Nightmare averted!

Ok, I was overreacting.  But, to be fair, the solution was not obvious to anybody and it was nowhere to be found in our mound of papers/information.  D called our agency and the solution is almost laughable.  Because getting the various people who signed various forms to visit a notary is just not going to happen, we can simply write a statement at the bottom of the form or on the back that says, "I attest that this is the signature of ...." and then we can sign.  The notary can then notarize OUR signature to that statement.  Oh, how I love silly loopholes!  (Except for when I don't think of them first....)

I was worried that even if that works in the states, it might not work here where rules are set in stone and friendly loopholes are all but nonexistent.  I called a different Notar this morning.  (Yeah, the other one permanently lost my business by being so rude after I had such a tough time getting there in the first place)  This time, I got to speak to the actual Notar so I can trust the information!  A MAJOR plus!!  His English was great and we were able to fully understand each other, which is another HUGE plus!  I explained that many of the people who signed would not be able to go there and told him what our agency said and asked if we could do that.  He had no problem with it at all!  He said that all he could do was notarize a signature of someone that was in the office and that he could certainly notarize our signatures to that statement.  Yay!!!  I wanted to make sure I knew how to do the next step of certifying and he said that he could actually do that for us and it would likely only take 2 days!  Hooray!!  He said it would be best to come in this afternoon so he can get everything done before he goes on vacation for 2 weeks.  Even better since I was wanting all of this done weeks ago!  The sooner, the better!!  We have an appointment for an oil change this afternoon too, so I'm really hoping they are on time and can get it changed quickly.  (Germans might have a reputation for punctuality, but it has NOT been my experience!)  As soon as the oil change is done, we can head downtown and get a MAJOR source of sleeplessness on my part taken care of!  Yay!!

As if that wasn't good enough news, my mom also got our birth certificates and marriage license and mailed those to our agency yesterday, so those are done.  AND, our home study agency went ahead and sent our addendum to the USCIS too!  She said that she would send my copy and the placing agency's copy once she received my check, but that she didn't want us to have to wait any longer for the USCIS!  I know we aren't quite Dossier ready yet, but we are so close and it feels GREAT!!  :-)