Dossier

Fancy Nancy would like that word "dossier." You say it like this: doss ee ay. Ooh-la-la.

It is a big set of documents that an adoptive family must put together to be submitted to the government of the country from which they are adopting. I'd heard from a lot of people that it was a lot of work, frustrating, and time consuming. I had my expectations set really, really low. That, I've decided is always a good thing to do. Except for sometimes, you really just can't set your expectations low enough and are still unpleasantly surprised (the school). But, it's all good-right?:)

When I received the list of items required, the list all fit on one page. This, to me, was good news! In fact, there were only thirteen things listed on the page. That, I decided is totally doable!

The first thing listed was the home study, which is done. Check! The next was the USCIS paperwork that I previously blogged about. That can be the most time consuming of the bunch, so I'm not looking forward to the potential l-o-n-g time it could take, but I feel I'm prepared for that, thanks to all those who went before me and prepped me. The next three things on the list, we already have! That was a surprise and a very pleasant one! Number six is a medical statement. This is something we have to do. They want to make sure that we are healthy and aren't about to die. This makes sense, but is probably the thing that takes the next most amount of time (I don't think that sentence is grammatically correct, but oh well). Both Huz and my appointments and blood work results should be back by the end of next week at the very latest. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe because I said that I shouldn't have said that I am un-jinxing it... The next three things are forms that I print off of my computer and fill out. Easy peasy. Number 10 is a paper we have to get from the county accessor that proves we have a house and that said house exists:) Again, nothing too bad, just a trip down to town. Then we need copies of our passports, which we have, thankfully. If we had to get our passports that would hold us up a bit. The final two things are print outs from the computer as well.

Once the above items are collected, they all have to be notarized. We are doing this tomorrow. All but the medical paperwork and the assessor's paper will be notarized. Woo hoo! And, if I can pull it off, I will stop by the assessor to get that paper on the way. Cross your fingers! About half of these documents must include two or three copies that also must be notarized. Those copies have been printed and are in the pile to take to the notary. And just so those of you who have done this before don't panic, by copies, I mean ORIGINAL copies. We're covered:)

Next, we send them to our agency via fax or email and if everything looks right, we drive ourselves up to the state capital and pay an outrageous fee to have every. single. thing. apostilled. Another Fancy Nancy word. For the majority of the population who has never heard of an apostille, it is a notary that notarizes your notary. Say that five times fast. Haha:) I'm hoping to have everything to the state capital by the end of next week, with the exception of the USCIS, which I have no control over. Then I make two copies of every single piece of paper. One for me, one for the agency. The foreign government gets the real deal.

After everything is apostilled, I drive back to the capital to pick this pricey bunch of papers up and ship them off to the wonderful Ellie, our adoption agent. I feel like it is okay to put her name on her, especially if it ends up getting her some business. (hint hint to anyone who may be thinking of adopting... I'd be happy to pass along her info!) She translates all. of. it. and off it goes to Ukraine.

Good luck to me! I wish I could jet over to Ukraine right now for a quick little visit!