Our great state

Time sure does seem to be flying by these days and I know I've not been the greatest at commenting or writing posts for that matter! Tommy and I were talking last night about how the weekends really seem to fly by now! He said it's because we're busy in a different way now. But I wouldn't change it for anything.

It seems like so many things have happened since the last update so here's my attempt to remember them all plus give you all the insight on trying to obtain a birth certificate from the great state of NC.

All about Garrett :) He now has 5 teeth! They seem like they are popping up everywhere (3 on the bottom and 2 on the top). He's really been a champ through this whole teething process. He is crawling everywhere and getting into everything he can touch :) He's also pulling himself up on things and just this past week he started letting go. He can stand for a few seconds and then falls, which he thinks is funny. Two weeks ago he received his first black eye courtesy of the entertainment center. He hit it just right and had a little bruise on his cheek which then turned into a black eye. Last week we got called out of church because he had fallen and they wanted us to see the little scratch on his arm (I'm really thankful they do this and let us know what is going on in there). Come to find out, he was "chasing" a little girl in the room and he slipped on his jeans that are too long :) Tommy told him once we got in the car that girls will you get you into trouble every time, ha ha!

He loves to talk. He is always making noises and babbling. He says dada all of the time now and we've heard a couple of mama's from him lately. That will melt your heart every time you hear it.

On the birth certificate front--We finally received our letter from social services saying that the adoption had been indexed and we could now apply for his birth certificate. Now I must say that our state is definitely lacking in this department. If you talk to 6 different people, you'll get 6 different answers. I fortunately talked with a lady who seemed to know what was going on during the summer and she told me that once we got the letter, to call back and make an appointment. You see supposedly our state is on a "critical backlog" (their words not mine) of creating certificates (birth, death, marriage etc). If you fill out the application and mail it in, it could take up to a year to get it back (are you serious)!! You can pay to expedite it but that will still take a few months. However, you can drive to Raleigh, and pick one up same day. It makes absolutely no sense to me but that's how things go here. It has taken us 3 months to get the letter saying we can now apply for the birth certificate since we received the adoption decree. As soon as I saw the letter on Tuesday, I started calling. One lady told me I couldn't get it yet (ugh) then she connected me with the "adoption department" and I left a message. I then called back because I knew she didn't know what she was talking about. I talked to another lady who said she would connect me with the lady in charge of adoptions. I left her a message and she called me back within 10 minutes. She took down the information (at this point it was 5:00) and told me the office was closed now but she would have someone call me back the next day to schedule an appointment. They told us if you drive up to pick it up on the same day you should call and make an appointment. I ended up having to call them back on Thursday and the lady said, I'm pretty booked the next few weeks but I have Monday or Tuesday. No problem, we'll take Monday! So tomorrow we had to the state capital to pick up that treasured piece of paper. The humorous part in all of this, the cost. Here's the breakdown- $15 (expedite fee); $15 (adoption fee--really?); and $24 (birth certificate); extra copies $15....... Gotta love NC :)

So hopefully things will go as planned tomorrow and we can come home and then apply for a social security number. Whew!