We just returned home from a 2 hour visit to the SS Agency. I will say, wait time excluded, it was pretty pleasant. We were allowed to have food, so Mae had cheesesticks, a pear, some cookies and some cherrios while waiting, plus water of course (some places won't let you have food.) Also, when I decided to run get the FULL dossier from the car just in case, I didn't have to give up my precious NUMBER and start over (again, in some places, you leave, you forfeit your #). The only seat left was next to a family from Cambodia. A grandma, aunt, father and son. They were trying to get the boy a SS card. For the first time, Mae showed no fear and actually spent a LOT of time with the grandma. When I encouraged her to speak to Mae (might not be Mandarin, but I could tell Mae wanted her to TALK to her) she did all sorts of cute finger games with her. Mae never smiled but very seriously stood in front of her, her hands on the grandma's knees, staring intently into her face. I wonder if her nanny resembled this woman. I was happy that she wasn't afraid...usually if another older Asian woman tries to do anything to her she shrieks and turns away. Hooray for that! There was also another mother there who had adopted her 19month old son domestically. The 3 kids played together for about an hour. I had brought lots of books and they swapped them and chased each other and all in all, kept themselves amused. When it was our turn, I was relieved to find I had brought all the documents I needed. But. Because Mae is a Permanent Resident and not a citizen (yet), her Permanent Resident card has her Chinese name on it, not her American name. *sigh* So this means that when we finally get her Citizenship papers, we will need to return to change her SS ID from PR to citizen (knew that) but ALSO have to file for a name change, from Xiang Huai to Mae Moeller. *argh* Our only concern at the moment is taxes. She will have a SS# in about 2 weeks, so we think that is all we need to claim her on our taxes. Hopefully the fact that her name isn't the same won't affect anything. Here's hoping! (the pic is of her fancy hairstyle today. Sorry it's all blurry.)
Monday, October 23, 2006
Social Security Adventure
We just returned home from a 2 hour visit to the SS Agency. I will say, wait time excluded, it was pretty pleasant. We were allowed to have food, so Mae had cheesesticks, a pear, some cookies and some cherrios while waiting, plus water of course (some places won't let you have food.) Also, when I decided to run get the FULL dossier from the car just in case, I didn't have to give up my precious NUMBER and start over (again, in some places, you leave, you forfeit your #). The only seat left was next to a family from Cambodia. A grandma, aunt, father and son. They were trying to get the boy a SS card. For the first time, Mae showed no fear and actually spent a LOT of time with the grandma. When I encouraged her to speak to Mae (might not be Mandarin, but I could tell Mae wanted her to TALK to her) she did all sorts of cute finger games with her. Mae never smiled but very seriously stood in front of her, her hands on the grandma's knees, staring intently into her face. I wonder if her nanny resembled this woman. I was happy that she wasn't afraid...usually if another older Asian woman tries to do anything to her she shrieks and turns away. Hooray for that! There was also another mother there who had adopted her 19month old son domestically. The 3 kids played together for about an hour. I had brought lots of books and they swapped them and chased each other and all in all, kept themselves amused. When it was our turn, I was relieved to find I had brought all the documents I needed. But. Because Mae is a Permanent Resident and not a citizen (yet), her Permanent Resident card has her Chinese name on it, not her American name. *sigh* So this means that when we finally get her Citizenship papers, we will need to return to change her SS ID from PR to citizen (knew that) but ALSO have to file for a name change, from Xiang Huai to Mae Moeller. *argh* Our only concern at the moment is taxes. She will have a SS# in about 2 weeks, so we think that is all we need to claim her on our taxes. Hopefully the fact that her name isn't the same won't affect anything. Here's hoping! (the pic is of her fancy hairstyle today. Sorry it's all blurry.)
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