Saturday, April 30, 2011

A wacky trip to Sacramento and San Francisco

I don't know if this will interest anyone, but I want to keep a record of the craziness of my adoption journey.  It is totally intriguing to me, but may be a little dull for others.  Sorry for such a long post.

For those who are unfamiliar with the adoption process,  it takes a lot of running around to get certain documents needed for the adoption.  One of the steps in the process is do get all the documents that are going to China notarized, certified and authenticated.  Basically all my docs are notarized locally, then they need to be certified by the CA Sec of State saying the notary is licensed in CA and then the Chinese Consulate will authenticate that the CA Sec of State is in fact our Sec of State.  Rather than sending all my docs to Sacramento and S.F. then wait to have them sent them back to me, I decided to drive them up myself.  I took a friend with me who is in the same stage of the process.  It was kind of a mini road trip.  We left around 5:30am.  We arrived at 8:30 to the Sec of State office in downtown Sac.  We found a meter, put some coins in and went up.  The process was painless, we were in and out in 20 minutes.  I was a little nervous because I didn't want to make any mistakes.  I felt as if my docs were like gold-very precious and I could not afford to lose them or have any errors.  The docs were certified and we were back to the car.  Come to find out we parked in a passenger loading zone!  Why did they have a meter in a zone where you can't park!?  It was extremely frustrating and cost us $52.  I couldn't believe that in those 20 minutes we were gone that we got a ticket!  Oh well. :(  Off to make copies of the docs.  I don't have GPS so Doug mapped out each step.  We got to the copy shop, paid the meter and made sure there were no yellow curbs. The next set of directions took us to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.  We arrived in S.F. around 11:15.  We were a little lost for about 20 minutes or so.  Eventually we found the Consulate.  The Consulate closes for lunch from noon to one and then closes for the day at 3:00.  We thought we were there in the nick of time.  We found the front of the line and kept following it down the street and around the corner!  I was a little stressed.  I drove all this way and I wasn't sure I was even going to make it into the building to have my documents authenticated.  We waited and waited.  It was kind of weird as I was able to experience China without leaving California. A foreign language around you, and people who don't understand what personal space is.  Parking in S.F. is tricky.  I parked in a 2 hour zone. By the time we would be inside the building my parking time would be up.  I left my friend in line and tried to find another parking spot.  My friend calls to tell me she is at the door next to enter.  I am panicked!  I finally find a spot.  I am stressed out and trying to parallel park, it was a nightmare.  Then I look up and see a sign a little ways up that reads "No Parking Fridays for street sweeping from 12-2"  I look at the clock it is 1:30; I can't park there!!  I would probably get another ticket.  Off to find another spot in S.F.  I am getting more stressed as I can't find a spot.  Finally I round the block another time and find a spot that I can legally park in.  I park, jump out of the car and run to the front entrance.  My friend is waiting to the side, letting people in front of us.  We enter and pass through security.  Then we join another line for about an hour.  Finally, at 2:15, I give my documents to the Consulate, pay my money and I am good to go.  Unfortunately my friend was not able to get her documents authenticated.  It was very sad and frustrating. :(

We headed back to the car disappointed.  I grabbed the next set of directions Doug had printed for us.  I told him I wanted to travel back via the 99 rather than I-5.  That is the route he printed.  Not too long after we were out of the city, we realized we had missed an exit.  No worries, we would just take I-5 instead of 99.  We could catch the 152 through Los Banos and have dinner there.  Doug calls to check on us and see where we were.  I said we were on the I-5 heading toward Los Banos.  I told him we saw a sign for Firebaugh recently.  Doug said, FIREBAUGH, tell me the next exit you see.  Manning was the next one. I told him it was a different one, not the one in the south valley.  Then the next one we came up to was Kamm.  Hmmmm...what are the chances that there is a Manning and a Kamm where we were that were different than the south valley.  I knew at that moment we were lost.  Doug pulled up a map and guided us to a town called San Joaquin.  Did I mention we were very low on gas? Meanwhile, Doug gets a knock on the door.  He opens it to Hannah, who is in hysterics crying.  She can't find the dogs and apparently, according to neighbors have been out of our fenced yard for several hours.  Doug goes out to look for the dogs and then realizes that I am out in the middle of booney land and need his guidance.  He sends the kids off to look for the dogs.  He guides me where to go.  We get to San Joaquin, the middle of nowhere and look for a gas station.  Not a sight of one.  We pull to a little shopping center with a liquor store and pizza parlor.  We decide the pizza place will be a better place to ask where a gas station is.  I ask, the girl looks at me blankly and says she doesn't speak English.  Great, I am lost with no gas and the town doesn't speak English.  I start to hand motion putting gas in the car and she says "Oh, Cirlce K"  and points somewhere.  Well at least I know they have gas, finding it is another issue.  We walk outside and find another girl and she speaks English and tells us where the Circle K is located.  We get gas and we find our way out of San Joaquin heading towards Kerman.  I call Doug back and they found the dogs.  They were across the street playing in the water basin having a grand time.  Hannah, although relieved, was still an emotional wreck. My sweet little girl!

The weekend before a friend who used to live in Kerman metioned a Chinese restuarant in Kerman.  As we were driving on what I would assume was the main drag of Kerman, I found the Bejing Garden restuarant.  A nice way to finish off our crazy day of adoption madness, with Chinese food.  It was sooo nice to sit down and eat and relax.

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