Well, nothing sets things aright like a little surprise visit with family -- the Engaged Cousins, on their way to set up their new home and prepare for the wedding. They brought their dog, Miss, who enjoyed the playtime with Balto. Well, no, strike that. Balto enjoyed some playtime with Miss. Miss much preferred to be inside, away from that pesky pup. But in all, they got on well and it was good for both dogs to have time to play.
And I'll tell ya, if you don't have children, a few days spent in a home with children coming out of every nook and cranny will either give you baby fever, or a desire to get your tubes tied at the first available moment. I forget how quirky, vocal, funny, noisy, hectic, and particularly loud our home is, until I get a moment to see it through the eyes of others. Yep, pretty chaotic, when you don't have the chance to gear up for it, one or two children at a time. But oh, when those little ones climb up on your lap for no reason other than to be near you, or hug your legs and give you unsolicited kisses, ah, that's something you don't find just anywhere. I hope the cousins left feeling loved.
Now that EmBaby has a birth certificate, I am trying to get her a social security number. This is proving even more challenging than it was with Smidge. A birth certificate is not enough to validate identity (in spite of the hoops you must jump through in Alabama to get a homebirth birth certificate). The lady at the social security office was somewhat mortified that EmBaby doesn't have a Medicaid card (*sigh*), or a "school ID card" -- a quiet reminder that the child is one and a half didn't seem to sink in.
About the only proof of identification the social security office will accept (that we have any hope in hell of obtaining) is a "medical record" -- namely, the insurance sheet/bill you get when you pay for a doctor's visit. Right. Anybody actually keep those? I mean, if you don't itemize your medical deductions, or file your own insurance claims? Just curious, because the lady at the gubmint office was quite thrown for a loop at our total lack of identification for this little person. It has to be one of those, and it cannot be expired. Did you know they expire? I asked, specifically, what constitutes an "expired" medical record. She said it can't be ten years old, or anything like that. Which, okay, sounds reasonable enough, except that we're talking about a 19 month old child. If it's even two years old, it's fake. Seriously, what constitutes "expired for a 19 month old"? Oh, well, she hemmed and hawed and finally declared that it must be issued within the last month.
*sigh* They don't even know what they want. They only know that you must figure it out if you want to get this done. I am so done with our federal government.
No, the doctor's office cannot run us off a copy from her file (it must be the *original*), and no, they will not accept a letter from the doctor's office, and well, all I have to do is get her medical records, and what's the problem...
She began to chide me for losing EmBaby's card in the first place, and how difficult it is to replace a card. I stopped her. WHOA -- this is a NEW card, a FIRST card. I explained this at the onset. "What? Why doesn't she have one yet?" Oh. You have got to be kidding me. AS I HAVE PREVIOUSLY EXPLAINED, her birth certificate was just issued last week. She has nothing. She's ONE. At this point she said, "Well *exhale* the sooner you get a child into the community, the easier this is."
Ah, and there it is. The community? Oh, she's into the community just fine. They know her at church, among friends, down at the corner market and gas station, at the Pig, at the water company, and even among our homeschooling community. What this woman meant is that the sooner I get my children into gov't sponsored health care, or gov't sponsored daycare, or gov't approved activities of some kind, the easier the government will go on us. This is the way our federal government works on a daily basis, and yet people keep clamoring to the federal level with "help us", "take care of us", "provide for us". And those of us who don't, then we simply must not understand how nice it is there in the Nanny State.
Finally, in an exasperated state, the lady said our doctor's office should know exactly what they need (since she obviously didn't) and offered to transfer me "to the voice mail of the front office", where I could leave a detailed message. I left my message. I called the doctor's office. Twenty minutes on hold, and they have no idea what the social security office needs. They said they'll try to figure it out and get back with me. Like the doctor's secretary said, "Well, all we have is what you gave us? How is that going to help?" Yeah. I know. This is ridiculous.
Don't you all feel safer, now, knowing that law-abiding citizens have so much "security" to go through to be recognized by their own government? Me neither.
Ah, well, whether the government recognizes my children or not, they're here, they're legal, and they're wonderful. Hopefully, they will grow up as far from the reach of the federal government as we can keep them so that they grow up to be competent, thinking, self-sufficient citizens. It certainly won't make life easier on them, not the way this country is heading, but it will make them better off, as people.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
16 comments:
Big fun. But I'm pretty sure all you need is the birth certificate.
Nope, I guess not. I remember filing for Brenna's with just a birth certificate, but that was eleven years ago. Where does a baby get a photo id from anyway? Want me to start a school for gifted babies? I have a laminator.... :-) I'll just need a head shot of EmBaby, preferably wearing eyeglasses and a button-up, collared shirt. Maybe you can tuck a pencil behind her ear.
Oh, I sooooo totally feel for you on this one...we went through very similar stuff with S.J.'s relacement card. We went to the doctor and none of that stuff was what they wanted, but it was finally our insurance card with her name printed, on it that got us through the door.
You know you could make an appointment for a well check for Emily, and then take that receipt in, with whatever correspondence you might have had with your insurance agency concerning that appointment. It's just a thought.
When you do get that card keep it under lock and key in a fire box or something...it's too much of a pain to replace it!
EEESH!! So sorry for all the hoops you have to jump through. How ridiculous and frustrating!
I have to make the trek down to Richmond tethis month to get both Walker's and Everett's birth certificates, since I never filled out the paper work at the hospital.
I am a bit nervous now.
Hope you get it all worked out soon.
