What a day...

I felt like we were trapped in that Simpson's episode yesterday. The one where they keep going, "YAAAY!.... Boooo...... YAY!!!.... BOOOO... Yaaaaay!..... BOO!"

Marc is on Spring Break this week and I work from home on Fridays so I have the flexibility to get out and run a few errands here and there. We dropped Fletch off at school and make our first task to stop at Walgreens to get passport sized photos for our dossier. The printer getting jammed was the first irritation of the day, but the day got so much worse that the Walgreens story isn't even worth getting into. (Booo) We did leave with a bag of 75% off Easter chocolate (Yay!) which I've already eaten a lot of (Boo). Costs: $16 (not counting the chocolate of course)

Next we run up to the police station in the mall and find out it's not open yet (Boo) but I did get to use the mall bathroom (Yay - I think?). So we continue on to the main police station for our city and they're able to give us a police clearance letter, on their letterhead, signed and stamped (Yay) but it's not notarized and they don't have a notary there (Boo). Costs: $14

The bank is close by, so we stop in to get everything notarized. My favorite notary boy is there (Yay) and I'm sure he'll just go ahead and notarize the police clearance for us. But he doesn't (Boo) and he also can't notarize Power of Attorney forms (double Boo).

On we go downtown to my doctor's office to drop off my original hand-written letter and ask him to have it typed instead and change some wording on it. The receptionist says "Sure, I can type that up for him! (YAY!) But he's off on Friday's so he can't sign it until Monday or Tuesday." (Boo) At least it's delivered and off my plate now. Speaking of plates we decided on an early lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant that's just up the street from my doctor. (Yaaaaaaay!!)

While there, I call our social worker to tell her about the whole police clearance thing and how it's only for the city we live in, not for the whole state like the dossier instructions indicate it should be. And also that they don't have notaries there, but it is stamped with the police dept stamp. We're told it has to be whole state and notarized (boo) but that the main Denver police department is only a few minutes from where we were eating lunch so maybe they can help (yay). We get there, park, and there's already money in the parking meter (score!) but they confirm what our p.d. said - each city only does clearances for that city and not for the whole state. If we want whole state, we have to go to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. (Boo Boo BOO).

20 minutes later we get to CBI, explain what we're doing, fill out a form and they say it will take 3 - 5 days to get it back (yay? boo? I don't even know at this point). I hand the lady an example letter that came with our dossier paperwork of what we need the letter to say. She blows us off "We have our own letter we use." I try to explain that Ethiopia (our agency? who knows?) has very specific wording that they want and could I please just attach this to my request so they know what I want? "No, our letter is professional and includes much more information that this. We know what we're doing." (boo hoo hoo) We leave, downtrodden, exhausted... Costs: $30

Back at home I try to salvage what's left of the day and get some work done. I actually got some good news about one of my candidates and a potential offer for a contract (Yay!)

But then I also got word / found out that:

• The CBI clearance is not right and they use "negative language" and the dossier instructions state that it needs to be on police letterhead, so it's just wrong in multiple ways. I guess I really already knew this before, because we've already gotten a CBI clearance. But come on, we KNOW that they are the only ones who do a WHOLE STATE CLEARANCE so what else are we supposed to get!? (Can you see me pulling my hair out yet?) (BOO!!!)
• The Letter of Exemplification we got with Marc's long form birth certificate is not what we need. We also already had a feeling that was the case, but when you get this news on top of a bad day it just makes it worse. I called the county clerk of NY again just to make sure (I've learned to triple check things by now) that this was the proper next step, how much money I needed to send and, oh yeah, what's the turn-around time again? FOUR to SIX #$%& weeks. (Booo Hisss....throwing tomatoes)

Luckily for me, I have the sweetest friend in the world who is also adopting and happens to work in NYC, so I am mailing the birth cert and letter to her and she's going to get the authentication and seal for us. (yay yay yay yay yay yay YAY!!!) I can't even tell you what a load that is off my mind. Otherwise we could be waiting 3 more months for these document.

A few minutes later I got another good outstanding work-related call (YAY!) and decided to press my luck by checking the mail. In it I found................. drum roll please ......

.....

.....

...my sealed birth certificate. (Yaaaaaay) It's hard to know whether you're happy or sad or just exhausted after a day like this. Either way, this was the only appropriate thing to do:

Total costs: $60