The Oven, The Notary & The Jimmies:

So, I don't know how many of you are aware of this but, once you adopt your child & return home from China, some states require you to 're adopt' them within your state. Now, this is purely for obtaining a 'name of town here' birth certificate which, in all honesty, wouldn't be such a big deal EXCEPT for the fact that someday, I am going to enroll my daughter in preschool/school etc... and having a U.S. birth certificate will just make that process a whole heck of a lot easier.

Here in Massachusetts, it's not hard to do, but just more paperwork, which as you all know is the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!

So, I'd had this paperwork sitting in her file forEVER now. Always meaning to 'do it' but never actually following through. Figuring that, I had plenty of time, I don't have to enroll Ruby in preschool till Sept of 08' so what's the rush, right?

Wrong!
The state prefers that your most recent & final post placement report from your social worker be no older than 6 months.
OOPS!
My last one is dated Sept of 06'.
Hmmm, not a big math major but I'm pretty sure that was longer than six months ago!

Once I found out from the court that I could still file, but it would have to be asap, I called my social worker, who is a personal friend of mine, and she came over, as a FAVOR to me (she didn't have to do this as she wasn't scheduled to come here again unless we invited her for a cookout etc...) and she looked over my paperwork & made sure I had dotted my i's & crossed my t's.
I had.

So yesterday, off we went; my Mother, Ruby and me to the oldest & hottest courthouse in MA!
All brick, 4 floors, old windows, NO AC!

(for those of you who live out of state, yesterday was up in the 90's with nearly 90% humidity)

Not the most fun place in the world to be the courthouse on ANY day, but yesterday it was UNBEARABLE!

I found the woman I was looking for, walked up to her desk & presented her with all my paperwork.
She looked it over & said "Well Amy, everything looks great..."
*I felt a but coming*
"...but this one paper, needs to be signed in front of a notary."

DAMN IT!
Grrrrrrrrrrr I knew I'd forget something!
In a panic I asked her if there were ever notary's roaming the building daily?
She said "Yes, sometimes they can be found on the 2nd floor."
HOLD THAT THOUGHT!

I grabbed my water, the piece of paper, a pen & out I went running leaving Ruby with my mom.
I ran down two flights of stairs to the 2nd floor, TONS of people everywhere, didn't know how I should handle this so I just did what came naturally.

I stood in the middle of the room, proudly & loudly made my presence known & asked, in general of the room, if anyone here was a notary & if so, could they help me out?

(remember that scene in Tommy Boy when Cris Farley goes into Callahan Auto's bank & screams 'LISTEN UP THIS'LL ONLY TAKE A SECOND!'
It was kinda like that only, I have longer hair than Chris and I wasn't strapped down with fake dynamite. LOL)

I think I may have scared a few older women who weren't expecting some stranger large women to start bellowing out from the center of the room, but hell hath no fury like a hot, tired single adoptive mother who just needs a notary's signature!

Some nice gentleman said "Miss, I can help you, do you have your id?"
DAMN IT!
HOLD THAT THOUGHT!

I run back up two flights of stairs in the sweltering heat (in JEANS mind you!) and run back into the first office to grab my id & one cold bottle of unopened spring water from out of Ruby's diaper bag. (aka: my mom-purse)

Without saying a word, I ran back out & down the two flights of stairs again and found the kind man who was not only NOT afraid of me, but WILLING TO HELP!

I presented him with my ID AND that cold bottle of water, saying: "It's the least I can do, I wish I had something more for you..."

He smiled & said " well you could pour it over my head because I'm pretty sure that if you don't, in about five minutes I'm due to collapse from this heat!"
I smiled at him, and signed the paper, to which he then added his own signature & he shook my hand & asked, "Adoption?"
I smiled & said, "Yes, my daughter."
He smiled back, cracked open his water & began to guzzle it and then said, "Congratulations!"

I smiled & ran back up two flights of stairs to the first woman & presented her with the paper & a tired sweaty slightly faint smile on my face.

She looked everything over & smiled back & said " Well Amy, you're all set, you can expect to hear from the court within the next two weeks for your hearing date where you will be recognized by the State and the judge, who will do a really cute little ceremony so you may want to invite family & friends & be sure to bring a camera etc... .
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO
I'M DONE!
NO!
MORE!
PAPERWORK!

I nearly collapsed in the chair next to Ruby & grabbed her & held her tight & whispered in her ear, "we're in the home stretch baby, it's almost done!"
Ruby looked at me & said, "Momma ok?"
Smiling through tears, I said, "Yes baby, Momma's very ok!"
Sweaty & all I was squeezing her tight & she pulled away & looked at me & said, "Momma, get a ice cream? A mint one? Pwease?"

YOU BET'CHER BOTTOM BABY!
YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH!
LET'S GET SOME ICE CREAM!

And with that, we left the courthouse (aka:oven) & headed for cooler pastures, complete with mint ice cream, some chocolate chips & some chocolate jimmies, which Ruby has decided are now her FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD!
"More jimmies momma!"
"You got it baby, more jimmies!"
And as always, tons & tons of COLD WATER!