Jumping through hoops for Chelsee

Well, this spring, I have been busy jumping through bureaucratic red tape. As strange as this all sounds, I have had to legally change my name to what I have been using since my marriage in 1994 in order to be re-approved for International Adoption by the Dept of Homeland Security!!! The "Man Behind the Curtain" (i.e. District Adoption Officer) in Charleston would not fingerprint me under my legal married name. He insisted my current name was Karen Lee MarriedLastName, even though I have never used that name nor have any documents ever existed in that name. However, my choices were to 1) give up on this whole thing!! or 2) get my name changed!

Off to the Beaufort, SC government buildings to start more endless paperwork and duplication of prior forms. Imagine me explaining that I need to change my name to what it is. Ok, in order to change my name, I have to have 3 screening statements done. It doesn't matter one bit that I have already had these background checks done for the home study portion of our dossier. So again, I am poked and prodded for $ex offender, child support and incarceration background checks. I have so many hits on my name that I am probably going to pop up on the FBI red flag list. Oh wait, maybe not, since I was checked out using my new alias of Karen Lee MarriedLastName. Shhweew!

Then, I had to have these statements notarized and I filled out some mumbo jumbo legal talk papers stating my reasons for wanting a name change. That was interesting to say the least - I told them all about the man behind the curtain. Oh and I marked down that I do NOT want my birth certificate changed! Watch that happen anyway!! I can see SC forwarding this name change on to Mexico, Missouri without me asking them to, watch!!

Weeks go by and I continue to use Karyn MaidenName MarriedLastName but it just doesn't feel right. I have begun to know what identity theft feels like emotionally. Once all my screening statements have come back, I take all 12 pages of legaleze back to Beaufort (35 miles one way) in the hopes of delivering them to a competent agent at the Beaufort County Courthouse. However, she informs me that my documents are not originals and won't be accepted by the judge. What the ??? No one sends me any original documents, never have!!! They are all stored in the ground somewhere over Lubbock, Texas!!

Plus - are you sitting down - she informs me I need fingerprints! Again, WHAT? That HUGE piece of info is no where to be found on this set of instructions for the name change! Besides, and this was almost laughable at this point since --- this is exactly what I am changing my name for: TO BE FINGERPRINTED!!!! Ughh! She informs me that they can fingerprint me at the Sheriff's Department right down the road! So, get this, I walk down the courtyard and into the Sheriff's Department and explain to an officer who has his nose in a book that I need fingerprints for a name change petition and he says, "ok!" I fill out one small index card with my name (dilemma, what do I put down? I went with Karen Lee MarriedLastName) and address and place of birth. He takes each of my fingers and dips them in ink and plops them onto this card. 25 seconds later, done!!! No fee! Holy crap, what just happened?

I drive a mile away to the local Dept of Social Services building to try and obtain an original document of my sex offender and background check but those people have never heard of such a thing. Please! But at least they were friendly and helpful and one agent put me on the phone with the department head in Columbia who says he never keeps originals - he sent mine to my social worker. He was so kind and helpful tho and offered to redo it for me and send me a new original if the judge in Beaufort needed it.

I decided to just turn my new fingerprints back in to the Courthouse while I was there and hope that the judge wouldn't ask for originals of the other documents. Hoping for the best was all I could muster at the time! Kim at the front desk said she would call me if I needed to start over and get originals for the judge to approve the name change. She thought the judge would be able to take a look at my petition that day!

The next day, May 22, 2007, Kim called to inform me the judge did indeed sign my petition!!! And I am now legally, formally, emotionally and finally KARYN MAIDENNAME MARRIEDLASTNAME - again!

I received the court orders in the mail and have already forwarded them to the man behind the curtain in Charleston, SC at the Dept of Homeland Security. Let's see what he does with this...................boy oh boy Chelsee, I will have just as many "labor" stories for you as any birth mom!!

UPDATE: One week later, my new I-171-H approval from the US Dept of Homeland Security arrive with my "new" name on it. Now, if we can just keep this one current enough to get to China and back before it expires!!!