Passports/References/Home Study/Notaries

Lots of things were done today and new information was given to us.

First, I went this morning to get a new passport photo. Tony said my photo was the worst photo he had ever seen of me. I knew it was bad but for him to say this, I knew it was really bad, so I went to Eckerd's and spent $8 this time for only 2 shots. I then went to the Kernersville Post Office to apply. I had my application done but I couldn't sign it without the postmaster seeing it first. This cost $67 for the US Dept of State and $30 for the Postmaster. Tony went later in the day and done his too....total cost today for passports $194.

I took Logan to the zoo for Mother/Son time. I needed to get away from all the adoption paper work anyway and spend time with him. I took him to a book store also after the zoo and he got a new Thomas book and we bought a Lady Bug book - forgot the name of it - for our new addition to our family.

When I got home, it was time to round up our references. We had heard through other adoption parents that if the notaries commission expires before the trip to China, this could be a problem. So, I asked the DC about this. Turns out she wasn't so concerned about this than she was us using a notary with the same last name. Tony's mom was notarizing for us. This meant we had to find a new notary.

We decided to call the notary that my pastor used on his reference for us. We had to get two of our references together. I printed their references they emailed to me, called them, and they met up with the notary and Tony at the notary's home. She said she wouldn't charge us and will probably be doing the rest of our notary work for us.

This brought out another problem. I've already had to write two letters to our physician about our medical reports and now since our notary on the medical forms had our same last name, I was going to have to get these notarized again. I called the dr's office and they did not keep a copy nor did I have a copy without the notary signing. I had to reprint more medical forms. I barely made it to the dr's office today at 5 pm to hand them over the forms. They know us now by looking as me. I walked in and the receptionist said "are you Mrs. Hooker" before I even said anything. They haven't even got my 2nd letter I mailed to them yet asking for tons of info about our past surgeries and all the medicines we're on that has to be written up on letter head all details.

I also talked to the DC today and found out when the forms are notarized they have to have this:
State of:
County of:
This document was subscribed to and sworn to before me this the _____day of_________2005.
_______________________ __________________________
Printed Name of Notary Signature of Notary

______________________
My Commission Expires


Seal/Stamp

Well, guess what? This wasn't on ours. So I called our notary and got her permission and wrote this. She had already signed it and we had all the information on her stamp she had already put on the papers. It just had to be written up this way for NC and we had all the information on there already but not in the correct format.

After this is now on the references, it's close to our home visit. I haven't made copies of the references yet. We tried to scan them but when printed, it didn't print well. Tony is out now locating a fax machine late at night to fax to the SW at her house.

We had our last home visit. It was all financial related and she read over some of the information we had already given her mainly family history. She said we passed and if we weren't approved, it shouldn't be because of anything she has put in the report.

Since Tony starts his new job tomorrow, we're trying to figure out how to write our income for this year. The SW is going to put down gross for the month. I have to report yearly. We also have run into the issue of reports addressing Tony as Tony and not William. William Anthony is the full name but everyone knows him as Tony. All of our references say Tony and we asked the SW to maybe put something in her writeup saying Tony is a nickname and he goes by this.

Wish Tony good luck in his new job. I'm nervous about the commute to Charlotte but it's a better job and he's excited.