The light at the end of the tunnel

We had a big mail day today. We got the apostilled mortgage verification letter from Florida-- we didn't expect it until tomorrow, and we also got that notarized copies of the social worker's license and the agency's license and the agency's "letter in good standing" about the Social worker. If our facilitator approves those then I will take the whole lot early tomorrow morning to be apostilled. Then it goes OFF TO UKRAINE!!!
Our facilitator thinks our timing is perfect to be able to submit by the end of the year. Then the SDA has (by law) 20 business days to review the dossier and either approve and send an invitation to an appointment or deny and send a rejection letter. I'm betting an appointment in early January.

Rumors and Rumors of Rumors

Well, we are waiting on the sw and his notarized paperwork then we can take all we have that needs a Washington apostille in to get that done. Our mortgage letter has reached florida and we sent the Utah stuff, should be there by Monday. We re-did the "Declaration of Name Usage" papers for each of us because the date was wrong and redid the copy of our passports as I hadn't signed mine. I say re-did, I mean re-did and had them notarized.
Kostya is telling us that the SDA (State Department for Adoption) is unofficially announcing that they will take more dossiers for appointments this year. Dare we believe it?!?!?!?!
I have been very driven to get this paperwork done. Now I know why.

Trickling papers

We received our state clearances today in the mail. And surprise, surprise we are both clear. We went the extra step and had it done by fingerprinting, so now we have been fingerprinted 3 times. I guess there are records of us everywhere.
We also got all the various papers (power of attorneys, declaration of name usages, my letter of non-employment, letter of obligation, petition to adopt, copies of passports and copy of I-171H) notarized at Keith's work. Now we need to have all that apostilled. Will wait to do that until the notarized copies of the social worker's, and agency's licenses come.
Are we getting anywhere?

Blub, blurb, glurg

From beneath this sea of paperwork....
Picked up medicals and the dr (or who ever of his staff was that did it) didn't change all the her's and she's to his's and he's when they printed Keith's out, then went back by hand and changed them. I'm pretty sure that it won't be accepted at the SDA. So we need to redo it.
Found out that our mortgage paperwork needs to be apostilled in Florida (because that is where it was notarized). Mailed it by 2 day air (not cheap) and was informed that it probably won't get there in two days, because of the hurricane. How do you like that, people have lost their homes and possibly their loved ones and I'm worried about a little lost time.
Our marriage certificate and the employment letter both need to be apostilled in Utah.
Our SW can't make the changes to our HS that our facilitator in Ukraine recommends because it all is needed for either WA state law or USCIS. Hope it doesn't affect our chances of getting an appointment.
Will that state clearance EVER get here!?!?!

This is maddening!!!!

I don't know why I'm in such a hurry. We probably can't even get a date to submit our dossier until November with actual submission not until February or March. But once you get one date on your dossier the clock starts ticking until when you have to re-do. No dates are allowed to be older than 6 months at time of submission. Tick, tick, tick. So, we have been informed, we will probably have to update everything at least one time..... That is if I can actually dig my way out to come up for air and save my life. Tick, tick, tick.

:)

Help me I'm drowning!!!!!!!!!

We just spent a good chunk of today trying to tie up the loose ends of our dossier paperwork. I did a lot of typing and we did a lot of wasting paper as we printed and re-printed corrected papers. This is maddening! But all the ducks we have in possession are in a row. Monday we will get the various papers notarized, pick up doctor's paperwork and hope that the state clearance will come. Oh, and the employment verification wasn't notorized so Monday Keith will get that ordered again. They were pretty quick last time... hopefully they are again.

And so it begins.....

Doesn't that sound like the beginning of a book? In reality it has already begun. It began a while ago, but that is a story for another time. Since this is all getting to be so official I decided that it was time to start a blog. I blog for a record (because my two-minute memory is also not very large) and to keep people updated (because I, in my conceit, think people are really interested).

So, where are we? We are within a couple of papers of having a completed dossier to send to Ukraine. Monday I will pick up our medical papers (which Dr. B so graciously filled out AND notorized for us). We have our Homestudy (and attending documents) in hand. Our marriage certificate, mortgage statement, and employment verification reside here as well. We received that plain, glorious I-171H in the mail yesterday, after 16 days-- man they are fast. Now we are waiting for our state clearance. We were fingerprinted on the 9th and should get paperwork back by the end of next week. Is this making anyone else tired?!?!?!?!

Anyway, it will probably be February or March before we travel.