I Won!

I'm feeling pretty bad ass right now! The French government has nothing on me!

Sure it took two visits to the CAF, 3 phone calls, and a few trees were sacraficed for additional copies, (not my fault), but the paperwork war is over and I am victorious. Elise gets to stay at school for lunch and we get to pay for it! Ha, Ha CAF! That's right, we get to pay! Wait a second, who won? We're officially responsible for the fees. Ah crap!

So it really only took two visits to the CAF despite my predicted three. On the first visit they told me that Elise had moved out and I need to obtain a french birth certificate to prove that my three year old still lived with me. Awesome! But the rest of visit #1 included a successful deposit of our 2008 declaration resources and the avis d'impots. So, I'm half way there. We need visas and proof that Elise is still ours, she is alive and well, living under our roof, and then we're done. One more strike on the triangle of doom!

Wrong!

Because, on the return visit, exactly one week later and a few phone calls by my friends at the beautiful BACE here on campus, they had lost my 2008 declaration resources, avis d'impots, and I still only had one daughter, Elise!!! Yeah, in the week since my first visit, Elise came home but Celia took off. It's like musical chairs of daughters. I don't know where they go but they have some tag team thing going on according to the CAF. They are morons (not E and C, the CAF!). However, like I said, I WON! I won't be defeated and I am armed and ready. I brought everything with on visit #2, hence the sacrificed tree, and I met their every demand. Bank account? Check! Visa renewal? Check! Bring it on! And although I did not leave the CAF with my Quotient Familial, (it will take another 10 days to process since they have to re-enter ALL our paperwork!), I did leave the CAF with a spring in my step and a lot lighter (of course, I just unloaded 10 kilos of papers!)

Oh, and to fill you in on the rest of the triangle of doom...

(1) The visa thing worked out beautifully! We picked up our recepisse (the receipt that says you successfully applied for your visa and the real thing is coming. Why they can't just give you the real visa I'll never understand but that's the way it goes! Welcome to France!) on Thursday and I could hear the triangle of doom crumple as I walked out of the prefecture.

(2) Even though CAF visit #2 didn't end with the QF, I went to the Mairie anyway to see if I could register Elise for the canteen. Maybe I'll get a nice guy for ONCE and be done with all this! Well, the stars were aligned. It was beautiful. He didn't even care about the QF because, dah, you can calculate the cost of lunch based on pay stubs. (So, why do they ask for the QF if they don't even need it? I'm not going to get into that. This guy is nice. He's completing l'inscription pour Elise. I'm going to run with it and bust out and not ask questions! Welcome to France!)

So BAAM! We're pretty much done. I need to follow up with the CAF on other issues however it is not a crisis and I'm not going to lose sleep or money over it. The most important thing here is that Elise can eat and we're not going to be penalized for not registering her by the end of September. Funny how such a little thing like paying for lunch consumed my life for the past 3 weeks. I can't decide if I feel bad for getting caught up in this silly game of bureaucracy with the French or if I feel proud for (a) figuring out the game, (b) winning the game, and (c) actually being able to communicate and understand about 43% of the game! I guess looking back on it all, I feel proud but a little silly for letting it stress me out. I should know better by now that even though they have their rules, rules are meant to be broken. I flash a little smile or show my Celia's red runny noise and I get a little sympathy and help. For as much grief as I give the French, I have yet to meet a person who has treated me poorly or made me feel terrible. I live in their world and I don't speak their language but 98.5% of the people I have had to interact with are patient and kind. I feel very lucky to be in such a welcoming place where even though I have to battle, it's always a friendly game!