Refocused!

breathe in....breathe out...breathe in...breathe out....

I am feeling much better. I had a mild breakdown for a couple of days...but I am back. All of of a sudden I just felt so FRUSTRATED and overwhelmed. I was so concerned about not getting our paperwork complete by Jan. 15th and was scared about what happen if we didn't! Would our process be delayed by months?!

I emailed my agency and she (the international director) called us assured me that we would be just fine. She said we have a little bit of wiggle room in the time category and that even in the unlikely event we wouldn't make it, they really do not expect much of / if any delay with the new process.

Meanwhile, Pat's back started bothering him last week. He made a Dr's appt and they had the form signed and notarized waiting for him when he got there today. YAY! So next Tuesday, I will drive all our documents into Boston to be state certified by the Secretary of the State. Sometimes they will tell you to come back the next day to pick them up, but sometimes they will tell you to come back in an hour or so and they will have it complete. either way will make me happy...of course an hour would make me thrilled! :)

What does state certified mean?
Well, all of our documents had to be notarized. Of course, you know that a notary is certifying (with their signature) that the signature on the document was indeed by the actual person and that no signatures are forged.
Anyhow, then we have to take them to the state who puts a seal on our document stating that they verified the notary's sig and they are legally certified to be a notary.

THEN we take all of these documents and send them to the VN embassy in CA to be authenticated. Authenticated means that the VN embassy is checking the authenticity of the Secretary of State's sig and state seal!

So the notary checks us--the state checks the notary--the VN embassy checks the state. Let me take a minute to point out, that of course, we pay for all these double and triple checks!

Anyhow, the VN embassy will "let us" pay to have the process of authentication expedited. So we expect that all of our documents/dossier to be in Oregon (at our agency) by about Monday the 15th! Then all of our documents will be sent to VN to be translated for the Vietnamese goverment.

We still are waiting to get an "invitation" to go to the CIS office to get fingerprinted. With all the holidays and Ford's memorial there has only been 6 business days since CIS received our application. In chatting with other MA families and their experience we hope to get the "invitation" next week. Of course we will get to Boston ASAP and get fingerprinted. Then hopefully we will have our official approval by the end of the month. YAY!

The agency director said that when we let her know we were fingerprinted she will be able to match us with a baby (this is the referral)!!!

All prayers and good thoughts are welcome for a smooth ride through the rest of the paper chase!