In part two, I discussed the many sources of knowledge and support to which we turned as we made the decision about adopting a child with special needs. Even though Cora has been home with us for more than six months now, I am amazed at the help that seems to bubble up continuously to help us stay on the right path. We have a wonderful physical therapist and a fabulous occupational therapist, a super TVI/COMS (teacher of the visually impaired/certified orientation and mobility specialist), and a skilled family support specialist who are all a part of Cora’s care and growth. (I might add that she also... more

Anyway, this was darn frustrating to me. It’s unbelievable to me that someone who works in the Social Security office doesn’t know about the Child Citizenship Act. But even more than frustrating, it’s scary. Just because we know a child is a citizen doesn’t mean everyone will, and it’s important that we secure that tangible proof for each child.

For the last couple of years, issuance of the Certificate of Citizenship has become automatic for children entering the country on an IR-3 visa. As I’ve written about before, many Certificates are issued in the child’s original name, or version of the adoptive name not necessarily chosen by the family. Even though it’s maddening to have... more

Yesterday, I traveled as planned to our nearest Social Security office to apply for Social Security cards for our four newest children and to request a name change for our first adopted child, Maizie, whom we brought home from China in December of 2002.

When the woman behind the desk asked for proof of Maizie’s citizenship, I had her Maizie’s Certificate of Citizenship, which she unceremoniously refused. It turned out that the USCIS office who issued the Certificate had not filled in the certification portion at the bottom (it was signed and sealed, but with no dates or other information filled in), but I had never noticed. How I will get this fixed remains to be seen, but that’s... more

For information about applying for a social security card for an internationally adopted child: link

For a domestically adopted child: link

And for those concerned about the proposed USCIS rate increases, the public is invited to comment on the proposals until April 2. Below is the pertinent information:

Fees are increasing at USCIS. The following is an outline on how the increase affects adoption. Please feel free to forward this message to any agency, listserv, group or individual who may... more

Which leads me to the other reason I’ve been pulling my hair out this week. I appreciate the Child Citizenship Act, I really do. It was wonderful to get our newest children’s Certificates sent automatically rather than having to file a bunch of paperwork and submit a large fee. The problem is, our Haitian kids’ certificates came with names assigned by the Haitian courts, rather than the names we’d chosen for the kids. At $220 apiece for corrected Certificates, I decided to put this off until I have a spare $660 lying around (ha!). Unfortunately, I discovered that the United States Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) department is proposing a rate increase (aren’t they always?) that will... more

Or, How to Drive Yourself Nuts in Five Simple Steps

Boy, when it rains, it pours! This has started out to be a CRAZY busy week, and I feel badly that it’s taken me a few days to finally get a post up. When I was mulling over some of the topics I’ve been considering, I decided to write about something that’s been occupying a bit of my time over the past few days: getting social security numbers for our newly adopted children.

Being the tax season procrastinators that we are, I hadn’t given much thought to the fact that I hadn’t yet applied for the new kids’ social security numbers. In the rare moments it crossed my mind over the last months, a cloudy of... more

Who should evaluate your child

In our program, we have a multidisciplinary clinic that meets together a few times per month. We evaluate three children in the morning, with a rotating system, and then meet with the parents in the afternoon to discuss our findings and recommendations. Many early intervention programs offer a similar clinic.

In other programs, the different professionals assess a child one at a time, often in the child’s home. In some cases, the evaluating clinicians meet together at the end to compile... more

How to get an assessment for your child

In most cases, a parent’s first step is to get a referral from their child’s doctor. Unfortunately, there are far too many physicians who prefer to take a “wait and see” approach, and this is absolutely inappropriate for a child “at risk” because of his or her birth/developmental history. Parents themselves can also make the referral, so while a physician referral is ideal, it isn’t essential.

If you have a child under the age of 6, you’ll need to connect with your city or county’s... more

Most families who adopt waste no time having their children seen by a pediatrician or other appropriate physician. Particularly when children are adopted internationally, there are all sorts of things to rule out and check for (parasites and malnutrition being two we’re still battling, three months later). Those who adopt newborns domestically with known drug and/or alcohol exposure also are typically given a medical care plan at placement, and older, domestically adopted children can have their own medical issues that need to be addressed. ... more