Making friends with the notary

Chris and I need to have child abuse clearances for every state we have lived or worked in since we've turned 18.  We also need police clearances for the past 5 years.  This is a lot of paper work.  Some states will let you run the police clearance online, like PA, but most make you print forms and get them notarized.  I brought my stack of clearances to Navy Federal today to get notarized.  The notary told me the limit was 2 per day, but when I told her it was for an adoption, she notarized them all.  Apparently she was going through an adoption too.  She has 2 children, but always wanted a third.  Things weren't working out for them, so they decided to adopt.  They are doing a domestic adoption through CPS.  Its interesting to hear tales from the trenches of different types of adoptions.  Its reassuring to hear from people go through the same things.
Interestingly, I have lived in BG and UK and they don't have child abuse registries, so that gets waived.  But the police clearance does not, even though there is no central registry for Bulgaria. 

Progress!

On Monday, the 12th the new social worker came to our house.  Since then we have been busy.
I have...

• scheduled a doctor's appointment for myself
• dropped off the authorization at my doctor's office to release information about me to the social worker
• scheduled vet appointments for the cats
• got my FBI Channelers fingerprints and already got the results
• readied the documents for my child abuse clearances, sent in my PA clearance
• gotten the money orders for my child abuse clearances (now they just need to be notarized)
• sent out my "Assumption of Guardianship" form to my sister, in case something happens to both of us, she'll adopt our kids
• we've signed so much paper work and filled out countless forms- our current financial status, fire safety, copied birth certificates, our marriage license, pay stub

We still have a lot to do, but at least we can see the progress.   I am going to the bank tomorrow to get my personal forms notarized, but we need to be together for some of them.  So, I think we'll know the notary who's available on Saturdays at Citibank by the end of all this. 
It takes 30 days for some of these clearances, so its best to get them out ASAP.

Here's the new door and radiator cover in the child's room.  This door connects the first child's room to the second child's room.