Two weeks, no word

It's been two weeks since our dossier was sent to Ethiopia. Our social worker said that updates on its progress (authentication, translation, registering, etc.) will be sporadic, so I'm trying to be patient and wait a little longer before I start peppering her with emails. I'll be relieved when it makes it through all the departments and ministries and is simply on a wait list for a referral. Hopefully that will happen within the next week.

Bethany Nashville will hold its quarterly international adoption support group meeting on July 7. I'm excited to learn about the progress of other families, meet some kids who've come home, and find out if any families have joined the Ethiopia program. So far, it's still just us.

Leavin' on a jet plane*

On 6/6 (that's tomorrow), after 6 months and 6 days of thinking, writing, correcting, chasing, driving, notarizing, sealing and copying paperwork for our Ethiopian adoption, our dossier is finally heading to Ethiopia via DHL . It's heading to Africa along with several other dossiers (I'm not sure whose) and meeting up with 18 dossiers that are already in country.

I don't know what to say except: let the waiting begin! We'll get some sporadic updates along the way as our paperwork works its way through various departments and ministries.

I hope you'll stick with me. I'll try to keep the blog interesting as we wait to bring our little one home.

* I mean the John Denver version, even though I like PP&M and even though JD died in a plane crash. I've just been a John Denver fan since I was knee high to a grasshopper. In fact, I think I'll go pop in a CD now and get hopping on this great big party we're hosting Saturday. More on that later...

Dossier problem fixed

Our dossier arrived back in Grand Rapids yesterday with all mistakes fixed. It will be on its way to Ethiopia early next week. Here are the next steps according to Bethany's dossier instructions:

1. Milkiyas receives the dossier and takes it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be authenticated.
2. The authenticated documents are translated into Amharic.
3. The translated documents are verified and registered in the Ministry of Justice, then presented to the Ministry of Women's Affairs.

The steps after this are a bit sketchy, but I assume we will officially be waiting on a referral. If anyone has additional details on the how referrals are made and who makes that decision, feel free to comment. There are so many people our documents touch, it's hard to fully understand what happens. But it's exciting that things are moving again!

Dossier delay

Grand Rapids received our dossier back from D.C. today, but they made mistakes on the seals, so it has to go back for corrections. We were so diligent in our steps, I didn't consider other people -- people who do this for a living -- would mess it up. Bethany is asking them to correct it without any additional charge, so we'll see what happens.

We're going to take Little C on her debut camping trip this weekend. Yay! We'll see what happens. Pics coming soon...

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Fly, little bird! - part 2

We just got word that Grand Rapids deemed our dossier perfect. They will overnight it to Washington, D.C. tomorrow, where it will stay for about two weeks.

Getting closer...

Fly, little bird!

This very moment (Monday, 7:25 p.m.), our dossier is somewhere in the air between Nashville and Grand Rapids. Hopefully its visit there will be short and it'll be on its way to D.C. for a brief layover, then on to Addis Ababa.

My trip to the Secretary of State building to authenticate our last document was an interesting close to our adoption paper chase. As I hiked up the hill to the building (because there's no parking within half a mile) and approached the entrance, I noticed a white van parked in front (where it says "no parking") with hood up and lots of wires trailing from the engine to the ground. I paused a moment to consider whether this mission was worth walking within 6 feet of a fully wired vehicle illegally parked in front of a state government high rise.

I think my blog buddies will agree - of course it was! I waited 9 weeks and 5 days for that last piece of paper and no potential WMD was getting in my way. None of the smokers milling around outside seemed alarmed, so I headed in to get my retinas scanned for access to the upper floors. Hmmm, strange security system.

I got my doc sealed within minutes and was on my way. Outside, the van was still there, but this time there were two distressed-looking ladies sitting in it, most likely waiting for AAA.

I'll still save this story, though, in case I ever need to remind our little one what I was willing to go through to bring him/her home.

Getting notarized, certified, authenticated and copied**

While we await our I-171H, I decided to get all our other docs certified (in which the County Clerk certifies that the notary who notarized the doc is indeed a notary), authenticated and state sealed (in which the Secretary of State certifies that the County Clerk who certified the notary is indeed the County Clerk) and copied (in which I stand in front of a copy machine for two hours and copy a stack of stapled docs that cannot be unstapled lest the state seal be voided). For those of you about to prepare your dossiers, here are a couple of things I learned:

Certification - Not all states require this. If yours does, I suggest calling ahead to the County Clerk's office and giving the notary department a list of all your notaries and how many docs he/she notarized. They can prepare the paperwork, and all they have to do is staple their sheet to each of your docs when you arrive. Otherwise, you could wait hours or be asked to come back. I also recommend you ask the clerk to double check the notaries' expiration date against their records. One of my notaries wrote in the wrong date.

Authentication - I've been told you can't call ahead to the Secretary of State. You just have to go. I've also been told morning is less busy -- but bring a book. I waited about half an hour. Here, you have to get your docs "authenticated" or "state sealed," NOT "apostilled" as this is a requirement of Ethiopia. Your SoS should be aware of this. If you have out-of-state docs like birth certificates, they have to be authenticated in those states, so you may have to mail them off. I would recommend doing that right away -- my birth certificate has still not come back from the Alabama Secretary of State. **Added: Holly says make copies before you state seal. This is good advice so you don't have to contend with as many staples. Wish I'd done that!

Copied - You can't unstaple anything so copying takes a while. I'm glad I got it done because when that golden ticket arrives, I plan to go directly downtown -- not to Kinko's!

Good luck!