A day at the office

Katelynn and I spent what felt like the whole day at the Social Security office and on the phone with the IRS. Okay, so it was really only an hour and a half at the office and an hour on the phone, but it felt like the whole day! I even spent almost 45 minutes on the phone on hold with Social Security, hoping that while I waited in person, I could get my questions answered on the phone. It did happen that way, however their answers were contradicting. (mind you, I had already spent almost an hour last week on the phone with both the SSA and IRS trying to get this figured out...)

You see, to claim Kristen on our taxes for 2008 she has to have a SS Number. When we left the hospital where she was born we didn't fill out the paperwork to request a birth certificate which in turn gets her a SS number. The hospital isn't sure how that happened, but it did. To request a SSN we have to show her birth certificate, which we don't have. So I took in her death certificate in hopes that might work as it does have her place and date of birth. I was a bit worried that I'd get people that were having a bad day and that they'd be insensitive to my situation since I'd be explaining it to plenty of people. The nice lady on the phone said she was really sorry that I was having to deal with this. She figured by what info she had that it should work without a birth certificate. Finally our number was called and when I explained to the man behind the plate glass what I needed he said how sorry he was. He said he lost a grandchild and "it still hurts everyday." He worked with us for almost 20 minutes but after talking to his supervisor and looking online, apparently it can't be done. (still not sure why but it had to do something with getting a # for someone deceased) He said I could apply for a Tax ID number and he even went to the IRS website to print off the form, but I'd have to talk to the IRS for more details.

So after being at the office for an hour and a half, I took Katelynn to McDonald's because she did such a good job while we waited and we were both really hungry. So while she ate and then played on the play structure, I was on the phone with the IRS. I had to tell three different people my situation and every time they replied how sorry they were for my loss. Finally getting to the right person, she explained what we could do without a SSN yet it still involves getting a copy of her birth certificate. I should have just done that in the first place!! Oh well.

I guess the one redeeming factor from all of this is how considerate and sympathetic everyone I dealt with was. I had to "tell my story" almost 6 times today and was able to better articulate myself each time. I was all ready to deal with crabby public servants at government offices, but instead everyone made this unfortunate task just a bit more bearable.