What is a dossier (pronounced "dos-ee-ey"), you may be wondering? Dossier is the fancy word used to describe the big mound of paperwork put together when you are adopting. Here is what our dossier included:
1) Application
for Adoption
2)
Certification of True Photocopy of Passport (George)
3) Certification of True Photocopy of Passport (Danielle)
4) Employment
verification (George)
5) Proof of
residence
6) Medical form
(George)
7) Medical form
(Danielle)
8) Homeland
Security (approval letter from US Immigration)...the final puzzle piece in dossier!!
9) Affidavit
10) Statement
of Biographical Data (George)
11) Statement
of Biographical Data (Danielle)
12) Power of
attorney for Ileana (Moldova)
13) Power of attorney Lilana (TX)
14) Social
worker Statement of Compliance
15) Family
Photos
16) Certified Birth
Certificate (George)
17) Certified Birth Certificate (Danielle)
18) Certified Marriage License
19) License of
home study agency
20) Home study
For each of the above, we signed for the notary public (a big shout out to Luis at Wells Fargo who watched us sign a lot of stuff yesterday...coincidentally he and his wife have a heart for adoption and are Show Hope sponsors). We got all this done just as the bank closed at 4:30. Then, G drove in one direction toward the airport for an evening flight to San Diego, and the boys and I drove toward CVS to celebrate their good behavior at the bank with the candy of choice (it was supposed to be with a frosty from Wendy's, but I couldn't find an easy way to get there in the craze of 5 o'clock traffic on Thompson Lane...)
Today Gavin and I ventured to the downtown library for story time. Upon completion of the final story, I handed him off to my friend Danielle (woohoo!) to free me of extra weight during my next, potentially time-consuming adoption adventure. I went to have all twenty documents certified at the Davidson County Clerk's office (Jennifer was my new friend there). I was grateful that Becky clued me in that I could call ahead with the names of the notary publics that would need to be certified (there were three different notary publics in all...the doctor's office and home study agency have their own).
Next, I ventured to the Tennessee Tower in downtown Nashville where the Secretary of State's office would provide the Apostille (pronounced "uh-pos-til") needed for all twenty documents (Apostilles is the fancy word used to describe the certification process for an international document). If there was ever a question as to whether God is holding my hand through all this, know that I pulled over to reassess my location since my Mapquest had sent me astray only to have a kind park ranger pull up next to me to help me. Yes, a park ranger...why is there a park ranger in the middle of downtown? He gave me a map, and sent me on my way and warned me about the difficulty of parking. I had a parking spot directly in front of the entrance of the building's front door waiting for me. Yes, might as well have had a sign with "Reserved for Giddy Adoptive Mom" marking it out. The only people with a better parking spot were the group of police officers with reserved (reserved for real) spots in front. My new friend Jamie had me in and out within about a half an hour with a lot of official-looking documents in hand.
A quick trip to FedEx to get all kinds of copies made--not fun when you can't unstaple--and I headed for home to organize prior to the big send-off...
It was only appropriate that I have the big brothers along as we handed our big packet to Nick for delivery to our adoption agency in Texas. Before making fun of me for these kinds of pictures, remember that instead of having pictures of a pregnant belly, I will have pics like these to share with our little Moldova babe. I can hear it now, "This is Nick, the man who delivered the big packet to the delivery man who gave it to the pilot who took it to Texas to our agency, so they could tell Moldova we wanted to come pick you up!" This is essentially a "pregnant belly" picture...still unclear as to what trimester we are in since there is no definite end to this "pregnancy."
Now, our dossier will be shipped by our agency to Moldova this week. From there they will take approximately two weeks for translation (Romanian is the language of Moldova) and certification. Then it will be submitted to the Moldovan Committee for Adoption. They may give us a referral within six weeks or six months. My agency's coordinator in Moldova will check in with the committee at the two-month mark to learn of the status. All that to say, that we are still waiting, but what we are waiting for is different! Yahoo!
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
Psalm 27:14
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