Ups and Downs

To demonstrate the daily ups and downs of this crazy paper chase, I thought I'd follow up this morning's exciting news with an excerpt of an email I wrote to a friend about the adoption-related chaos of my afternoon:

I, too have been feeling overwhelmed by paperwork, which is odd since I keep telling myself we're pretty much done with everything. Anyway, this morning I sat down and looked through the five-page checklist I created for the dossier documents back in June or July. From that list I made a shorter to-do list for items to accomplish this afternoon. Well, I got them done, but now I have a whole new to-do list to tackle!

First I decided to send our birth certificates off for state certification... Mine went to Vermont, and that was easy enough because I was able to find mailing instructions online. But then, for Tim's, I had to call the Indiana Secretary of State's office for instructions. Turns out the birth certificate I ordered from VitalChek (per the dossier guidelines instructions) is a county-issued certificate, and therefore not valid for certification! So I had to order a NEW birth certificate from the state's Department of Health. This time it will have the state seal on it instead of the county seal. Once I receive it I can send it back (probably to the same building from which it came) for certification. How long will this take, you ask? "Well, ma'am, the birth certificate will take up to TWO MONTHS to be issued, and another 7-10 business days for shipping." WHAT?!? Okay, maybe we'll still be twiddling our thumbs in 2+ months waiting on our USCIS approval, but I don't want to risk a silly birth certificate holding us up! So, I splurged and paid for expedited service, which cost $40 instead of $10 for the whole enchilada. Ugh.

So, after carefully checking my VT birth certificate to make sure it carried the state seal, I stuck it in an envelope with a cover letter and slapped on some stamps. At the last minute I decided to weigh the envelope on my food scale and check online to make sure I had the right postage. I did, but barely, which made me realize that the police clearance requests I sent out last week might have had INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE! I am SO careful about everything else, how could I make such a dumb mistake!

I called the state police and explained my dilemma, but they couldn't tell me whether or not they'd received the envelope. They said to call back in 2 weeks to find out if the requests have been processed. If they haven't been, then they probably didn't get there. So, I guess I'll be checking the mail every day hoping they're returned if the postage wasn't enough. I don't want to lose those money orders!!

So, I took my lone birth certificate to the post office, mailed it, and then stopped by AAA on the way home to have a couple of documents notarized. That went well except for Liam discovering the light switches (don't ask). When I got home, I decided to check my messages because earlier in the day I had left a voicemail for the notary, confirming our appointment at my doctor's office in the morning. Well, she called back, all right - to CANCEL! Apparently she had left a voicemail on my cell phone and assumed I got it. Little did she (or I, at the time) realize that my cell phone is sitting in a Walmart two towns away, where it was either left by me, dropped by my kids, or stolen by someone else yesterday morning.

...This is after 4 this afternoon. After a few minutes or panic I got online and started calling every notary I could find listed. After five or six unsuccessful attempts, I finally found someone who "might" be able to do it tomorrow, but not at the time of my appointment...and Friday would be better. Since the notary I originally found is out of town for a funeral and won't be back until next week, I decided to try to reschedule my doctor's appointment for Friday morning. I called the doc's office at 4:45, and guess what? Closed until tomorrow at 8. So I guess I'll be crawling out of bed early to drive to Walmart for my phone and call the doctor to cancel/reschedule my appointment. I should probably also email our social worker since I told her the dates on the physical would be 9/10, and now they'll probably be different. She'll need to revise the home study, but I would think that'd be a simple change to make.

So, there you go. A day in the life of the paper pregnancy. Thanks for tagging along!