with whom my office has worked. I have requested other recommended contacts from these attorneys, and from these contacts I have sent out snail mail. E-mails, I think, are not appropriate for initial contact. I did not send our profiles with them - some attorneys charge to hold your profile, some don't; some want to meet you, some don't; some attorneys will charge for that meeting, some don't. I would recommend you contact an adoption attorney, make a contact with him/her, and request recommendations from that attorney and go from there. I think it's better than trying to blindly send out a boatload of letters and profiles and never get a response. That's too expensive.


• I got my first email hit from our website. I woke up thinking about it, and why it was bugging me. I realized why: it's a little too close to a story in the news that finally surfaced in my brain, too close for me to bite off on, and by the time I got up, I was comfortable in not replying to it.
  


• One of the attorneys I contacted called me. The kicker? He called me on Sunday. He was in the office, going through his mail, and decided to address our letter. He is a nice man who gave lots of good advice, and actually some really funny, almost cynical advice I'll share in another post. The conversation was also good fodder for a later post.


• Because of the conversation with said Sunday attorney, I have to condense our profile to a two-page Dear Birthmother letter. Granted, our profile is only eight pages, and only four when back to back, but he wants something even shorter. So that's what I'm working on in phases.



• Since I rushed through and finished our adoption website, I'm a little burned out. I know I have to clean it up, I know it doesn't show well in some browsers, but I wanted the basics up now that the profile is out there. I am so burned out that last night, I didn't even look at anything adoption related, not the profile, the website, or my maddening condensation project.



• I will give an unabashed plug for WYSIWYG Website Builder. Easy, intuitive, with options for those more advanced. I'm betting it's not cheap, since DH bought it for work originally. I just wish they had more templates; they are pretty limited, and I don't have the HTML-fu to tinker with it.



• DH has calmed down from that little freakout session. Not only did he see options re: Medicare for birthmother expenses, but I also told him about a state plan that can be used. Even better, his company has an FSA plan that reimburses adoption costs. He needs to dig a little more with the HR department to see exactly what is and is not covered with our particular FSA company, but I will tell you this: his attitude improved instantaneously once he got all that information. And his attitude change made me feel a LOT better.


• I'm going to a meeting with Catholic Social Services later this month. It's an informational meeting regarding their adoption program. Information is power, right? Cast the net wide, right? We can always say no. I know they have an application process, and an application fee, but I don't know anything past that. Getting DH to cross the Valley for the meeting after a long workday is something else entirely. Working on that.

So that's what's going on in my world. Nothing earth shattering. Only one of the six attorneys so far has replied to me, but that's not surprising. I think I thanked my Sunday attorney seven times just because I thought it was so cool he called.