8 Documents are Certified....

Of course, I brought 9 with me!!

Today was my day off, so I left early to drive to the state capital in Harrisburg to have the 9 pieces of our dossier that I have, certified. It began well. I got out of the house at 6:30, a little later than I wanted, but still good. The drive was uneventful. Damp and dreary, but easy. The directions were easy to follow and while parking wasn't obvious, a man running a leaf blower directed me to some empty meter spots (10 mins for a quarter ~ Good thing I broke a dollar on the way!).

I was directed to a large stone building by the leaf blower and went to the front where the only door I could see was. Turns out, I was at the Capital and not the office building, but a nice gentleman on his way in let me follow him in the correct direction through the building. The Pennsylvania Capital Building is BREATHTAKING!!! If I hadn't promised to make it to the kids' Halloween parties, I would have taken the free tour that I was told about. Someday.

Before I knew it, I was at the correct office and had signed in and filled out the coversheet. I was next to be helped. I was called and handed over all my papers. 10-15 minutes later, the woman that who had taken them, returned with these beautiful gold seals on them!! I gave her my check and luckily, I glanced over them and found a typo on the coversheet of one. The lady was SO nice, apologized a lot and fixed it.

She returned it to me and I then discovered that she has spelled our town wrong on the 3 notarized in our local Congressman's office. She apologized again and took them back to her cubicle. I continued to wait.

I could hear her on the phone, something about a problem with a State Police Clearance. A minute later, another man that I had seen walking around the office came towards me, telling me that there was a problem with my State Police Clearance and she was looking into fixing it. I couldn't imagine what was wrong with it.

She came out fairly quickly and explained that while she was retyping the coversheet, she placed the wrong one in the shred pile and SHREDDED MY HUSBAND'S NOTARIZED STATE POLICE CLEARANCE!!!!!

I looked down and it was cut down the middle, all three sheets! She was apologizing again and I just smiled. I told her that I was looking at the form and I was not flipping out, I was actually smiling and giggling a bit. Nervous energy, I think.

To be honest, if the Secretary of State's office is going to accidently shred an important document for an international adoption halfway around the world, the State Police Clearance is the one to do! It was now the Secretary of State's office calling the State Police, asking for a new one. I am not sure if I would have been smiling if it had been my employment letter or either of our medical letters which were HORRIBLE to get in the first place!

After numerous phone calls, it was decided that they would tape and fax the sheet over to the police and they would issue a new, certified one. A worker in that office would bring it home tonight and give it to a worker in the Secretary's office, who will then bring it to work on Monday where they will state stamp it and overnight it to me for Tuesday!

WHAT A DAY!!!