Yipee!

I got an email from the program coordinator at our agency to confirm our docs are okay. She said that as of the 12th of October, we are officially waiting for a referral! It's early but I'm going to wake Hans up and tell him :)

Life after paperwork

This is the first weekend in ages that I was totally focused on my work and not obsessing on what paper needed to be organized, stamped, authenticated or shipped out. I think we are both feeling a weight off of our shoulders! The agency got our documents and everything looks good. Happy, happy! This was my third Monday free since starting my new 4 day work week that I actually spent it in my studio. The past two have been at the Vietnamese Embassy.

I managed to bind 2 books this weekend and make some other cute things. I've sold quite a bit the past few weeks as well as some custom work, so that's been great. The latest things can be seen here :)


Yesterday we took a drive to Bloemendaal aan zee and walked along the beach for a few hours. It was a gorgeous day!

: )

Thank you for the nice comments and emails about our paperwork. Every scrap is officially on it's way to our agency. And as far as CIS goes: It's hard to believe that waiting for a letter could cause so much stress! I am thankful that my amazing husband is a bit more rational than me. Here's a hint as to where my head is:

I'm obsessively tracking our dossier documents traveling across the ocean; which as of last night were at JFK in NY.


uw referentie

ophaaldatum
10 okt 2007
bestemming
Hillsboro
afgeleverd

getekend door

datum
tijd
TNT-lokatie
status
11 okt 2007
09:03
New York Jfk Airport
Onforwarded For Delivery
11 okt 2007
09:03
New York Jfk Airport
Consignment Received At Transit Point
11 okt 2007
02:19
Liege Euro Hub
Consignment Received At Transit Point
10 okt 2007
21:51
Arnhem
Shipped From Originating Depot
10 okt 2007
21:32
Arnhem
Consignment Received At Transit Point

Finally!

We have our CIS letter!!!!
Hans sent everything else to our agency this morning, it should be there by Friday. The last step is getting this letter authenticated. By this time next week, every scrap of paper should be out of our hands and our dossier completed. Yay!

Usual suspects

We. Are. Done.

We are fedexing everything to our agency tomorrow! Yay!!! Everything with the exception of our CIS letter. I am calling them tomorrow to see what the deal is. The weight of this paper will be gone by week's end for sure :) Don't these passport photos just scream 'Happy'?

After we checked and rechecked that everything was signed and in order, we looked at the neat little pile of documents (and 6-10 photos of the Happy Couple). It's hard to believe it's all come down to this. A pile of paper proving we work, are married, not criminals, are healthy and would be 'good parents'. It will be, without exception, the most wonderful thing we ever do together, but at the same time it's a bit strange. Here we are - stamped, approved and authenticated....

I feel like we've been here before. Oh right, last week.

Our final Dutch document has been checked, stamped and authenticated. Tonight we pull together 6-10 photos of the 'Happy Couple' with captions, give all of our papers the once over and fedex them to the agency. They will be morphed with our other docs already there, and we can finally think about our lives not revolving around paperwork! We are, however, still waiting for our letter from CIS. Of course. Suposedly it was to be mailed from Germany on Friday, so it should be in our mailbox by tomorrow or Wednesday...It's hard to believe we are about a week away from our dossier being completely done!

Stamped!

Today was spent in Den Haag (The Hague) getting Dutch documents authenticated: Hans' declaration that he owns his business, our legal marriage certificate and our Dutch police checks. First we went to the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) where 2 were stamped but one was not: Hans' business declaration because....the signature of the accountant was not properly notarized (which Hans had asked about 3 times and was told it wasn't neccessary grrrrr). Anyway, over to the Vietnamese Embassy to have the other two authenticated, which was a snap.

Kerry in front of the Vietnamese Embassy :)

We are sooooo stamped

As I type, Hans is meeting the accountant to have his signature stamped. Since he's going to London tomorrow for the rest of the week for a conference, we will venture back to Den Haag next Monday to visit the MvBZ and Embassy again. The good news is that we can just about see the end of this paperchasing! Still waiting for our CIS letters of course.

Something else we have decided is that when we find out if our baby is a boy or a girl, we will be keeping it a secret until we pick him/her up. We will tell people approximately how old the baby will be, but details like our referral photo, gender and name we pick will be hush. We want it to be a surprise! Hans is not so sure I can do it, and even though it will be reeeeeaaally hard, I can be strong.

Amazing young girl- Ana Dodson. Look what she's done!!