On the way!

I received an email today from Childrens Hope International that they have sent our Dossier to Colombia. She promised to send me updates... we shall see about that. Now it will be translated and is awaiting approval from Colombia. :) This is so exciting!

Apostilling in Illinois

Well apostilling in Illinois was pretty uneventful. I rolled up to the capitol and found the building with Jesse White's name all over it. (Illinois is going to have to spend a pretty penny someday when they need to scrape Jesse White's name off every DOT and secretary of state office.)

Anyway I did not actually meet Jesse White. The gal that did my apostilling widened her eyes when I started pulling papers out and didn't stop. 15 documents later she shuffled back to an undisclosed location. It took about an hour, but it was nicely air conditioned. Illinois only charged me 2 dollars per document for a grand total of 30 dollars. Don't tell them that they could charge 5 dollars like Iowa... they will probably raise it soon I'm sure.

I wisely (for once!) checked each document as I put it back in my organizer and found only one mistake. She had misspelled Champaign so she had to re-apostille one document for me. Once I was out to the car I also was spry enough to compare between Iowa and Illinois. I was pretty dismayed when I found that the date line was done differently between the two states. In Iowa they put the date of the original notarization. In Illinois they put the date of the apostille. Sooo... I went back inside to "double check" that they were done correctly. I was told Iowa must have made a mistake... "Hmmm...." was all I could say. I'm not the most tactful person and couldn't come up with the words to politely disagree and say it would seem more likely to be Illinois making the mistake... So I decided when in doubt to keep my mouth shut.

I was going to email my agency but I decided to just wait and see what they say. Perhaps within the next few weeks our agency will look over everything and let us know if there is anything that needs to be changed/redone. (I very much hope everything is found to be acceptable.)

Now that I am done chasing paperwork for awhile I started to think of what I should do. Then the thought struck me that after our paperwork gets to Colombia we could be parents of two toddlers any time! After some deep breathing to keep from passing out at that thought, I decided to make a list of all the "things" that need to be done before the children actually come. Then I realized I didn't know what toddlers really need besides sippy cups and tiny silverware... and continued the deep breathing and went online to reserve some parenting books. :)

Off to Springfield!

Jason's Passport is here and I'm off to Springfield tomorrow! We have been preparing this paperwork for 9 months and now we are ready to be a waiting family!! We are so blessed and are filled with hope and love! We continue to pray for God's timing and care and love for our children and their caretakers/family. We pray that the birth parents/family will feel peace with their selfless decision to make a plan for adoption.

Apostilling in Iowa

Jason and I took my birth certificate and our marriage certificate to be "authenticated" or apostilled in Iowa last Friday. It was actually a lot simpler than the fancy name would have you believe. We went to Des Moines and stopped in to the Secretary of the State's office. The secretary asked us what country the documents would end up in and then took care of the rest. It was ten dollars for 2 documents (by far the cheapest things we've done yet). She basically made a cover letter that stated when, where, and by whom the document was signed. The paper has the seal of Iowa and the "signature" of the secretary of state. I'll be going to Springfield by myself this week to finish the rest of the documents with the secretary of state of Illinois... I wonder if it will go as smoothly?

After that we are stuck waiting for Jason's passport to get here as the final piece of the puzzle. We are so excited to be at this point!

Faster??!! Is it possible?

Faster??

I was happily suprised yesterday to open the mailbox and find an approval from Homeland Security for adopting 2 siblings from Colombia! This is the big enchilada of documents and now we can "tie up loose ends" and get our apostilling done! This means our dossier will be ready before school starts and provided we can find the financial resources we will be a waiting family soon!!

Here is a picture of Morris and Martin, very angry since I interrupted their slumber, testing the crib for comfort and safety.