Legalization. Naturalization. Immigration. Deportation. Frustration.

Come on now, did you really think that I had forgotten to update you all on the visa extension debacle?  True, I've not said much about it but that has been due to there not being much to say due to lack of progress and also due to there being so many more pleasant things about which to write.
When I say there hasn't been much progress I don't mean that hour upon hour upon hour have not been spent walking the streets of Craiova visiting government office after government office.  Don't kid yourself.  But does that mean anything has really been accomplished?  Ah, your optimism makes me laugh.
However, not all is at a complete stand-still.  We have achieved some successes and as of May 20 at 14:20 we can report the following:  Mihai has an ID and is once again legal in his country of birth.  The boys, due to having a now-legal father and the fact that their birth certificates were translated into Romanian, are now citizens.  These three members of the Ionescu Traveling Clan can stay in Romania as long as they would like.
Then there's Leigha.
Let me summarize the situation with a nice visual:

citizen

citizen

citizen

 persona non grata

Its possible that the biggest roadblock (the translating of the U.S. marriage certificate) might well be resolved by the end of this week.  Its also possible that astronomers will detect a planet-destroying meteor hurling its way to the earth and the President of the United States will hire Bruce Willis and his team of handsome, quirky renegades to neutralize it before it kills us all.
Yeah.
So if and when the translation is complete, Mihai and I will no longer be living in sin and then I will have a mere 200 or so pieces of documentation that I will need in order to submit a request to remain legally in this country. All of these documents will have to be notarized and photocopied and I will have to attach declarations* to each.  None of these things (the photocopying or the notarizing or the declaring) can be done in the same building.  That would be too convenient.  However, if all of this can be accomplished before June 15, we are in business.  If not, we will be posting photos from many, many other countries in Europe.
In a nutshell: if we get the temporary resident card in time, we will stay here and if not, we will spend six months living around Europe until I am allowed back into Romania.
I will spare you the whining about having to travel because I am fully aware of how pathetic it sounds.  All I can say is that I really like living here and I would prefer to be able to stay but I'm sure a month in Barcelona will make up for it.   
Is that really all there is to the story?  Oh surely you know there is at least one tale of absurdity but if I am going to get those papers then let me have them in my hands before I do a tell-all.  If I don't get them, then let me spend a few days lying on a beach in Greece and throw back a few glasses of Ouzo so that all of this seems a humorous memory...
So, a little more patience, please, and all will be revealed.
*declarations are legal documents for which you must hire a lawyer to write down stuff that we normally all take for granted such as:
Along with my marriage licence I had to submit a "declaration" in which I declared that I was married on the date stated in the marriage licence and that I was, in fact, married to the man whose name appears in the marriage licence and that I was thereafter willing to be called by the name stated in the marriage licence as well as the name I chose to put on my passport.  Once the marriage licence is translated (in effect, reproducing all of the information I have just declared-which was of course already declared on the original marriage licence) I will then have to produce another declaration at the office of immigration that I (some of you have guessed it and some of you now think I'm just making this up as I go along) was married on the day stated in the declaration and the licence, that I was married to the name whose name appears....