8/8 - Apostilling Documents

Since we’ve finally gathered all of our documents for our dossier and had them all notarized, the next step was to get the documents apostilled. Since Kristine hadn’t been cleared for international adoption, Rob and I had decided we would wait until she did get cleared before sending the documents to Latvia and wiring money to our attorney. That was until we got an email this evening that said Kristine IS now cleared for international adoption so now we’re back to rushing around!!!!

One of the other families who is adopting a child from the Christmas hosting is leaving for Latvia on Sunday for their second court date, so they will be hand delivering our documents to our attorney for us. It costs about $130-$150 to FedEx paperwork to Latvia so this will save a little bit (every little bit counts at this point). We had originally heard they were leaving around August 21st so we had planned to wait until then. But then we later found out that they’re actually leaving THIS weekend so we’ve been running around like crazy gathering last minute items, getting things notarized, etc.!!!

Today I took our documents to be apostilled and ran into a little snag. It seems the notary who notarized our background check letters didn’t notarize them correctly. There has to be a notary statement on the letters and there wasn’t one!!! ARRRGGGHHHH!!! So the lady at the apostille place said we would have to redo them. Let me add that the people at the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority office (the ones who do the apostilles) were some of the friendliest people in the world. Sometimes government workers get a bad rap but these people were awesome. I was able to walk right in and hand them my paperwork. They did everything while I waited, except for the ones they were unable to process.

So Rob and I had to decide the best way to get new background check letters. How would we tell the lady at the sheriff’s office that she screwed up? They don’t take that kind of news too well. We ultimately decided we’ll get up early and be at the sheriff’s office first thing tomorrow morning. If I have to start crying to get something done, then that’s just what I’ll have to do. :-)We’ve got to have those letters by Sunday!!!!