On the road again

So last Wednesday I was cleared to drive.

Thursday I got up late and headed to a weekly Newborns in Need work meeting. I can't lift stuff and standing for a long time makes me tired, but I figured I could sit and knit and visit. On the way there I ran over an empty plastic tub on 635. I couldn't avoid it and knew it would be too big. It got stuck under my car and dragged the ground. So I pulled off to the shoulder and tried to reverse off of it, but it was up against something that kept me from being able to reverse. So then I drove off onto the grass next to the shoulder, keeping my left wheels on the road because I drive a sedan and didn't want to go totally off road. I finally got far enough over off the pavement that the plastic tub (probably off a workman's truck...it looked like the kind of thing that held mastic at some point) dropped out onto the grass.

I was already halfway to NIN, so I went ahead and went, thinking I would go to the car place afterwards because I also needed an oil change.

Got to NIN, sat down to get out my knitting, and the phone rang.

Our agency! Was this The Call?

Nope. This was not a good news call. This call was to tell me that the licensing letter, a copy of which I had to finagle an apostille out of, was outdated and while we knew this was something that needed to be fixed before court in Russia, the region we are trying to register in has changed things up and they want a new letter now. They won't register us and give us a referral until they have it.

So less than five minutes after arriving at NIN, I was leaving NIN. I headed home, looked up the phone number of our homestudy agency, and called the social worker, Jenny. She said she had just gotten a copy of the updated letter for this year and I was in luck. I forwarded an e-mail from my adoption agency with the details of what they needed and arranged to go pick it up at 3pm since I needed to go get my car looked at to make me feel better after the tub dragging incident.

I didn't get done with the car place until almost 3pm, so I was a bit late getting to Jenny's house in Keller, but when I got there, she was there and gave me the two copies of the letter, and I went out to my car to review them.

They were certified as true and accurate copies (and notarized) by her...not the director of the agency. The adoption agency had said in the e-mail that the letters needed to be certified by the agency director. I called the adoption agency to verify that. My dossier consultant looked up the name and the name was Deborah Somethingoranother. I didn't write it down. How many Deborahs are there in the world? I went to the door and told the social worker that the letter needed to be certified by the director, a Deborah who had signed everything back in November. The Russians want everything signed/certified by her. So Jenny got on the phone and called a lady and packed her youngest child up in the car and I followed her a good 20 minutes out to the countryside north of Fort Worth and Deborah came out of her house (her kids were sick) and certified two new copies on the side of Jenny's Bronco in the gusting wind.

After we were done and I followed Jenny back to civilization and headed toward the airport and my house (against rush hour, thankfully, as it was now after 5pm), I got nervous. The letters were certified and notarized by Deborah C. The agency director listed at the top of the letter was Deborah H. I called Jenny. These were two separate people. She had misunderstood that I needed the director to certify the letters. I'm still not sure who Deborah C. is...maybe another social worker?

Bang head against dashboard.

I needed the letters certified by Deborah H. And notarized by I-don't-care, but the certification had to be by Deborah H. So I called Jenny again and Deborah H. was unable to do it Friday. I wasn't able to get the letters until today.

My agency needs them by Wednesday to forward them to the folks that carry them to Russia (they hand carry stuff into Russia...apparently it is more reliable).

The letters have to be apostilled. Do you see where this is going?

I'm driving to Austin and back tomorrow.

The good news is that we could be very close to getting a referral. If we can just get registered. Austin, here I come.