Working on Dossier Part 1

I am almost done with our section of the Dossier Part 1!  Chris and I are meeting our church secretary tomorrow at the church (they both have the day off) around noon to sign all 32 papers and have her notarize them all!  You should have heard her when I told her that we have 32 papers for her to notarize.  It will be fun tomorrow!  I made sure to have 4 blue pens that work (we have to use blue ink on all papers).

Monday I have an appointment with our social worker to have her certify our Picture Books and get them notarized!  Thankfully we only have 3 of those to do.

I have been working all week to get things done.  All that is left to do is clean out the children's bedroom, straighten up my sewing room and take pictures of both.  Once I get pictures I like, I will copy & paste them into the Picture Book document, print and wait till Monday to get it all signed!  Once the Picture Books are done, our part will be completed.

Hopefully we will get the rest of the Dossier documents from Buckner soon so that I can take it all to Austin to get it Apostilled (pronounced Ap-O-Steeled).  Once that is done, we will send it to Buckner.  They will send it to Russia to get filed and we will wait.

Please continue to pray for us during this time, as well as our children.

Dossier Instructions are here!!

Our Russia Dossier Instructions came via email this morning!! Whew!

AACK. UUUHHH?? HUH??

Okay. Read them, saved a copy in our Adoption file on the computer. Left the house, ran errands. Got home, read them again, printed a copy, read the copy and decided that it can wait till tomorrow to go back over and start working on it.

Several forms have to be typed and signed in blue ink while being notarized. Have to make sure to follow very specific directions regarding notarization. Hmmm.

Need to create a Picture Book while following specific directions of that (and will need to get it notarized and signed by the social worker). Hmmm.

THINGS TO DO: Clean house so we can take pictures; get yard mowed, edged, cleaned up so we can take pictures; empty bedroom (& hopefully get furniture in it) so we can take pictures; get stuff we want for the bathroom so we can take pictures; bathe the dog so she will look good in the pictures; find money to pay for all the stuff we need......

I plan to get certified copies of our marriage license this next week and drive up to Denton with a friend to get certified copies of my birth certificate. And wait to get Chris' birth certificate copies in the mail. Hopefully they will get here in the next few weeks (or sooner!!).

As soon as we get the go-ahead and all the papers are in order, I will take a road trip to Austin to get it all apostilled (ap-oh-steeled).

Please continue to pray for our children and their current caregivers. Also continue to keep our finances in your prayers. We have enough for the fees related to the adoption, but still need furniture for the children's bedroom (we found storage beds on Wal-Mart.com that we really like that has dressers and such to match). The furniture will cost around $800 (not including mattresses). We still don't have bedding, towels, etc. I have set up a Wish List with Wal-Mart for things we would like to have. Unfortunately the furniture is not able to be listed (no gifting options). Gift cards are always welcome! :)

YEAH!!! We are getting closer......

Papers to get

I sent off the request for certified, English translated copies of Chris' birth certificate today. They should get the envelope on Thursday, but not sure when we will get the copies. Since Chris was born in Puerto Rico, his birth certificate is written in Spanish and we have to have English translated copies. I requested that they send translated copies but I am not sure if they will.

For my birth certificate, I think it will be easier and faster to drive to Denton county and pick them up in person. If I request them through mail or the Internet, it could take any where from 10 days to 6 weeks to get them. In person, it will take about 10 minutes. Road trip!!

The easiest copies to get will be our wedding certificate; it was filed in Richmond. I will see if I can get them this week.

Not sure what else we will need for our dossier, but at least this is a start.

I haven't heard from our social worker if she sent in the Home Study Update yet. She was supposed to send it in last Friday. Once it gets 'approved', we will get a copy, a copy will be sent to Immigration and hopefully we will get the information about the dossier at that time.

Please continue to keep our children and their current caregivers in your prayers.

Update not done yet...

We are still waiting for the Home Study Update to be completed. Hopefully it will be finalized by the end of the week. Hopefully. Please pray that it is!

The social worker got our email addresses messed up and I didn't get the rough draft of her report until after 9:00 last night when she called to see why I hadn't responded to her email. I will be so glad when the Update is done and we can continue on to the next step (putting the Dossier together). I sent her the corrections/additions she requested this morning around 9:00. Haven't heard anything yet.

On a side note, I have opened a new Etsy shop to sell scrub caps, scrub tops, stethoscope covers, etc. I have named it FunkyMedWear. I don't have anything posted yet, but hopefully will in the next week or so.