Song about China Adoption Paper Chase

As international adoption parents quickly come to realize, the amount of paperwork they are required to fill out and then have sent through various government agencies is ridiculous. We ended up having one of our adoptions delayed by a month because our doctor had written "no" but not also circled "false" on one of our medical reports.

On our second adoption, we were waiting on the BCIS office to approve our paperwork for a very long time. Of course this office has no published phone number or email contact that you can make to be sure your precious documents haven't been lost somewhere. Finally, through an online adoption yahoo group, I did get a secret phone number and made that call. I remember waiting with anxiety, "Would anyone actually answer the call?"

They did, and I was told that lots of papers were stacked up on the desk of the person who was in charge of looking through them. "She's on maternity leave," he told me. "She'll be back in a few weeks," he said, but added ominously, "It will probably take her a while to get through all those papers."

I couldn't believe it. What business would allow a whole department to stand still for a couple of months while someone was on maternity leave? Not one of my better experiences with government agencies.

Weeks later, we did get our form and fingerprinting date but that was just the beginning of our wrestling with government bureaucracy. Another shock came when we went to be processed for fingerprints. We were given an appointment time without anyone asking us whether that was convenient or not, in spite of the fact that we were going to have to drive two hours each way to get to the INS fingerprinting department. We'd been warned not to be late, so we took off the whole day of work and drove up to be sure we were on time.

Of course, with such a demanding appointment situation, we were expecting a packed waiting room. We entered the INS building hoping we didn't have to wait too long. The building was huge and there were about twenty employees, and absolutely no one else. We were the only people scheduled for anything. Why in the world were they making us come at 10:42 a.m. on Tuesday? Why couldn't we schedule our own appointment? It made no sense.

While we were getting our fingerprints done, we gave our toddlers some magazines to look at. One of the employees came over and took the magazine and was looking at it. That seemed strange, but what I really couldn't believe is that she took the magazine over to a copier and made copies of some of the pages. Violating copyright using government Xerox machines? At the very least, it was tacky to take a little kid's magazine away.

However, what was perhaps the most unbelievable part was when they told my husband they weren't sure his fingerprints would come out clearly enough because they had been damaged from his scientific work with abrasive chemicals. They were doing digital fingerprints, so I asked them whether or not they could take several different takes to make sure one of them worked. They said, "No. You'll just have to wait and see this one comes out."

"Can't you tell?" I asked.

"No."

"What happens if they don't come out?" I inquired with trepedation.

"Oh, he'll have to come back and be fingerprinted again," he replied flippantly.

Of course, they didn't come out right. Chris did have to go back and go through the whole process (including the four hour drive and a day off of work) yet again. On our second adoption, he was careful to spend weeks before putting cream on his hands before the appointment. This time, we were switched to a different city which was three hours away (six hours round trip). Luckily, this time they got his fingerprints on the first try.

A couple of years later, however, I met a woman who was teaching at my children's school. After getting to know my girls, she told me that she and her husband were trying to adopt from China but had to stop the process because her 80 year old mother, who lived with them, had no fingerprints left after having been a nurse all of her working life. Couldn't they have figured out another way to ensure an 80 year old woman was safe?

The paper chase process is more than enough to drive a person crazy! During our paper chase, I wrote this very campy folk song about gathering all the paperwork for China. I suspect that most China adoptive parents can relate.

Paper Chase

verse one

The paper chase, the paper chase

It’s feelin’ like a paper race

They say we can’t get our daughter

Til' the paperwork is done.

We’ve gotten notarized, certificated,

Next we’ll get authenticated.

They’re lookin’ at our finger prints

Checked our criminal records too.

Chorus:

This paper chase, this paper race,

I’m feeling I am off the pace,

But they say we can’t get our daughter

Til' the paperwork is done.

Bridge:

And not be questioned, inspected,

Worrying I’ll be rejected

verse two

File your I600-A to the BCIS,

Wait for your appointment to be fingerprinted,

Then more weeks wait for the 171H,

Wish it came today.

CANRIS, FBI, and Police checks,

No we don’t have AIDs or HIB,

Our doctor signed our medical report

And we were vaccinated yesterday.

Chorus:

This paper chase, this paper race,

I’m feeling I am off the pace,

But they say we can’t get our daughter

Til the paperwork is done.

verse three

The home study lady came to see us,

Brought our fifty page autobiography,

We’d answered all their questions,

She asked more anyway.

How do you feel about your childhood?

How do you plan to discipline?

Is your house safety inspected?

How are our extended support system networks?

How do you plan to deal with different socioeconomic,

cultural and ethnic groups

and maintain your child’s cultural identity?

Chorus:

This paper chase, this paper race,

I’m feeling I am off the pace,

But they say we can’t get our daughter,

Til the paperwork is done.

Bridge:

And not be questioned, inspected,

Worrying I’ll be rejected.

verse four

I watched a pregnant lady,

Cross the parking lot today.

I wondered if she knew

How easy it was to have a baby

In the ordinary way.

Chorus:

This paper chase, this paper race,

I’m feeling I am off the pace,

But they say we can’t get our daughter,

Til the paperwork is done.