Waiting for our Princess: Starting the "Sealing" process!!

On March 22nd 2011, we started the "Sealing" process. This is where, we take all of our documents that had to be notorized to the county clerks of court and have them verify that the notory is legit. The above picture is the Gwinett County Clerks of Court. Since it is a goverment building, we took the picture from the car, so they did not think we were up to something with taking pictures. Then we went to the capital building to the secretary of state to have them verify the clerks of court is legit.....what a process! Okay, rewind: We left the house at 7:15 a bit later then we wanted to, but I was trying to find the Adoption Petition....it looks like we need to double check that the one I have saved on my computer is correct, and then I can print it out again and we can get that sealed with our 2nd batch of papers most likely next week. We also realized that we had a few things that still needed to be notorized..thought it was complete. Oh well, after we dropped my car off to get new brakes, we stopped off at Patrick's office, to have Kim notorize a few more things. Then, we went to the county clerks of court, went thru security, and walked thru the glass doors, to the long line of windows: each labled with a different section. We stood in the line (with only one person in front of us) for the notory department. Dana, the one who did this part, verified the stack of paperwork (7 documents) and sent us on our way with best wishes for our journey. We then went and hopped on Marta (to avoid finding parking downtown) and went to the Capital building, and up to the 8th floor. We waited for the lady to certify her part. She said that we need to go back to the vital records office, to have them sign the back of Patrick's Birth Certificate....my thought was this: he is alive, don't you see him?? But, hey...that is why this is called the "paperchase" He will go back tomorrow, to get that done. Anyways, she took our paperwork into her cubicle...along with the guys next to us (I thought oh great, she is going to mix everything up!!) oh, and the phone rang while she was doing this very important step in our process, and she ofcourse answered it~~~she came back around from her cubicle, and gave us the paperwork...I was sure to check to see if it all looked right: and she had missed placing the gold seal stickers required on all but 2 of the documents....I had her fix them and we were off. When we got home, Patrick got the mail and announced that we had received our complete home study!!!! We will now be able to get that "Sealed" It is already notorized, from the agency, but we will need to do the rest of it. Now for some pictures: :-)