Getting my rant on

That's what blogs are for, right? so it's my turn to use this little forum to blow my stack a little. There is a political thing created by Sen. Larry Craig (R. Id.), don't like his politics, creepy Bush Republican type, but, hey, he's an adoptive dad in a position of power and he whipped this institute together and it does good things. http://www.ccainstitute.org/ So anyway, every year they throw a big recognition banquet to focus attention on adoption related issues and to recognize people who make a contribution in the adoption community. Most of your own state's congressional representatives are members and are entitled to nominate someone from their jurisdiction each year for an Angel in Adoption award. So I have tried and tried and I'm still trying to nominate Stefani Ellison, the China co-coordinator for CHI (see links in sidebar) for this award. It's a good thing; she gets recognition in front of her peers for all the great work she does. Even though she deals with some difficult clients, families that commit to a child and then suffer financial or emotional set backs, or just change their minds, kids with severe medical needs who really really need families, she still has managed to place over 300 special needs kids since 2002 when the CCAA started the Waiting Child program and CHI started its participation in the project.

So I solicited letters of support from her clients and colleagues last year and submitted the package to Rep. Matheson's office because he is almost a Democrat and therefore not repugnant to me like Orrin Hatch and Cedar City, where the Ellisons live, is in his district. His office TOTALLY SCREWS THE POOCH and doesn't submit any nomination last year with this lame excuse: "At the last minute, we received so many nominations, we didn't have time to investigate each potential recipient, so Rep. Matheson chose not to submit any nomination this year." I was fit to be tied.

So well in advance of this year’s deadline, I retrieve the packet from Matheson’s lame-ass staff member and submit it to evil Hatch’s office after a nice conversation with his staff member about how inept Matheson’s office had been and how much Stefani deserved the recognition, I mean, how hard should this be right, 300 kids, she should be a lock, right? So when Stefani had not been contacted by the CCAI, I tried to reach Hatch’s staff member, I get silence. I call the CCAI and CONTRARY to what I had been told by Hatch’s staff member in July ( a senile sounding biddy down in his St. George office, and I can just imagine she’s one step up from a Gray Lady volunteer in this outpost Hatch maintains only for show because everyone knows the real action in this state happen much farther north), that she was submitting the nomination that day to the CCAI, she was LYING to me. The CCAI never received any form of communication from Hatch, I know because I had to call directly to follow up on our inept tax-payer dollars compensated public servant. Shouldn’t this be easier? I’m not asking Hatch to get a drug-abusing music producer out of some Malaysian jail, I just want Stefani to have a nice plaque she can hang in her office.

So, now I have to retrieve the package yet again, the CCAI will suspend the deadline and wait for Sen. Bennett’s office to submit the nomination, Stefani hangs fire and can’t make reservations for hotel or flight because who the hell knows if this will really happen for her this year, and I get to have the top of my head blow off because some slack-ass nincompoop can’t be honest that she has no idea what she is doing down to St. George.

Stay tuned for further developments.