I dont think the government worker bees know ANYTHING.
I got a SS card very easily... and I was not born here ;)
I just went down to the local office with proof of I.D.!!
I hope you find it as easy in the future!
May be a silly question, but how do you "identify" her on your income tax? I thought they required a SSN.
Dot
Don't worry about it; you should be thrilled. I know lots of parents who are doing all they can to avoid getting their kids a social security card, but ends up arriving in the mail anyway.
With any luck, by the time Em is old enough to worry about having one, it won't be necessary anyway :)
Oh, Mere, yuck!
Well, the doctor's office put together a "packet", which they hoped would suffice. It included a vaccination card (which is empty, but it's filled in w/ the required information, and a note on the bottom that we have opted to delay vaccines). The SS lady held it up, *scoffed at me* and said, "And just where, exactly, did you get THIS from?" I got it, exactly, from the child's pediatric office, and it was one item which *your* office expressly cited as "acceptable". She furrowed her brows at me, "It's empty."
Well, hey, she doesn't have to be vaccinated in order to get a ss#. (That'll come later, under Universal Health Care.) I'm providing this as one of YOUR acceptable forms of ID. *big smile*
She wouldn't accept it. I guess it looked fake.
Fortunately, the rest of the packet, although each individual piece of evidence was dismissed, did, when taken as a whole, provide enough information that they couldn't show us the door without more effort than it was worth.
Now she'll send the copy of the original birth certificate (the copy she made, herself, from the original, there in the office) to Montgomery, where they will verify that it is "an exact copy of the original", and then they will mail us the card.
Honestly, if the use and abuse of a social security number were better monitored (and abuses prosecuted) -- if there was any validation for all of this "security", I wouldn't mind so much. But as it stands, they are holding OUR money (tax refund) hostage until we jump through the mystery hoops. It's ridiculous.
Dy
Dot, that's the sole reason we're filing for one - so that we can claim her on our taxes and get our money back.
Rochelle, heh. Good point.
Spinneretta, well, that's just it. If she had a medicaid card, or a school ID, or some other gov't issued identification, it would have been a piece of cake. Seeing as she doesn't leave the house without me, though, all that gets a bit tricky.
Emily, uh, yeah. I do hope it goes easier for you. The birth certificate shouldn't be too challenging, really. It's a bit of a PITA for us, because of the homebirth situation here ;-) However, be fully and completely armed with documentation out the ears when you go to get their ss#'s.
What made me laugh was the doctor's office commenting on the fact that ALL of the information they have, they obtained from us -- we are the authority by which they administer Em's medical care, and to which they defer for things such as her age and her identity. The office lady and I got a joint chuckle out of that.
As Zorak put it, when I relayed the discussion w/ the SS office: "WHERE is the village that's supposed to be raising this child?!" Heh. I love that man.
Dy
Oh, and FYI another friend of mine who was going through this whole thing was able to use a church issued baptismal certificate for her daughter...apparently if God recognizes her then so will the gubmint';-)
Oh man! How frustrating for you!
I lost Anna's SS card and now I am really dreading trying to replace it! Luckily I have the number written down somewhere so I don't really need the card.
Maybe I can just wait it out and let her deal with it herself when she's a grown-up. What? That would be irresponsible of me? Bummer. ;)
I work in a Pediatrician's office and we have gone through the same thing for our poor patients. The information we have was provided by the parent, so how can they consider that acceptable just because it's coming from our office. I feel for you, it's a huge mess, but yet people are up in arms around here because they are trying to keep illegal aliens from obtaining benefits. Last time I checked they hadn't paid in anything (as illegals) to be eligible for benefits, but you are getting the run around just trying to get what Em is entitled to. Go figure, who's out there on the street with signs for the problems you are having? No one.
Good grief. I'm sorry you had to go through this.
When I had to get a copy of my oldest's ss card, they accepted his Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance card as proof. Definitely not a government issued card, as we're the ones paying the Blue Cross bill each month. :o)
We couldn't use our ins. card b/c we get one card w/ his name on it, but none w/ our names.
Oh. my. goodness. Stoopid, stoopid bunch of jackasses. All we had to do was CHECK A FREAKIN' BOX. I'm not kidding. Right there, on the form for getting the birth certificate, there was a freakin' box that said something to the effect of, "Check here to apply for a SS card." And we did, and they mailed it to us. I believe we did this THREE TIMES, in three different states. Seems like it was different with Nikki in TX, but I can't remember exactly, but I know it wasn't a hassle. Birth certificate not enough? BS. Idiots.
((hugs)) Well, I'm trying to get caught up on your blog, but your write too much for me to ever get caught up once I get behind. :} So I'll catch up a little, and assume that if it was important, I already heard it via the Usual Suspects email system. Dangerous assumption, that, considering the whole missing the pregnancy announcement thing. But, I have only one body and half a mind, and they're too often needed upstairs. :)
It is ridiculous, isn't it? When I applied for state provided insurance for the kids (only because of Jo's accident), I had to provide certain records to prove they're real. Birth certificates and social security cards, okay. The rest were all documents that *I* provided all the information to a third party for. Patient records from our doctor's office? Sure *I* filled out the form they wanted, but somehow since it had passed through a doctor's (or his receptionist's) hands, it was all true. I'm just thankful the SRS lady I was dealing with was a kind, intelligent woman who knew how completely ridiculous some of this was. She also didn't flip out when I told her the youngest two (at that time) were homeschooled, always had been, and therefore had no school records that I didn't make. CRAZY.
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