Dossier Sent

Finally our work is done!  Ok, not completely...

 

  Where to begin? 

It has taken a month to get all of our apostilles sent in, sent back, corrected, redone, resent, notarized, renotarized....ugh. 

But none-the-less, I sent off our dossier to our adoption agency yesterday.  It happens to be missing one piece of apostilled paper, but I am hoping it will show up in the mail today and I can forward it on as well.  ( If you ever plan on adopting, pray that you have no paperwork that will be need to be sent to Texas; they are by far the slowest state I have ever dealt with.)

 

So what is a dossier, anyway?

Shall I list it for you?

 Copies of Birth certificates, marriage certificate, passport pics, family pics, homestudy, I-797 approval, deed or title to house, bank records, statement for adoption, doctor clearances, child abuse clearances....etc. 

Sounds like fun, right?  Not so much!  But we know in the end this will be worth it all.  Just trying to keep focused and yet not focusing too much, has been a really hard task. I have had a hard time knowing when to push people to get something done and when to back off and let everything work itself out. 

 

Now that I have bored you with the paperwork side of adopting shall I tell you the fun part.  Ok, well it is the fun part for me.  I started working on the girls room (just love using the word "girls"--never thought I would get to say that I have "girls").  I am not done yet but maybe I can give you one pic to prove that I am indeed accomplishing something around here.

See!!!  I did something.  I had to do a little cropping on this photo so you would not see the unfinished trim and such.  Does anyone else save leftover paint and then when you go to use it, it is ruined? You go back to the store and they no longer carry that color and can't match to the lid?  This is the story of my painting life...over and over!!!   Anyway, I will show you more of their room later. This will give me something to post about while we are in the "waiting on Poland phase" (which might take a while).

 

 

Depraved Indifference

Depraved Indifference - Eric Ludy

 

 

Run Down

Now  you could take this post title two different ways...either
A. I am about to give you a list of what has been going on here.... or
B. I am " run down"...or
C. both

Unfortunately option "c" best describes my week.  So here's the "run down"....

Monday our I-797 arrived in the mail (FINALLY)...so I needed to get all our paperwork in order and fax it to our agency for them to look over.  I also had to call our homestudy agency and have them send us our clearances.

Tuesday after lunch I ran to the county courthouse to notarize clearances and a few other papers.  Before I went, I decided to check with the Secretary of State to see when I could go up to apostille my papers.  She said I could only have them done Wednesday morning by 8:30.  So I ran home, packed, and loaded my kids in the car.  We made the 1 1/2 drive to my sister's house so the kids could stay with their Uncle Steve while Aunt Holly helped me drive the next four hours to Albuquerque. (I fall asleep at the wheel way too easy, so going by myself was not an option.) We also picked up my mom on the way.  Apparently we have not had a girl's night out since my niece was a toddler and my mom was in chemo the first time (so roughly 13 years ago).  It was about time to escape. ;)

Wednesday we left Albuquerque and drove to Santa Fe.  Santa Fe is not a fun city to drive in...way too many one way streets.  And then we zoomed (ok, my mom does not zoom, but we slowly zoomed) through the capitol building looking for the Secretary of States office.  Once found, I was informed that they would only apostille about 2/3's of my documents.  (Apparently the adoption agency failed to mention that I would have to mail all the other paperwork to the states they originated from.)  Holly, Mom, and I also squeezed a mini shopping trip in there too.

Thursday I spent most of the day figuring out where my paperwork needed to go.  So I filled out forms and wrote checks for the rest of the paperwork. Oh and we fit birthday cupcakes and presents in...for my littlest guy!  He's two now!

Why do they have to grow up?

