Document to Crazy House - Part 2

This is a continuation of the story about the one document that was driving me crazy.  Ed and I must provide a Verification Letter from Social Security to prove his monthly pension for our residency in Ecuador. 

The letter arrived from Social Security the day before Ed flew out to Montana for the month.  So, Ed took the letter with him and after spending a week at Seeley Lake at his family reunion, he stopped in Helena.  He had an appointment at the Social Security Office for them to sign the letter.  We had arranged for a mobile Notary to meet him there and notarize the SS employees signature on the letter.  *Remember, she didn't show up at the appointment time and Ed had to phone her.  She had forgotten the appointment and was in the beauty shop.  She did arrive 30 to 40 minutes later. 

Ed then took the notarized letter to the Secretary of State's office to have it apostilled.  They were great in that office and even made sure it was sent out that night by Fed-Ex to me.

Now, the letter was in my court.  I had to find a be-lingual Notary to translate the letter from English into Spanish.  It wasn't easy to find a Notary that could perform that.  I spent days researching and finally I had to resort to finding a translator.  

Now, an angle named Jason enters my life.  He is a professional translator.  We talk on the phone and arrange for me to scan the letter and send it to him.  He then calls with a quote.  At this point, he could have just about named his price and I would have paid.  He was honest and priced it at $50.

After the letter is translated by Jason, it still has to be notarized as Jason signs the translated letter.  My next step was to find a mobile notary to meet up with Jason and me some place near where Jason lives in Tampa.  When Jason finished translating the letter, he emails me a copy of it to read and make sure that it is what I need. 

I'm suppose to read an official document in Spanish and make sure it's correct!  Well, I only know one Spanish word and that is cerveza (beer) and no where in the letter did it say anything about a beer!  So, I had to forward the letter to Ed and have him go through it.  It was just a waiting game for Ed to get back to me and give me the green light.  I emailed Jason the minute I heard back from Ed that the document was just what we needed.

It is Jason that comes up with the idea to meet at the UPS store near his house in Tampa.  They have a notary in the store that can notarize the letter for us.  We arranged to meet at 11:30am today and everything seems to have fallen into place.

This morning I had to drive down to Bradenton to have some fasting blood work done.  I know from the doctor's office it is an hour to the UPS store where I was to meet Jason.  I finished with the lab work and into the car at 10:15, so it a mad drive up to Tampa.  I only had written directions to the UPS store but they worked out well. 

About two blocks from the store, a cop car pulled in behind me and followed me.  I turned right at a traffic light and he was still behind me.  I turned left at the next light and he was still behind me.  One block on the right was the UPS store, I turned on my blinkers to turn into the parking area, the cop pulled in right behind me.  At this point, I just knew he was going to turn on his lights and stop me.  So, I looked for a parking spot to pull into.  I turned down a dead end lane and there wasn't anything available.  I had to turn around in the tight lane while the cop was waiting at the other end.  I came to the place where the cop car was waiting and stopped.  The cop then turned and went to a different place in the parking lot.  I continued looking for a parking spot, while my knees were shaking.

I walked into the UPS store at 11:28am with my heart racing.  I told the clerk that I was meeting someone to have a paper notarized.  She informed me the Notary had gone to the bank and would be back in 10 minutes.  Jason had not arrived yet so I had a minute to gather myself.  Jason arrived just a couple of minutes later, we introduce ourselves and chatted for a minute. 

When the Notary arrives back at the UPS store, we stepped forward to have the translated letter notarized.  Heavens, this letter is driving me crazy.... neither of us had brought a copy.  I never even thought about printing off the Spanish   document ... how stupid of me!  Jason had told me to read it over and I don't remember him telling me to bring a printed copy with me.  This caused Jason to have to run home and get a copy for him to sign.  I now had more time to just wait in the UPS store.  Jason signed and the Notary notarized his signature.... DONE!  I won! 

I wasn't driven crazy but I am a little the worse to wear because of this one SS letter.  We still have one more step with this letter.  It has to go to the Ecuadorian Consul in Miami for them to notarize it.  Ed and I have decided to drive down to Miami and present all our documents on September 4th, in person to make sure everything is in order so we can continue our move to Ecuador.

Can anything else go wrong with this one document?  Would we have time to fix any problem?  Will I need to post a part 3 of this story?  Heavens, I just want to be done!