Go Nebraska!

No, no, don't worry, I'm not turning into a Husker's fan. Remember, I still have a daughter at CU. No I'm cheering for Nebraska because this time we got a 6 day turn around on the certification of Jeff's birth certificate while last time it was almost three weeks. The birth certificate returned from Nebraska yesterday so today I was able to get it off to Washington D.C. for step two of three for this very special document that can't follow the same route as all our other documents.

Today I got the birth certificate with it's very pretty certification letter from Nebraska, all ready to go, even calling the U.S. Secretary of State's office to make sure I had the right fees, address and methodology. Here's a fun little fact for those of you not familiar with the idiosyncrasies of adoptions. For some unknown reason, unknown even to the employees of the Secretary of State's office cause I asked, they will not accept documents for authentication which come to them through the United States Postal Service. This request and it's accompanying documents must be shipped to the S. of S. office via UPS or Fed-Ex. Doesn't it just give you faith, as a U.S. citizen, in your postal service?

Then Nikki, Mara and I trecked to the Post Office to get some method of traceable postage to include so they could return my documents to me after they authenticate them. Next we headed to the UPS Store to ship it all out, where I found out I could have gotten the same traceable postage right there. (Guess I should have made one more phone call before I left home.) I made copies and very carefully addressed everything, loaded the documents, authentication requests and said traceable return envelope into the UPS envelope, paid my UPS fees and headed home feeling quite accomplished. That feeling lasted until I walked in the door and found the check to pay for the authentication service sitting on the counter. So as I drove back to the UPS Store, who unlike the USPS would find my packet for me and allow me to insert the check, I thanked the Lord that the Secretary of State's office doesn't trust the United States Postal Service.

Now if you aren't thoroughly confused by my description of this step of the process, you have either adopted a Chinese child or you could start your own adoption agency. I realize there is just no way to phrase this so it doesn't sound confusing. Because it IS confusing and I'm convinced purposely so. (I think this might be a test to see if we are as smart as the kids they plan to let us adopt.) The good news is that you don't need to understand and I don't need to remember because this is the last time we will be going down this road. I think.

One more baby step finished. We'll be headed to China in no time.