REFERRAL DOCUMENTS = STRESS!!

We received our referral documents last Tuesday, August 12 . These documents had to be notarized, certified by the county clerk (proof that your notary is certified), receive the "GREAT SEAL of AL" by the Secretary of State in Montgomery, then sent to TECO (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta, GA) for authentication and last but not least Fed-ex to Journeys of the Heart. See why this was stressful. Byron and I were both off Wednesday so we planned our trip, prepared our documents, and obtained more information on this process by fellow JOH yahoo member Chuck M. (Thanks Chuck). Really I did all this while Byron was asleep in bed!!! We planned to do all of this in one day and be home by 5:00 so we could attend our first church small group meeting.


Our First Stop:


Took Andrew to School (7:30 am)

8:15 a.m. Arrived at Madison County Court House. We had all 9 documents notarized at the court house. We then went down stairs to the county clerk's office to have the Notary's signature certified (this step makes no sense to us).

9:30 a.m. Headed south to Montgomery!



12:30 arrived at our State Capitol to obtain our GREAT SEAL!

While in Montgomery ... we had to locate a place to make 2 copies of all nine documents (multi-paged), assemble, then separate. We both worked hard at OFFICE DEPOT, then on to Byron's favorite store "WAL-MART" to purchase a money order, and he did some quick shopping /looking.

Last but not least we locate a FED-EX to send all of these documents to TECO in Atlanta. Byron used great care to place our documents neatly in an envelope, only to have the Fed-ex worker shove them into several different size envelopes to find the best fit. I had to stop her and explain the importance of these documents and they needed to arrive unbent. She was very nice about this and was more careful. Byron of course checked to see that it was properly sealed!!! And then we were done (or so we thought).

3:30 p.m. We left Montgomery to head back home. (WHEW!!)

6:30 p.m. Picked Andrew up from friends (Thanks Brandi!!)

7:00 p.m ; 400 miles and almost 12 hours later we made it HOME!!! I was stressed, tired, and really relieved!

The Next day.... I received a call from TECO that the county clerk dated the forms the wrong day!! Several calls later and two faxes that problem was resolved without any additional driving!!

I received word for Journeys of the Heart that our documents have been sent to Taiwan!!!!!

Now officially done with the referral packet and ready for the court process to begin!!!!