Busy, busy days

Julie was able to coordinate the notary and the doctor to make it all happen so that is HUGE! She rocks! With the doctor letters completed and notarized we are gaining full steam on getting the next step of the dossier building process knocked out. The process requires that any Ohio notarized documents be certified at the county level. After county certification we need to take them to the Secretary of State for authentication before sending them on to either the US Department of State for an extra level of authentication or directly to the Chinese Consulate in New York.

Julie took the doctor letters to the Delaware County Clerk of Courts to be certified along with some of our other documents like the police background checks, financial statement and more. She and Veronica found the Clerk of Courts and they were able to knock it out pretty quickly. I spent Weds. evening sorting papers to make sure I knew what needed to go to Marion for notary certification there or directly to the Secretary of State. I have Thursday and Friday off from work so we decided we'd see what progress we could make.

Thursday morning I drove to Polaris for a church men's faith group meeting at 6AM. After the meeting I hit Lowe's to pickup a new garbage disposal for a weekend replacement and then hit the road to Marion. As I was searching for the address of the Marion county Clerk of Courts I found two addresses. I decided on one of them and after going through security and talking with the lady there, I was in the wrong one. Luckily two blocks away was the right one, so I walked in and they were able to help me very quickly. Back on the road to Columbus, I decided to swing by the Delaware County Probate Court to get a marriage certificate with a raised seal. I had noticed that the one I grabbed must have been one of our copies because it was missing the imprint. I walked in and they helped me too very quickly. I had it in my mind that this whole day would be akin to a trip to the BMV - take a number and wait. That was not the case at all. The ladies at the Probate Court didn't think I'd be able to get the marriage license certified as it didn't have the judge's signature, but figured I'd try since I would be downtown anyways. The marriage license, my birth certificate and Julie's name change documents didn't need to be notarized since they were already certified copies.

With a full complement of raised seal and certified notarized letters, I headed for the Secretary of State. I walked into the Rhoades tower only to find that the office I needed had moved 2 blocks away. Common theme of the day, huh? I checked in at the desk and was again helped very quickly. This time the process was a bit longer as I had 13 documents that needed authenticated but all was smooth, including the marriage license the ladies in Delaware had been concerned about. As she gave me the documents I started to review them and found an error that the Secretary of State had made. She gave me a new certification, I paid and was on my way! I can't tell you how glad I am that we found that error, especially after reading about how long (20 days for mail in authentication) it is once the dossier gets to the Chinese Consulate. We would have lost 40 days - 20 for the original error and another 20 for the re-submission. Yikes!

I picked up a package from the post office and made my way home. Julie and I sorted the papers to make sure we have it all lined up. We reviewed the forms and we really, really need our completed home study. Our social worker submitted it to the Asia coordinator for review so hopefully we'll hear back soon. Once we get it, we'll need to take it back to the Secretary of State for authentication and then we're ready to start sending docs via FedEx to the Consulate and Department of State. I *think* we can do this in parallel to our submission of an I-800A form to USCIS so we can get authorization to bring an adopted child into the country from US Immigration. Confused yet? ;)

We took off in the afternoon for a weekend getaway in a hotel in Columbus that we're using my travel points to get 2 nights free. We did this last year and the kids really enjoyed it so sprung it as a surprise for them today. We ate dinner at Olive Garden and then did some quick shopping at Barnes and Noble. Now we're back in the hotel room watching "Survivor." I know we all can use the days away. Work has been crazy - some of the craziness normal and some self-induced with the book and some difficult customers. A few unplugged days from work will help.