So, this past Friday, I received everything back thanks to trusty Fed EX return envelopes. The Duchess County Clerk must be an efficient office as the turn around time was one day. Tomorrow morning, my father will pick me up at 7:30am to brave NYC traffic and travel to downtown Brooklyn to the Kings County Clerk’s office to authenticate all the notary stamps that were done here. From there, I will head into Manhattan to the County Clerk there to authenticate the Banker’s notary (which was notarized in Manhattan.) From there, we then drive over to the Secretary of State’s office, where my father will likely wait for me in a perfect spot thanks to his special handicapped pass which allows him to park literally anywhere) to get the official seal that authenticates the authentication (for lack of a better description!)

If there are no glitches or confusion, by 1pm tomorrow, I will hold in my hands –finally — all my official paperwork. I will inwardly cheer at my amazing work these past many months and outwardly hoot and holler. I will go home to photograph this beautiful paperwork to record for all eternity. I will then make sure I have my computer generated “photo-album” all properly arranged and ready to rock and roll as part of the dossier.

Most likely, just to be sure I dotted all my i’s and crossed my t’s, I will FedEX the dossier on Tuesday. It will be prayed over, kissed, coddled and nudged along to it’s first stop on the journey — With Hope and Love Adoption Agency. Once approved there, it will be sent to Kazakhstan for Legal Review and Translation. And other stops along the way that will eventually unite us with a little boy. And, I will breathe a huge sigh of relief and pray for all that is meant to be.

Steph

PS It is now 12:30 am, one hour from when I wrote the above. I have to cancel with my father and not go tomorrow. Two documents that were signed by my accountant in Manhattan who lives in New Jersey were just discovered by me upon closer inspection to have been notarized by a notary certified on Long Island. Which means that tomorrow I must drive one hour away to the Nassau County Clerk and authenticate 4 documents before I do anything. Additionally, I was tooling around in the King’s County Clerk web site, a site I’ve looked at before to get details, and now I notice it states that all notary stamps MUST say Kings County on it for them to authenticate. Well, though I am located in Kings County and got over 50 documents notarized by a local notary public who verbally told me that she is qualified in Kings County, not one stamp says Kings County on it. I actually asked her why her stamp looks different than most and she said it wasn’t a problem at all, that the stamp she had was all that was needed. But she is a new notary … is this correct? Will her name and number be enough to prove her qualification in Kings County or do I need to have everything restamped? Not earth shattering, but another hassle. The fact that I now have to drive to Long Island tomorrow gives me a day to figure this out. I thought everything was squared away and ready to go. I wrongly assumed that tomorrow I’d be authenticating the accountant’s documents in Manhattan where he notarized it. I was remiss in realizing that the notary he used was from another county. All this is so new to me. How do you know what you don’t even know you are supposed to know? I’m just so tired and frustrated. I wish I had Gary to discuss this with and have him really understand my level of frustration. He has not been part of the paperwork process and will likely be level headed with me and removed, when all I want right now is for someone to say “That sucks! You need a big hug and someone to sit with you and go over everything with. I can see how all these documents, dates, stamps, seals, originals, duplicates and copies are so very confusing. You are not alone. Here, Steph, sit back and let me handle this all for you. It will all get done. Don’t you worry.”

Gotta get to bed before I flip out.

1 am — Thirty minutes after I cried a bucket, I am feeling better. Gotta get some sleep. I can do this. One day, when I have three teenagers begging for later curfews, I will look back on this slight upset with a smile and a snicker. This, I know, is the easy stuff.

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