Being jerked around by the health dept.

Part of the process of obtaining Sarah's visa that allows her to come into the U.S. is completing a form for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. The USCIS requires we have an MD who has agreed to treat Sarah when she arrives. It also requires the health dept. where the immigrant is going to live to verify the MD who has agreed to treat the immigrant. Now you might think that is a simple thing but not in Franklin County, Missouri. The health dept. director is never in the office and since dropping off the form on April 10 and repeatedly calling the dept. and going by there once last week, he has never once returned a phone call to let us know what is going on. Other personel have told us the director has to run it by the county attorney and everything has to be run by the county attorney, including purchases. Have you ever heard of anything so inefficient? If that is truly how the dept. is run, the county needs to save the director's salary and just let the attorney run the health dept. since he apparently is micromanaging it already. I'll expand in more detail when time allows.

On a happier note, we were told by Tori's mom, Katherine, that Callahan's mom was able to get some photos of Sarah last week. You can read both families' blogs in my list of families currently traveling. Katherine also sent a couple of photos she took of photos she found at the orphanage. So they are actually from December, but we hadn't seen them yet. Thanks Katherine.