Authenticating Drama

I am a day late with this post because yesterday I was just way too upset to even process it.

Here's what happened.

Went back to Chicago to pick up all the documents I left to be authenticated on Monday and to have my I-800A approval authenticated the same day.

The lady told me that they could not authenticate 3 of my documents for various reasons.  That's it.

After a few minutes of asking repeatedly, she told me that Tyson's police clearance letter could not be done because I made a mistake.  The letter itself was notarized and I thought it also had to have a notarized "true original" statement attached.  It was certified by the Secretary of State already.  But the 2 pages were done by different notaries, so the Consulate would not authenticate it.

After a few minutes, when the line had dwindled, I went back up and begged nicely asked her AGAIN to explain what was wrong with the other 2 documents. 

She told me they wouldn't do my police clearance because the letter was written the day before it was notarized and they have to be done on the same day.

And the problem with my financial certificate was that it wasn't dated.

UGH.

So I quickly wrote the date on the bottom of my financial and when my number was called I turned it back in with my 800A.

But I was so upset.  I just can't believe I made these mistakes.  I should have done my research better.  I cried in the elevator for a while.

Then we went for a fun lunch and some shopping on Michigan Avenue to pass the time until we had to go back and pick up.

I was emotional, tired, stressed, and sick (I have bronchitis and laryngitis now) and to top it all off,

on our way home we hit rush hour traffic. 

So a normally 2 1/2 hour drive took me 4 HOURS to get home.

More tears.

I came home and cried on my husband's shoulder for a long time.

Then I went to bed.

The good news is that I was able to talk to the lady at the Sheriff's Department yesterday and she had new letters written, notarized and ready for pick up in an hour. 

Now I will take them back to Springfield on Tuesday and Chicago on Wednesday. 

(Why does everything happen when it's a holiday weekend?) 

That should be IT!!!

The best part of it all is that I went ahead and FedExed the rest of our dossier to California so our agency rep can start reviewing it.  So all that's missing is the 2 police clearances and she should be ready to send our DOSSIER TO CHINA!!!!