Good News + Sucker Punch = My Life Lately

First, the good news.

I drove up to the Passport Agency this morning, and was able to apply for a new passport in about 15 minutes.    I will be able to pick it up on Wednesday of THIS WEEK  aaaaaaaaaaaand.... it only cost $195!

Can I get a WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My husband is going tomorrow, we didn't want him to take time off work without knowing for certain that this was going to work out.  This means the grand total for our new passports (mind you, we had just renewed them in June for the adoption) will be $390.  I don't know about you, but saving $600 at this stage in the game seems like a MOST excellent idea!

For those of you who have not contacted me already to let me know what you would like us to do with your donation but who gave to our ChipIn Monday, please be looking to your Paypal account for a refund!  I will send out individual emails as well to the addresses that were provided with your donation, since I know a few of our amazing donors are not necessarily frequent blog readers.

Second, the sucker punch.

This morning I very suddenly remembered tucking a few of my most favorite letters from my husband in the back of my journal, which I keep in my nightstand.  In a rush of excitement I ran upstairs and started digging through my nightstand, which had been ransacked by the burglars.

My journal. Was gone.

I couldn't believe it. I emptied out the whole drawer, the sense of panic I felt at first finding our house had been robbed rising up in my throat.  Why would they take this????  My journal which had chronicled my last pregnancy with my last sweet baby, which I had recorded all my private thoughts and feelings during my husband's deployment to Iraq last year.......GONE.


One can only assume this confirms the fears we had been trying to keep at bay, the motive for the break-in which we had tried to deny.

These thieves were not after items to sell.  They stole a very old laptop with a virtual treasure trove of personal information, and an iPad. They left behind two nikon point and shoot type cameras, a video camera, and other items that would be easy to sell for a quick few bucks. They stole my journal, one can only guess hoping it would contain passwords or other information they could use to further victimize our family.

They were, quite simply, after our identities.

And they've got them.

The lock box is not going to reappear.  Our precious personal papers are not going to magically materialize weeks from now.  We are going to spend the rest of our lives having to carefully monitor our credit reports, watching for misuse online of our names and other personal information.  Our children will grow up never having a secure social security number.

I spent over an hour at the social security administration after the passport agency, trying to plead our case and get our children new numbers.  Apparently, this is just "not done."  They are stuck with being linked to a personal identifier that may turn out to be the biggest albatross they ever carry.  There is NO SYSTEM for tracking stolen social security numbers, for replacing numbers for individuals who have been victims like our kids' are now.

Is it just me, or does that seem completely ridiculous??


How, in this age of computers and instant information access, is there no organized system for tracking misused numbers?  How is it that someone can use a one year old child's social security number to open a line of credit/get a driver's license/create an identity for an adult and no one ever notices?  How is the date of birth for that social security number not inextricably linked to the the number itself so that if an adult attempts to use a child's number that some sort of red flag goes up??

Why?  Why not?  It can't be rocket science.  Surely we have much more complicated computer systems and programs these days than it would take to create a system that would prevent thieves from misusing and abusing a child's information?

I shake my head.

This could mean so many bad things for us, and for our children's futures it is hard to even wrap my brain around.  The victory of our passports overshadowed by the knowledge that our trial with this robbery is really only just beginning.