This is what I feel like I'm walking into each time I walk out my front door these days. It is seriously HOT in Phoenix right now. So hot, in fact, that the other day as I walked to get the mail (which is in a communal box across the street), I thought, "If I passed out between here and the front door, I would have 3rd degree burns before anyone found me!"

The last few weeks have been, shall we say, overwhelming in the adoption department. The acquisition of the final documents we needed to get our dossier put together and submitted to our agency proved challenging.

First, I received a witness letter (confirming that David and I are who we say we are, basically) that had the notary's name typed improperly, rendering it void. The biggest problem with that? It came from Illinois. So getting it redone wasn't as easy as one might think.

Issue #2: the letter from our kids' pediatrician confirming that they are all in good mental and physical health and are up to date on their immunizations. This didn't sound too complicated, and my pediatric group is fantastic. However, the letter had to be notarized. Do they have a notary on staff? No. That would be too easy. So I had to beg my friend Trisha (who also happens to be a notary, but is a very busy woman) to ride up to the doctor's office with me (oh, and the four children) to notarize the doctor's signature. Now, that's sounds relatively simple. However, the letter was ready to be signed by one doctor, who was not available the day Trisha WAS available, so the whole file had to be reviewed by another doctor who WOULD be available when Trisha was available. But it got done.

Now, what happens for people who have a doctor's office that not only doesn't have a notary on staff, but doesn't have a friend who's a notary? I asked Trisha, "What would I have done? Put on a low-cut dress, sauntered into Chase Bank, and gone up to the notary, who happens to be a man, and said, 'Hey buddy, want to go for a quick ride in my car?'" Glad I didn't have to find out.

By this Wednesday, I should have all documentation signed, notarized, state certified, and ready to submit to our agency. The only missing piece (and it's a big piece) is our home study, which should be finished by next week. I sure hope our social worker approves us! At least at our final meeting Henry refrained from screaming, "I do not WANT to talk to her today" from the office as he did at the last meeting. Thankfully, Grace and George talked enough for all four of them.