Where in the world is our adoption tax credit?

We live in North Dakota and our adoption tax credit is being reviewed in Holtsville, New York.  Yeah, I know that makes a lot of sense, considering we originally mailed all our tax documents to California.  If your brain is known to blow a fuse easily, you better not read on.  It gets so convoluted that it quickly becomes as clear as mud!

Marc spoke to the gal reviewing our adoption tax credit file in New York 2 weeks ago today.  She said we must amend our 2008 returns to claim the boys as dependents, even though they still resided in Haiti, were not U.S. citizens and did not have social security numbers.  Because the adoption was finalized in Haiti in August of 2008, they will reduce our allowable credit to the 2008 limits, which effectively reduces our return by $1000.  I guess it matters not that the boys weren't granted a visa to enter the U.S. until April of 2009, which is when we brought them home.  Whatev!~

Nameless IRS employee with her thumb up her butt in New York said she could not fax us the documents we need to amend, but must be snail mailed.  Great, yeah, whatever.  Oh, except the mail only goes out on Mondays, and the mail had already been picked up.  I SWEAR I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!  We finally received the documents, which shockingly had been filled in with the supposedly correct numbers and we just have to sign and snail mail back.  Marc is mailing those off today and we should receive two separate payments; one for the amended 2008 return and the current 2010 adoption credit still owed us. 

Now this is the kicker.  We received the new documents that we needed to sign and mail last Thursday.  On Saturday, we received a letter from the IRS apologizing for the delay and informing us that they would review our file within 30 days and would notify us of their decision.  This is friggin' hilarious.  Wouldn't it appear that since Marc has spoken to nameless IRS employee reviewing our file that our case has been reviewed?  Hello? 

The icing on the cake is that although they have reduced our overall adoption credit return by $1000, as of 2 weeks ago, they owe us $564 in interest!  At the rate the IRS is working, they will be paying us in excess of the $1000 they reduced our initial return.

Sarah, hang in there.  This ride is almost as crazy as the roller coaster ride to bring the kids home in the first place.