 

Friday I gathered up all my paperwork and headed to the county courthouse again to notarize one more piece of paper and then buy envelopes for all the documents that needed mailed. I decided that Micah, Noel, and Matt needed to do school since they missed wednesday, so they stayed home; I took Orrin and Matt with me.  About ten minutes in to being at the courthouse, I realized that I should have had all my kids with me, because Micah was supposed to be at a 4-H shooting practice, so I raced home and got the kids and drove back to town. When I pulled up at the shooting range everyone was sitting there waiting for me.  Embarrassing --I hate being late!!!  So I again dropped off  Micah and ran back in to town to mail my documents and buy a picnic lunch for the kids.  After the 4-H shoot was over, I drove the kids to the Tularosa River to play in the water and they promtly forgot all of my wild and crazy antics for the day.

 

And now I sit here in a vegetative state hoping that next week will not be like this week.  I hope we can get all our paperwork back easily and I can send off our Dossier to the adoption agency.  But you just never know... oh, and speaking of vegetative, apparently Orrin's week was just as hard as mine...

Turning two is aweful hard on a kid. 

 I hope my post isn't as boring for you as it was for him. :)

 

What's next?

Today was one of those days that you get all excited about something only to be brought back to harsh reality.  Yes, today I went to my mailbox and found our Immigration Approval ...the one I spent every day last week driving over the the post office to see if it had arrived. (No, I never learn.) 

And I was so excited that I emailed our agency and asked her "what's next?". Now let me warn you.  When adopting, if you have just  passed a huge milestone, never ask what's next!!!! Never! Because it is much more fun to bask in a victory than to wallow in a letdown. Why do I say this? Well, of course, because my case worker answered my question honestly....

She listed all the things that have to happen before we go see our little girl (apostille, dossier, translation, referral, applications) ...and sadly that involved long periods of just WAITING!  Am I good at waiting? Uh no!  

So tonight I sat down and decided that I again needed to revisit some verses on patience (apparently all my past lessons have been forgotten).

 

  Romans 8:25

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

James 1:3

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

James 1:4

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

 

Yes, I needed these.

So I am going to take the next couple of days to prepare our Dossier for sending off to Olivia's country and then I am going memorize these verses.

 

And to those of you who are wondering....yes, adoption is alot like pregnancy (minus the stretch marks).  Right now I feel like I am 9 months pregnant and my doctor just said "Yeah, I am thinking this baby just needs some more time....I'm thinking about two more months should be good." 

Wanted: A Family

Today is a great day!  Why?  Did we get our immigration paperwork back?  Fat chance! Grrrr.

 

  So what happened?

  All of the kids (Micah, Mabel, Libby and Riley) I have posted about over the last month now have families coming for them!  Now I know it probably wasn't my blog that helped them get a family, but it's still exciting! So since I am on a roll, I decided not to quit.... today you get to see a few older children.

 

Dawn

Dawn has been institutionalized since she was 3...she is now 8.  She talks very little, but according to her description she loves music.  This girl deserves a life outside of an institution....look at her smile!!!

 

Casey

Casey has CP and is bed-ridden; he looks like he is maybe 5...he's not; Casey is actually the same age as my niece....

This is my niece.  She does not have CP but I just wanted you to see the difference in size.  Casey needed a family to love and care for him...and he sadly he still does.  He's  reaching the adoption age limit soon.  What does this mean?  It means, he may never see the world outside of his crib EVER.

 

Rania

Rania is also getting close to aging out.   She is also close to the same age as my niece. 

 

Help me keep on my streak here...share these kiddos.  There are families out there for them....I need your help to make sure they find them! :)

 

 

PS. I will be calling immigration AGAIN today. So hopefully I will have some news soon.

 

PS #2.  God is absolutely amazing.  And I think he might even have a sense of humor...I pushed the publish button for this post and the phone rang.  Who was it?  The immigration case worker.  She told me that we are APPROVED and our paperwork is in the mail today!!!  Now I could just go up there and edit away my negativity, but then you wouldn't be able to see God in this situation. A verse I have had on my fridge comes to mind....

 "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Cor. 12:9

 

ATTENTION:  Each child's name is a link to the sight where you can find there info.  Yes, this sight (Reece's Rainbow) does have permission to post their faces, fundraise, and help find them families.  None of the children I post about are from Russia, since Russia is now closed to adoption.