Trip to the SS Administration

Today I trekked over to the Social Security Administration in New Brunswick to apply for Gianna's SSN while Dan was watching her at home. At first, they tried to tell me she had to be present and they couldn't process it. But it says in black and white in their instructions that you can even mail it in for minors, only people over 12 need to be present. So I think they were just being lazy. Even though we have certified English translations of all her documents, after 45 minutes of typing in her information, talking to managers, and making photocopy after photocopy, they told me they need to send off all her documents for translation, which will take up to 10 weeks. How bogus. The documents are already translated by Vietnam, stamped and certified. But thank God the US Embassy in Vietnam put her name in the order that Westerners are accustomed to or else she would end up with her last name first and first name last. I'm also thankful our health insurance company accepted her birth certificate and adoption decree to start coverage without insisting on a SSN. So far we have not received any uncovered medical bills (knock on wood), so lets hope everything is AOK with that. The poor little tyke has been dealing with some medical problems since Vietnam and now she's pushing a bunch of molars through. We bought her a vibrating corn cob teether that she really enjoys. I will have to snap a picture of her in the act. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!