Smile Pretty!

As we are preparing for the big vaca to the land of Mexico it has been necessary for all of us to get passports. So today we all paraded down to the post office with our required paperwork, ready to smile pretty for the pictures. As I had mentioned throughout the morning to Sky and Kens that they were going to get their pictures taken, I had distractedly told them to smile pretty - never looking (because I was busy getting myself ready for the pic) at the end result of my direction . . . in hindsight I should have put more effort into the the end result! So after wrangling the children as Jeremy and I sign all the applications we eventually get to the picture part. Kendyll had to stand on the stool so she would be tall enough and in an attempt to distract her while the man was getting the camera ready I thought I would ask her to show me her pretty smile . . . this picture says so much more than I ever could.

Oh Kenda-loo after suppressing my laughter I had to find a way to get her to look "normal" for her passport picture - finally I settled on "Just look at the nice man" and hoped for the best. She looks a little stoned-ish (so does her daddy for that matter!) but it was much better than the alternative. After all of this when her turn was over, she kept asking the rest of the time for "more" pictures to be taken of her - one is never enough!

Bear with me please (for the few people who actually read this!) as this venting post is going to be a bit longer than normal, but I have to get it all off my chest. As I think about our trip to Mexico I am very hopeful that we will actually be able to go - yes this has been up in the air a few times in the past few weeks. I have tried to write this post a few times in the past week, but I have not been able to get my temper in control enough to write it with maturity. Due to an unfortunate (stupid) mistake by the nice (idiotic) people working in the American Fork Family Services Office Kendyll's birth certificate amendment was not filed until December 2008. A full year and 3 months past her finalization time. And this is only the start of my frustration. After attempting to make contact with the Office of Vital Records in the great state of California (there were at least 4 times when the phone was "disconnected" after 20 minutes of waiting not so patiently for someone, anyone to talk to me) where I recieved the frustrating news that California gives themselves 12 months to process an adoption amendment - that is 12 months after the amendment is filed. After some begging and pleading I gave in to despair and realized we would not be going to Mehico after all. But wait did I say give up? Oh no that is not in my DNA (or maybe it was my mother crying and refusing to accept defeat . . .) I decided to call the passport office and see if I would be able to get a passport without a birth certificate. YAY for the passport people - I love them!!! They will accept an adoption decree as evidence of birth, so once again we are all systems go. Now the only bridge to cross is the Social Security office . . . this is where my temper starts to flare. I prepared for my third trip to the office in Twin by going on line and printing off all of the requirements for a card, getting more than enough information to support my case and gearing myself up to not take no for answer. Long story short, after going through three different people, seeing the porkly - opps I mean portly security officer put his hand on his gun (honestly I could have been out the door with his gun before he hauled his rear end out of his seat) while I challenged the workers and what they were telling me I was forced to accept no for an answer - with no real explanation why. I was furious to say the least! Mostly I was seeing red because there were 3 hispanic people in the office, with their kids because they can't speak our national language (at least until Obama changes it for them) recieving disability payments - all with legal social security cards I'm sure! I told Jeremy maybe he should talk to some of his drivers and see if they can hook us up with a card! Anyway, we still don't have a social security card for Kens, but we have now involved the governers office! Who knew - they have an actual office dedicated to stuff like this! My dad has been a big help, in fact I dare say they may have messed with the wrong Bampa on this one!