We're moving to paperless statements for any financial institutions that provide the option. We're taking ourselves off of mailing lists. We're making a list of what "might" still arrive in our snail mail and what we'd like our mail forwarding service to do with it.
The big step, and first expensive one, was to use VitalChek.com to order our birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce papers and my late husband's death certificate. We still have to get our TN background checks as well as our Social Security statements (stamped or signed). Oh, and 3 passport photos each (white background, no earrings). So we'll take a movie trip into Cookeville next week and hopefully can get an impromptu appointment at the SS office (or walk away with appointments) and get our photos taken. I'll also order our background checks online.
Then we'll package it all up together and send it to our facilitator, Maite Duran of Ecuador Movers. We'd taking the more expensive but expedient route. Most people opt to get their own notarization and apostiles done before sending the paperwork in to be translated into Spanish and apostiled again. We're sending them all the originals and they will get it all done.
Why are we doing it this way? Two reasons. The biggest is to reduce stress, we just have too much on our plate before our move. The second is due to time, which ties right back into reason number one. With my writing and publishing my second mystery book, our two month motorcycle trip, all the things we have to do to get ready to move in December, plus take our cruise...well, I think you can see the issue. So it's well worth the money to get this all done by Maite and her partner in Cuenca. When we arrive in Ecuador, they'll help us file the paperwork for our cedula (national ID card) as well.
Still a lot of items on our Ecuador To Do List (we also each have a personal list as well as our Route 66 list). But we're trimming them down daily. Are we crazy? Uh, yeah!
