Third time's the charm...

Today is my anniversary, and for my anniversary, I thought I would "celebrate" (ha!) by faxing all my local documents to the Secretary of State's office for review prior to sending them for authentication. After all the dossiers we've put together and having had to scrutinize the notarizations of all those documents, I really thought that this would be the one and only time that all of our documents would be acceptable on the first attempt. Dates were correct, notaries' middle initials were present in the signatures where they also appeared on the stamps, standard notarial blocks were used - everything looked good. So I was really shocked when I talked to the notary department of the SoS and found out that the woman who notarized our police clearance records put down the wrong commission expiration date! It matched her stamp, so I would have had no way of catching this on my own. I was heartsick because having her fix it meant having to wait for her to order a new stamp with the correct date.

So, I traipsed down to the police station and asked if there was anyone else who could reprint our clearances (they were saved on their computer) and notarize them. Amazingly, there was another notary there, and she said she would do it immediately. I was so thankful I didn't have to wait and come back another day that I didn't even notice until I got down the road that her commission expires NEXT MONTH! Argh!

I called the police station and explained that I couldn't use this notary either, and they asked me to come back and have it re-done a third time. This time the woman who had previously notarized the letter signed it, and a third notary notarized it. ;o) I called the SoS department and had them check this woman's name and dates, and it sounds like we're good to go. As soon as I have my final copy of the homestudy, my remaining documents will be on their way.

Unfortunately, I also learned today that I have to get actual letters from our doctor explaining that neither my husband's nor my surgeries affect our ability to parent or our life expectancies. (I had really exciting surgeries like gall bladder removal and hemorrhoids! Aren't you jealous?) I will deal with that on Monday. I also have to fax all of our dossier documents to the agency for their review. So next week should bring final state authenticating and submission of our I800A. And then we'll be making a 13-hour round-trip drive for a 15-minute fingerprinting appointment. :o/