Keeping busy

I called the CIS office on Thursday to see if our application and documents arrived. The woman I spoke to was very nice and assured me that even though our Homestudy and Hans' birth certificate would be arriving seperate from our application, they would not send anything back even if we were not logged into the system yet. Yesterday I tracked our package on the post site and it has indeed been delivered and signed for. No, I'm not neurotic.

We've had a chill weekend which has been nice. I didn't get any books bound but I did get some new pendants done. Not my usual round ones, but I think these came out well!

Bijna klaar/Almost done!

I mailed the English translation of Hans' birth certificate to CIS in Frankfurt today. That means that our application for CIS is done. And as long as our Homestudy arrives safe and sound from our SW's agency, we should be good to go. Just a few more weeks and we will finally be able to submit all docs for our dossier...I imagine that will be a crazy few days. For now though, we feel relieved that this step is done. Fingers crossed it there aren't any glitches.

My copy of Harry Potter arrived today! Thanks mum :)

We spent last night organizing our docs and I-600A application to send to CIS in Frankfurt for processing (the one with our fingerprints). Finally!

While standing in line at the post office this morning I took one more look at everything. Good thing I'm a little OCD because in very tiny print on the application I saw: "use black ink". Naturally, I had filled it in with blue. But for the payment form at the top said, "Use blue ink". I had completed that one first and just kept using the same pen. Went back home, found a black pen, printed out a new one, filled it out, went back to the post office and finally got to work at 12:30.

But the good news is that it's done and should arrive at the Consulate tomorrow. And it only makes sense that because our SW insisted that we send the application today, all of that happened and it cost almost 50 euro to send, that the sworn and certified translation of Hans' birth certificate would arrive late this afternoon. So, back to the post office tomorrow. Our homestudy is, according to our SW, on it's way to Germany, too.

I am leaving out all the hellish back and forth, little dramas with the CIS office, countless forms filled in again and again (such small spaces to write in!) because I am simply too tired. Let's just say it's been an incredibly trying week.

Glass of wine then bed.

Doei!

After spending Saturday obsessing on things like the recent VN program update from our agency (travel time), finances, etc., I spent yesterday in my studio trying to chill out and put things into perspective. Since I have a hard time 'imagining' things will be okay, or even living for the moment, I did a few things that felt more tangible. New spreadsheet for travel expenses, re-reading anything and everything about the VN adoption laws, and getting some art done. And because I'm a visual kind of girl, I tied a red string on my wrist. It's a little thing but reminds me that we are doing the best that we can and are on a good path. It has calmed me down on the inside and that's a good thing (particularly for poor Hans). I guess I needed something 'on' me. I'm not pregnant but we are waiting.

Travel time

It's a lovely morning. The weather is like early fall and the sky is gorgeous blue. I am obsessing on the current Vietnam update we received from our agency. The wait from dossier submission to a match with our baby remains at 6 months, which is fine. The time between acceptance of our baby and travel to pick him/her up is between 4-5 months. This amount of time to wait is to ensure that procedures for the final adoption are followed and to avoid any unethical behavior. We are happy with our agency and want nothing more than an ethical adoption, but I am feeling incredibly conflicted right now. Accept our baby and then wait 5 months seems excruciating.

We need to get Hans' birth certificate translated with a certificate of authenticity, sworn statement and stamp by the translator for the CIS application. I found a nice agency who will do it all in just a few days.

I am feeling a little on the anxious side, maybe it's because we are so close to being done? We look forward to the real waiting period- when all the money and paper has been dealt with. On the other hand, it's going to feel like forever.

Anyway, I know there are a bunch of you out there reading this regularly and I appreciate all of the emails, etc. cheering us on. They mean alot!

Last night I re-organized a spreadsheet and color coded all of the docs we need, have, already mailed out, etc., what they are for, who they go to and if they require some sort of stamp. Grrr. The good news is that I was shocked at how much we have acomplished. We really and truly are very close to being done! Basically we have all but 3 documents ready for our final dossier. This is very good news.

There is a glitch with the CIS application process, though. The US consulate in Frankfurt is taking a time out from processing them for a few weeks while they review every US social worker's licensure working in Europe and writing homestudies. This has alot to do with the pending Hague Convention. We have been assured that delays in receiving our approval letter will be minimal at best. The fees however, are going to skyrocket after July 31st so our social worker has suggested we get everything we have ready mailed to the CIS office this week- we can forward the homestudy (waiting for an addendum) as soon as it's completely ready.

Tomorrow: postoffice.

Notarize, Authenticate and get it out of here

While in Massachusetts, we went to a physician who is a good friend of my parents to have our Health Certificates completed again. A Notary who has an office in the same building was kind enough to come up and seal the doctor's signature. We brought lots of yummy Belgian chocolates as a thank-you.

Got copies of our passports notarized....Doesn't Hans look absolutely thrilled?

At the Massachusetts Secretary of State office waitng for the following to be Authenticated:

• My employment certificate
• Both Health certificates
• Both passports

After all that I forgot to take a picture of the pretty gold seals before overnighting them all to the adoption agency. Anyway, they are very shiny.

Now we have Hans' employment certificate, our marriage license and police checks to deal with; then they will be sent to the agency, too.

Our homestudy was approved by our agency and we are awaiting final sign-off so we can mail it in with our fingerprints and my child abuse clearance to the Consulate office in Frankfurt.

Almost there...