At their mercy

Thursday was not a good day.

I called the agency on Monday to get the final payment amount for the adoption. This payment is due once we clear PGN so Kevin and I wanted to be prepared to make the payment. No call back Monday with the total.

Called again Tuesday to get the total. Left a message. I received a message when I got home from work stating the amount. First, the amount was $2,000 higher than I figured. Second, why call our home?! They have my work phone number! They know when I work and I gave that number in the message.

I know! They didn't want to talk to me because they knew I'd question the amount.

So what I'd do? I pulled out our contract, found the contract fee, subtracted the fees paid to get the remaining balance. Yep! $2,000 more!

Oh, I thought to myself. I remember the email in late summer talking about a fee hike. But that was for families who hadn't received a referral or entered family court. We should be okay since we had entered court, or so we were told.

Kevin called today to talk with our contact about the fee discrepancy. The director wouldn't let him talk to her. She wanted to handle it. At first she told him she thought we fell into the group who didn't have to pay the fee. Then, low and behold, I get an email. "You do owe the extra fee."

Kevin called her back to get the exact date we entered family court. We want to really know if we should pay it or if it is a way for them to get another two grand out of us. The director said he is adversarial! Can you believe that?! She told him to look at our contract!

We'll pay the extra money to get our baby home but we should not be taken advantage of because we literally have no choice. They know we'll pay it. We want our baby.