Jul
30
Long Live the memory of Wheezie “Bean” the family Cat. Wheezie was born in 1987. Becky, my wife got Wheezie when she was a kitten. Wheezie got her name because she couldn’t meow like a normal cat it was more of a wheeze hence Wheezie. I’ve been told that when Wheezie was a kitten she was so small that she could fit in the palm of Becky’s hand. I came into the picture much later, something like ‘93 or so. When I met Becky my wife I was told that I go before the cats go, I had to learn my place quickly. I wasn’t much of a cat person and at the time Becky had 2 cats Tiffany and Wheezie. Tiffany was a pure white Persian with soft long hair and a shy personality. Wheezie was the younger of the 2 and had the energy of a kitten. Wheezie fit right in at Halloween being a long hair domestic black cat with bright yellow eyes. No matter what you wore in our house you always had cat hair on you. That’s the way it is when you have a white and a black cat. Tiffany passed away in ‘98 due to cancer. Wheezie had a hard time with Tiffany gone and we felt guilty the way we treated the situation, in hind sight we could have handled it better. We brought in 2 young cats to help keep Wheezie company and again in hind sight that was probably a mistake. We didn’t give her any time to get over Tiffany’s passing. Wheezie became a loaner and with the other 2 cats being active I’m ashamed to say we didn’t give Wheezie the attention she deserved. Then Morgan arrived and the cats or “girls” as we called them since they were all female took a backseat to everything. Wheezie made Morgan’s room her room since she was the only cat that could squeeze through the baby gate at the top of the stairs. These past few months Morgan has been showing more and more interest in Wheezie and I dread telling her that Wheezie is gone. Wheezie was a good cat that loved the outdoors, catnip and Tuna fish. She will be missed in the Creighton Household. I will miss her.
Jul
20
Finally we submitted the paperwork for the Domestication of Morgan at DHEC. All it really means is that we have to wait 30 days to get a US Birth Certificate for Morgan. Oh, did I forget to mention that it cost $25 on top of the $150 that you already spent filing in the county.
Ok, so here it is you submit the following:
Birth Certificate (China)
Adoption Decree (China)
Visa (China)
Passport (US)
Abandonment (China)
Home Study
Post Placement
Go to DHEC Vital Records and stand in line, stand in line and stand in line some more. When you get to someone that you think knows something you get told to go to the back of the line and fill out the Green form. The Green form that has questions on it that you can’t answer because your child was abandon in a foreign country. Anyway, after getting through the line AGAIN. I made it to the counter and all they wanted was the dam Green form, Oh and $12. I got told to sit down and wait. South Carolina DHEC Vital Records room is like a refugee camp. There’s no room all the chairs were taken and Latin children are everywhere. Fortunately I was called quickly and the woman that I talked knew what she was talking about. 30 day and another $15 dollars and I can get my daughter’s US Birth Certificate. It’s a good thing I really like that kid because adoption process is tough. Fortunately for us Morgan is worth all this aggravation and more.
Jul
4
We celebrated the 3rd and 4th of July with both sets of Grandparents grilling out both nights. Morgan of course had the time of her life. Who wouldn’t when you have 6 people at your beck and call.
Jul
3
We finally broke down and did it. We applied for Domestication. This is the final step of Morgan’s adoption. We didn’t really do it exactly right but we did it all the same. We made copies of everything related to the adoption and just kind of dumped it off at the county court house, Oh as well as $150 filing fee (someone has to make money off this). For the record I was the driving force behind getting it done so if it’s wrong it’s my fault. I’m hoping that they take pitty on us and say “OK looks like more than everything is there, Granted”. We still need to drop off some paperwork to DHEC and wait about 30 days before this is final and we expect a phone call from the county court house asking us “what is all this stuff”. Thanks to a friend now we know. So by the end of July or early August we will be completely done with Morgan’s adoption. We won’t wait this long for Isabelle I can tell you that.
Get this when we went in to submit for domestication the lady at the counter took one look at me and asked me if I was here for Child Support payments. I quickly replied “no, not that I know of”. Didn’t know I had that look about me. Couldn’t she see I was pushing Morgan around in the stroller with my wife following us. Oh well you’d be surprised at how people mistake me for all sorts of things I’m not. Must be something about me, but it’s not my problem.
Columbia, SC