Well, as a few of you know, we applied for a delayed birth certificate for Rich’s youngest daughter Emily. It was required for her to be able to stay in the public schools. On Rich’s birthday, last Thursday, the certificate finally arrived in the mail.

It was an unbelievable process of red tape and the inability of people in authority to make wise decisions. The icing on the cake? We live in Ottawa county, and Emily was born at home, in Ottawa county. But the birth certificate reads Kent county. Well this has always been a problem since our mailing address is Grand Rapids (Kent county), but we physically live in Marne Township (Ottawa county). Marne was originally called Berlin, but with WWII, the name of the town was changed, though the race track in Marne, called Berlin Raceway, remains  named Berlin – but I digress.

So I made a final call to the office today, to find out if this is important, as we really don’t want someone to give Emily a hard time because of a minor error on her birth certificate. The woman looked at the documents and said, well, the papers from social security state the address is Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids is in Kent county. If you want it to say Ottawa county, you need another letter from Social Security stating that she was born there. I asked if it made any difference. She said no.

Now here is the weird part. We needed paperwork from Social Security to prove that Emily was born, nothing else would do. But in the process, we misplaced Emily’s social security card, which she needs, so she will have to apply for a new one. Social security will not accept her birth certificate as proof that she is who she says she is. It will be interesting to see what happens with that one.

But she was happy, and surprised, to get her birth certificate, and we are so thankful that this saga is over. A great story though. I’ve left out all the details… but you can imagine.

Hallelujah!