Harrisburg Paperwork!

Well, one trip down and a couple more to go! The girls and I hit the road early this morning to take our PA paperwork to the State Capitol Complex to get authenticated. I thought I knew what I was doing...had a binder of all of our required documents....and then the kind woman at the desk asked me a simple question.
"Do you know if the country you are adopting from allows you to bundle documents?"
Somewhere inside, I thought the answer was, "Yes!" but I hesitated.
I doubted myself.
She then looked over our background checks and saw that they were not notarized.
How did I skip that step??
"There is a notary right around the corner, you can head over there while we start authenticating the other documents."
I looked at my file folder and saw that I had background clearance forms for our two daughters over age 14, but I hadn't included them in the pile for authentication. Had I purposely left them out or had I overlooked them?
I decided to think about it while I ran around the block to get the clearance papers notarized.
Then the Lord gave me a brilliant idea!
"Call the Embassy!"
Within minutes, I heard a familiar Rwandan accent answering the phone.
I explained that I was doing my adoption paperwork and didn't want to make any mistakes.
He was so soft spoken, gentle and kind.
"Sure, go ahead and bundle the papers, that is fine, " he told me.
"Do I need clearances for my teenage daughters?" I asked.
"No, if they are underage and you are responsible for them, not if they are under 18, you do not need those papers."
I thanked him and breathed a quick sigh of relief. Crisis averted.
The notary charged me half price because this was an adoption. Unmerited favor!
But then I realized I needed to let the authentication expert know that I could bundle documents or I would be charged an arm and a leg. I quickly called the office and the person on the other end would not take a message to anyone, "Just explain it all when you get back."
I ran back around the block and up to the second floor. I explained my situation to the secretary at the desk, telling her that I had called the Embassy.
"Oh, perfect," she replied, "Because we decided not to do anything with your documents until you got back. Now we know just what to do!"
The whole process took 1 hour and 15 minutes and cost $135 for the docs to be authenticated and $10 for the notary services.
Tomorrow, it's off to Dover, DE to authenticate marriage license, birth certificates and our home study!!