The Whole Store's Got The Flu*

We are home, after the latest installment of the comedy of errors that has been the adoption of our son.

On Tuesday, having decided that we were going to be stuck in Florida until the end of our natural life span, we decided that it would probably be a good idea to get out of Tim's aunt and uncle's house and just get some fresh air and drive around and generally try to be out of the way, at least for a little while. So, armed with directions and the GPS we headed out to Borders with the baby all bundled up and adorable. (Ok, he's always adorable, but apparently he is even adorable to non-biased folk as we were stopped everywhere so that people could coo.) I was thrilled to find a copy of my friend Michelle's latest on the shelf, so I snapped that up (and took a photo with my cell that I intend to email her when I remember and am actually in the vicinity of my phone - so far I have remembered only as I drift off to sleep or now, when it's upstairs and I am reclined precariously with a sleeping baby on my chest.)

When we were out the phone rang and it was our attorney asking if we wanted to go home. Briefly I considered saying something smart-aleky, but instead opted for "Oh yes, so very much." And she said we were good to go. And then she related this tale.

Apparently, the Florida ICPC office was also starting to wonder what the hold up was, so they made some phone calls to the Virginia office and, after hunting around, finally got a hold of the person in charge who, after some hmming and hawing, explained that everyone except them, one other person and one support person was on vacation. Now I ask you: what government office actually allows all but two people to be out at one time? Regardless, after hearing about how we'd been waiting and waiting and waiting the person in charge agreed that seemed excessive and went from desk to desk to find our file parked on the desk of someone who was out. She thumbed through it, saw it was all in order, and called Florida back saying we were good to go. Total time between phone calls? Two hours.

We contemplated leaving that evening, but in the end decided to get a good night of sleep (doable only because Tim's aunt, who is an amazingly wonderful woman, stayed up with the baby all night so we could sleep uninterrupbed) and leave in the morning. The which we did.

Our intention was to get to Florence, SC if possible - all depending on little one. Well, we hit Florence around 5 pm and neither of us was ready to stop for the night and he was rocking his carseat (not literally, but he's a traveling man, apparently) and the GPS was estimating that we could be home by midnight, so we just pushed on through, fully recognizing that if it became an issue for the kiddo that we would just stop in Richmond or whatever needed to happen. But, as it turned out, we made it home at 11:53 and while today was a little rough for all three of us, when we woke up to see two-ish inches of snow with more coming down, we were all grateful not to be driving in it.

*Spot the quote.