The Syrup Incident (with a vent about adoption)

We now have a syrup incident to go along with the rotini incident. Last night I had to run to the store to buy dog food and diapers (because the people in our home who need these items refuse to go and get them for themselves). When I got home the first thing I heard was, "You won't believe what your kid just did." DH swears he left the kid unattended for mere seconds (which was later amended to, "Okay, maybe three or five minutes.") As he rounded the corner into the kitchen to see what all the silence was about, he found her standing in front of the pantry. She had the pancake syrup in her hand, lid off, completely inverted. She was drinking it. She had also poured copious amounts into the dogs' water bowl (because, hey, it would be great fun if EVERYONE got a sugar buzz before bedtime).

Her father had made some kind of effort to clean everything up so I mopped and then started Shout maneuvers on the shirt she had been wearing. He then gave her a bath (normally this is my job but he is doing penance for his trip to Las Vegas). I called my mom and held the phone up to A. "I drank surryup!" she announced proudly. A then resumed wading about in the tub (you may remember from a previous entry that she has vowed never to sit down in the tub), letting out some ominous farts as she did so. We thought something awful was coming but so far it hasn't arrived. (Unless it arrives while she is at daycare today, which would be SWEET!)

On an unrelated note, I found out last week that our state has enacted new requirements for people who want to adopt a child. 18 hours of education are now required! I am so glad we dodged that bullet. I think the requirement is just ridiculous. The classes do not cover basic childcare stuff (as far as I know) but focus more on things like "loss in adoption" and "using appropriate language in adoption." My beef is: why make it even HARDER to adopt? In order to adopt our daughter we had to:
  • Fill out a mountain of paperwork
  • Get physical exams (DH's doctor listened to his heart and then patted him on the back while my doctor violated me six ways to Sunday before signing off on the required form)
  • Get personal reference letters from friends
  • Complete a criminal background check
  • Fill out more mountains of paperwork
  • Assemble a biography/scrapbook and produce extra copies of it
  • Complete interviews with a social worker
  • Host a homestudy visit from a social worker
  • Pay lots and lots of money

And all that was done before we even met A's birthmother! I just think the education requirement is a little bit over the top. The average adoptive parent is college educated. The other parents I know are like me - if I need information I'll get it. I have a stack of books about babies and some of them are adoption-specific. While we are not trying to sweep the fact that A is adopted under the rug, we also choose not to focus on her adoptedness (is that a word)? She'll have questions and we'll answer them. And if we don't know, we'll get help. I don't want anyone forcing me to take classes on topics I *might* need to know at some point.

I just think it's unfortunate that adoption is getting harder. My 8-year-old niece was just aghast when she found out that it actually costs money to adopt ("What if you are adopting twins - do they charge you double????") Everything we went through was certainly worth it to us, but I wonder how many will throw in the towel because it just gets to be too much. It makes me sad to think of all the waiting moms and dads who would give just about anything to have a syrup-guzzling, rotini smashing, farting two-year-old to love.

Comments

Mary said…
Hey Claudia,if it makes you feel any better I had to do the same long drawn out list of things you did for adoption to be a foster home. Even had to pay for all the state background checks etc., man, I thought that sucked because I only got to borrow the kid for a bit!;)My biography was really a struggle since I can't remember past a day ago and I think I ended up doing Ricks. Plus we had to redo the whole thing every 2 years, I dreaded it. Gee, thanks for letting me vent on you blog!
August 29, 2007 at 9:18 PM
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