Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Raura, who???
Hopefully you guys are not yet tired of reading about my little adventures as I race at full speed into bureaucratic hell, red tape and all sorts of stress inducing headaches preparing for my wedding.

Here's one lil adventure I'm sure will give you an headache similar to the one I experienced yesterday.

Last Sunday, my parents (bless them for being so supportive and helpful) went to some church (which shall remain nameless) in Marikina to get a certified true copy of my baptismal certificate which clearly states for marriage purpose only. I was at D's place tinkering with stuff when they texted me that they already got the aforementioned document. Anyways, I got home to check the document and to my surprise discovered they had misspelled my second name.

Instead of DAPHNE LAURA ... it was DAPHNE RAURA!

I figure it was a typographical error on the clerk's part and didn't go blaming my parents for not checking the document at hand before they left that still to be nameless church in Marikina. Most churches are closed well their offices are on Mondays. So yesterday, I decided to tag along with my parents since I wanted to see for myself the church where I was baptised on the 29th day of December 1968. And of course ask they re-issue the document with the proper spelling of LAURA.

We get there early at around 10 AM (yes for me that's early so shut up already!). I ask the (same) lady at the desk to kindly rectify the problem, I was even willing to pay again for the new document.

Well well what do you know?

It turns out that in their log book dated 1968 - my name is written as DAPHNE RAURA! What??? Duh??? How can that be? I showed them the original baptismal certificate in my possession. This diploma like document yellow with age which even has my tiny footprint embedded. This document has my name beautifully scripted as Daphne Laura. So how on earth can it be that in their log book my name is misspelled??? The lady politely tells me that unfortunately someone almost 40 years ago wrote Raura instead of Laura.

The proper procedure (such bureaucratic nonsense) would be for me to get the Bishop of Antipolo (the diocese which covers the Marikina area) to sign an affidavit stating that my name be corrected to Laura from Raura in their log book. I have to submit my birth certificate with the affidavit then return to that still to be nameless church in Marikina. Only then would I be re-issued the document for marriage purposes. Ugh!

Are you still following this? Believe me, it gets more convoluted as it goes on. So put on your thinking cap and eyeglasses or go read another blog if you are no longer interested in my lil adventure. :D

Pay attention now. You see on my birth certificate my name simply states DAPHNE. On my original baptismal certificate, my mother needed to add an extra name because according to the priest back then Daphne wasn't a "holy" name. So they checked the calendar and discover that Saint Laura was the patron saint for October 19 so voila - I was thus baptised as DAPHNE LAURA.

So imagine the huge horrible bureaucratic mess that would create for me. I go to Antipolo to show them two conflicting documents. One with only DAPHNE and the other one with DAPHNE LAURA. I kept trying to explain that it wasn't MY FAULT at all that 40 years ago some sorry fellow couldn't spell and mistyped my second name as RAURA. It came to a point where I simply stopped trying to explain because I was getting hoarse.

My father (the one person I can rely on to deal with bureaucratic hell, he can out talk anyone!) demanded to talk with the parish priest of the still to be nameless church and plea our case. But according to the lady at the office, he was still ASLEEP! So if we wanted to talk to him, we would have to either come back after lunch or simply wait. We decided to wait. No way were we going to drive all the way to Antipolo for some silly mistake committed 40 years ago.

20 minutes later she suddenly developed some backbone and took the initiative to correct the mistake. She calls the diocese of Antipolo herself and after talking to whoever was there, she came to an agreeable settlement of my case. She attached my original baptismal certificate (the one with my correct name and tiny footprint) to the log book where my misspelled name is registered and attached some note I couldn't read from where I was standing. She gave me photocopies of my original baptismal certificate, sat down and typed DAPHNE LAURA to the certified true copy of my baptismal certificate for marriage purpose. We left quite relieved that everything was sorted out without the still sleeping parish priest intervening nor the need to go all the way to Antipolo. She didn't even let me pay for the new document.

Now my only wish is that I WON'T encounter anymore problems with my second name. I have visions of trying to explain to the parish priest of the church where I will get married that Daphne and Daphne Laura is just one person. It would be so horrible if some stupid technicality - having different names on two different documents - would prevent me from getting married on May 15, 2008!

Ay grabe! I hope there won't be any more snag or else I swear I would gladly skip the whole wedding ceremony in a heartbeat and live in sin forever without the blessings of the Church to bind my marital union. I just want to be Mrs F already, is that too much to ask for? =)

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