The Best Things In Life Are Free
I’m currently working on our acceptance packet. Its got a lot of crazy paperwork. Statement of Adoption, Interstate Compact, Affidavit of Support, I-864 and I-864A, Affidavit of Tax Returns and on and on and on. The majority of which needed to be notarized. Thankfully (and I’m even more thankful now than I was before) we have friend’s in our church that are notary publics. They kindly notarized all our documents this weekend (for the low low price of our precious company at lunch).
Except I forgot one. That tricky Interstate Compact slipped by and when I was double checking things yesterday, I realized it needed to be notarized to. Since we wouldn’t be seeing our kind friends again till Sunday and I wanted to get these forms in the mail before then, I set out to find another, random, notary public.
And I found one at a local UPS office. She would be available after work, and she charged $5 a signature. Now, when I heard the price quote, I thought she was charging for HER signature. Cause well, Steve and I can sign whatever we want for free, its her signature that I’m paying for. But, thats not the case. Cause after we signed, and she signed and stamped, she said “That’ll be 10 dollars.” Huh? What. *Sigh* Fine.
Thank God I only forgot one form! Because if we didnt have these great friends, we would have paid about $160 to get this packet notarized. From start to finish (of the adoption), I can imagine the whole thing could cost around 300 bucks. That’s crazy!
Seriously, next time we adopt, I’m paying for a reliable friend to become a notary. Let me know if you’re interested.