First we should touch on what a Vogon is:
“They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn’t even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders – signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters.” Douglas Adams – Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy
On January 15th 2016 we got notice from the boys attorney that after a month of waiting the final paperwork was about to be signed by the judge. With Jayme we did a full formal signing ceremony, photos with the judge and most importantly we walked out of the courtroom with paperwork proving that Jayme was ours. For Elijah and Gabe it was a whole new experience.
It took several weeks for our attorney to receive anything from the courthouse. What was sent was the paperwork for Elijah’s and Gabe’s new birth certificate without any of the supporting documents the court was to supply. The biggest missing item was a signed copy of the judgement. By this point DHS was out of our lives and our children were undocumented people. Even with the correct paperwork; Gabriel’s birth certificate would take 4 months to process and Elijah’s 11months.
After a few weeks and several calls to the courthouse our attorney was able to an order in for 5 copies of the judgement. The next day Anthony and Gabriel left the house at 6am and drove 3 hours to the Roseburg Courthouse.
Once at the Courthouse they waited in line behind all the dead beat dads trying to pay as little as they could for child support. Again here security was very tight. Anthony had to show his ID and then they called him Joshua for the remainder of the visit. After about 20 mins they had the proof of the adoption and started the 3 hour trip back to Portland to drop the copies off at the attorneys office and drop off a additional check to expedite Gabriel’s birth certificate thru the Oregon System of Vogons.
The side story to all of this is dealing with the DHS Vogons. Elijah’s adoption assistance amount was wrong, something we missed before we signed. So a new agreement had to be draw up with them. Because it was their mistake too they rushed it. The second issue was there medical ID cards.
Now as much as we hated the Oregon State Vogons, the Federal ones are worse. With an upcoming international cruise coming up for the 2 Dad’s and Gabriel, all three of us needed passports.