Paperwork Surprise!

Today the whole family happened to be together as we opened the mail. Since we recently ordered a number of things from our Vital Records office, I was only slightly suspicious of a certain parcel from that entity. I only paused briefly before opening it, thinking that we had already received everything that we had ordered from them.

Can you guess what it was?? I didn't and probably for good reason.

Although we would have liked to have a birth certificate for Island Boy over a year ago, we weren't able to request one until almost a year ago and we were told we would be waiting up to a year for it. When I last checked on the status of that document over a month ago, I was told that with the budget crisis in California (and the nation), staffing cutbacks meant that birth certificate processing was being delayed more than ever, so I hung up the phone and prepared for a continuing wait, thinking that it might be another six months or even more.

Both my husband and my son stopped what they were doing when they heard my reaction to seeing our son's birth certificate there in my hands. WOW!! What a THRILL! Could this really be it??!

We had a mini-celebration.

Why did this particular document make us so happy? It wasn't new information to us and it didn't really change anything legally. What it did was represent the final chapter in a long road of paperwork. Oh, I hate to say that because as soon as I do, another challenge will present itself, but still, whatever that document meant, it felt good to hold it and to know that all of the paperwork - all of it - has been worth it.

Now we're off to get our little Island Boy a new passport!