Power of Attorney!

Yesterday, I filled out (and had notarized) 8 power of attorney forms. Yes, 8! Two for each child, from each parent. However, I wrote both boys' names on each document, and that wasn't correct. Today, I redid the forms, got them notarized again, and then took them to the county office to have the notary seal officially "verified." That cost $24. Now I have to send the forms to an office in NYC to get authenicated or verified at the state level. That will cost $80. Then we need to hire a courier to hand carry the documents to the embassy in Washington DC. That will cost $297!! I could take them there myself, but it will cost me more than $300 in gas, not to mention that it's an 8 hour drive. All this, JUST IN CASE, we need it. We are going to Heilongjiang Province to adopt Leo first, since it's the furthest north, and then we'll fly to Shangdong Province. However, Heilongjiang is known NOT to expedite the paperwork just to accommodate adoptive parents' schedules. We might have to split up, and have one of us continue down to Shandong Province alone to adopt Sam, to keep our trip on schedule. If that happens, we'll need the power of attorney forms. Ugh. Then sometime next week, David will have to draw up NYS power of attorney forms to leave with the caregivers of Austin and Connor so that they can act on our behalf for the benefit of our children. Again, just in case. I have found that if we prepare for the worst, everything turns out just fine. Prayers that this trip goes smoothly and we don't need the documents I'm spending $400 to prepare!