Not for the faint of heart

So.

We did not get a court date today. Maybe tomorrow.

But now the Russians are asking for another notarized, apostilled piece of paper.

In Texas, when you request a marriage certificate, what you actually get is a certified copy of your marriage license. Apparently in other states you can get a marriage certificate that is a separate document. Not in Texas. In Texas, it is an exact scanned in copy of your license, printed out, dated, and embossed with the state seal for certification. At the top, it says "Marriage License". It has the signature of the officiant, witnesses, yourselves. It is a lousy scan of a decorative document. Embossed. Ours is two pages.

The judge in Russia would like a letter, preferably from an attorney or judge or official office stating that this certified copy is the Texas equivalent to a certificate. She would like us to "cite from law".

Now, my dossier coordinator is at about as big a loss as we are. This is not normal for them. They are based in California and even if they regularly worked with Texas families, I don't even know that another judge would ask for this...but ours has.

So far I have a call into the Dallas county dept. vital records, but I had a really hard time explaining to the supervisor there what I need. I am still not sure she understands...she kept saying I needed an apostille and I kept explaining that I have an apostille. The Russian judge has an apostille. In fact, I have some 102 apostilles. What I need is a letter stating that the certified copy of the license is the Texas equivalent of a marriage certificate, by law. The county clerk gal finally seemed to understand and told me to give her until the end of the day since they are short staffed, so now all I can do is wait and hope and start thinking about plan B to execute tomorrow if this falls through. A letter from the county clerk is the best option. I also have call into the clerk's secretary to try to schedule a meeting with him and go straight to the top on this.

If I could get a lawyer or judge to do this, that would work, but I don't know any lawyers or judges. And as a last case resort, I could maybe get my homestudy agency to issue this letter, but how are they going to cite Texas law? We would not be able to prove what they are saying.

And now I am going to have to drive down to Austin again for an apostille. Possibly this Friday.

Not for the faint of heart, I tell you.