Hullabaloo Over State IDs

Friday, April 20, 2012.  No School.  I figured that I’d take the boys to get Colorado State IDs.  We needed them because the boys will be flying alone in June, when they return from visiting my parents in North Carolina.  I checked the website to make sure that I knew where they were located and what I needed to bring with me. 

Birth Certificates √

Social Security Cards √

My Driver’s License √

Checkbook √

David and Michael √

So, I thought that we were good to go.  The boys weren’t pleased about going to wait, but it was necessary.  First, we went to the wrong location.  We waited about 15 minutes before I realized we were in the wrong place.  Next, we went to the right location.  We got a number and took a seat.  Our number was about 12 away from the number they were calling.  So we waited.

Finally, they called our number.  Apparently we were supposed to take 2 numbers. Ugh!  Thankfully, we were able to grab another number and give it to the person (even though it wasn’t the next number in line).  She took all the information.  She had me sign an Affidavit saying that the boys were the boys.  Great!  This was going to be easy.  She took the boys’ birth certificates to make copies.  And came right back. Oh no!

She told me that she couldn’t accept the birth certificates.  WHAT!?!  These were the birth certificates that I used to apply for Social Security Cards for the boys.  They opened bank accounts and registered for school with these birth certificates.  The birth certificates were the ones that I ordered after the boys were born.  How could they not be good enough?

It seems that the birth certificates, issued from Lake Forest, Illinois, were not official enough.  We needed to have birth certificates issued from either the county where the boys were born or from the State of Illinois.  Wonderful!  David said that he felt like he was no longer a person since his Birth Certificate wasn’t good enough.

So home we went.  I got on the internet to find out about getting the right Birth Certificates (I still don’t know how you could have a “wrong” Birth Certificate).  Official, State of Illinois Birth Certificates were $17.50 EACH (OUCH!).  Then there was a $10 processing fee for the first one and a $3 processing fee for the second one.  It was $19.50 to have them sent (one option only – either pick them up or have them shipped overnight).  They had to be signed for, as well.  Additional copies of the Birth Certificates were $2 each (yes, only $2).

It took a few days for the order to be processed (I ordered them on a Friday after 5 pm – in Illinois).  When they arrived (at Chris’ office so they could be signed for during the day), I don’t know what I expected, but what I got wasn’t it.  It was the boys’ Birth Certificates, identical to the ones I had (minus the embossed seal from Lake Forest, Illinois) on paper from the State of Illinois.  I paid $17.50 to get a copy of what I already had, just on different paper!

I couldn’t believe it.  $17.50 for a piece of paper.  Granted, it was a pretty piece of paper; very official looking, but really?

Now I had to find a time to take the boys back in to have their IDs done.  There were no more days off of school and they weren’t open on Saturday.  They closed at 5 pm and I generally finished with carpool around 4:20 pm.  It would take 10 minutes to get there.  I really didn’t want to risk having to wait, only to have it get to 5 pm and us not being serviced and having to come back.  I decided that I would just take the boys out of school.  Didn’t really have any other options.

So, on a Wednesday (since I was done teaching at 9:20), I didn’t send Michael to school.  He came with me.  He starts at 9 am and there was no point in sending him to school to pick him up at 9:45 and add an additional stop to my itinerary.  David went to school, since he started at 7:35 and actually had choir practice before that.  I dropped him off at school at 6:40.  I went back to get him at 10.  We went over to wait to turn in the new, official Birth Certificates.

It took an hour or so, including waiting, to finish.  Then we had to wait 1-2 weeks for the IDs to arrive in the mail.  The cost for each ID, paid to the State of Colorado:  $10.50.  The total cost of the 2 IDs – $92.50.  Can you believe it?

I guess that it was a good thing this happened now.   David is almost 14.  It won’t be long until we are turning in the paperwork for him to get his Learner’s Permit and it would have really sucked for him, if we found out then that we had the wrong Birth Certificate and he had to wait longer because of it.

But those were some costly IDs – the boys  had better not lose them!