Clockwork

The apostilles are done! I collected my remaining documents yesterday from the tax preparer and the home study office and headed up to Marin for a night at Pat and Tom's (Grandma and Grandpa's). Pat's sister, Rosalie, was visiting from Coffee Creek and I haven't seen her in a few years, so it was good to catch up. We woke up early this morning and piled the kids, Rosalie, Pat and myself into the car and headed to Sacramento. When we got there we drove right to the Secretary of State Building, and luckily found a parking space. In we all went, up the elevator, and down the long hall to the Notary Public office (see pic) at the end. There was no line. They took my pile of documents, my cell phone number, my credit card, and asked me what country. I told them I would come back in a couple of hours.

Then we drove about a mile to Old Sacramento and took the kids to the Sacramento Train Museum. This place is fantastic! I thought my son would be in heaven, but I think he was a bit overwhelmed by it all. He had trouble thinking about anything but the gift shop.

We visited about half of the museum, then got lunch down the block. After lunch I returned for the documents and they were all done, with no problems. It was such a blessing and relief after how much work I put into the whole stack... each document now has the Apostille page attached with the pretty gold seal. I am incredibly thankful!

After 20 minutes of making sure everything was there (all 84 documents), I returned to pick up the kids, Pat and Rosalie. We enjoyed the train museum a little more, hit the gift shop and headed home. The kids were ANGELS for the whole trip. Of course, their grandmother was sitting between them, trapped in the backseat for the three hours of driving. But they were good, and even back at the house they were great. But on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa's, they let me have it. K cried practically the whole way, and C kept up a good whine. I even tried talk radio, because it always tends to put them to sleep when my husband turns it on, but no... the crying and whining was more insistent. They were SO tired, and had been SO good... they had to release. And thank God I had enough patience to hold up through it.

So, all in all it was a GREAT DAY! Thank you to all who have sent me words of encouragement and prayers. Everything went so well. And I am so tired.