Frustration

They tried to deliver our documents yesterday morning, but they required 162 Euros cash to deliver.  I'm not a big cash person over here.  Needless to say, I didn't have it.  The lady gave me a slip to pick it up at the main post office.  We went while we were out around 3:30 and the guy said it wasn't there yet, so I would have to come back the next day.  Things like this are SO much easier without 3 small children in tow!  D and I were originally going to stop by the post office on our way to church group tonight since it's right on the way.  In typical "me" fashion, I couldn't stop worrying about why it was 162 Euros.  We had 24 documents and they each cost 10 Euros to Authenticate.  I was worried they lost some or that they were mailing them in 2 shipments for some reason.  I was trying not to think there was even a possibility of them not authenticating some of them because we had followed all of the necessary steps.  I attempted to call them to ask why it was that amount, but the person I called spoke NO English and insisted that nobody there did either.  This was not the kind of conversation that would be easy in English, so there was no change in German.  Ugh!!  So, knowing that I would have no rest until I had the documents in hand, I took all 3 kids to the post office to pick them up.  Fortunately, they were not busy!  We waited less than a minute and the lady was very friendly.  She couldn't fathom why the documents were so expensive, but I don't really blame her there!  ;-)  Aside from L wanting to pick up every card they had (they apparently also sell cards there), the kids were very well behaved!  Early morning trips are always best for us.

Once we got back to the van, I just had to open up the package to see what was going on.  I was hoping to find an invoice for the remaining amount to be paid via computer.  What I found was that they had authenticated 16 of our documents.  They had taken it upon themselves to slap a giant sticker on the copies of our passports that say that the original was not verified to be an official document or some-such nonsense.  I'm not thrilled about that.  It had better not cause us problems because the Notar very much did verify them!  The worst part is the letter they included with the remaining 8 documents.... Apparently, they cannot authenticate documents unless ALL signatures have been verified.  Yup, that again.  The letter didn't translate perfectly, but from what I can tell, they even say that my little "testimony" that the signatures are valid is completely unrelated and irrelevant.  The letter says that if we cannot have the signature of our Dr. verified in person that we can bring that directly to them, but it doesn't say how that will make a difference.  It implies that the letters from D's employer and the guardianship forms will have to be completely redone because I somehow "ruined" them by certifying that the signatures were valid.  I'm so confused because I did the same thing to the Dr. form and they didn't seem to mind that.  I'm going to have to try to call a different number and see if I can get ahold of the guy who speaks English again.  He was really helpful and maybe I explain just how impossible it is to get those people to go to the Notar and how important, yet not important, this stamp is.  It won't mean much except to let us get the Authentication from Crescent Moon.  Beyond that, it's worthless.  UGH, this is SUCH a pain!!

And, to top off my emotional struggles, L had spent the entire drive to the post office talking in as great of detail as she can imagine about our trip to Crescent Moon to go get Z.  She was convinced that after we got this thing from the post office, that we could go buy plane tickets tomorrow and go get Z.  She was telling me all about these stairs that we were going to have to walk up and down to get to her and how happy she was going to be to see her little sister, etc.  I was having to hold back tears during our 10 minute drive and then seeing the forms not done....well, let's just say that I'm having a rough day now.  I'm not sure how to fix this or how long this is going to set us back now.  I'm trying to stay as optimistic as I can, but I feel like German Bureaucracy just sucks the life out of me.  I am hoping for good news when I call, but we'll see....