adoption news...

Last week we had our fingers printed AGAIN {this makes 3 times~not that you are counting, but I sure am!} Did I ever mention that I HATE the adoption process?  LOVE the end result, but the process...oh my!

We also sent out our dossier (dos·si·er- When used in the context of adoption, this term refers to a set of appropriately authenticated and translated legal documents which are used in international adoption cases to process the adoption of a child in its own country by the adoptive parents, or for the adoptive parents to obtain the legal custody or guardianship of the child in the foreign court, so the child can be brought by the adoptive parents to the United States for adoption.)  Sorry, some may want to know for others, that was TMI (too much information) But I thought you could handle reading about it, we had to actually DO it.  It took about a month to gather all of the documents and get them notarized (To certify or attest to the validity of a signature on a document) and then we had to have an apostille (pretty gold seal and official paper put on each document with a notary saying that the notary is indeed registered with the state.  That is my definition because all of the ones I looked up were too wordy!) put on all of our documents.  It ended up weighing 2.5 lbs, and the man at the FedEx office wrote a big fat $0 on the line for the value...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  That is waaaaay more valuable, not to mention I had to send in a HEFTY check with that as well!  Oh well, I was just very relieved to get it out of my hands!  My part is done, now the waiting begins...

  
Our USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a bureau of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  The agency of the federal government that approves an adopted child's immigration into the United States and grants US citizenship to children adopted from other countries.) approval came in the mail this week, 2 full weeks ahead of when I figured!  That doesn't usually happen, especially with the government!  ~ I'm just sayin'!  So we are pretty excited, because that completes our dossier.

And now we are waiting for all of our papers to be translated and sent to Colombia{they say that takes about 3 weeks.}  Once in Colombia, they will review and hopefully approve us to adopt and send us more required paperwork which we sign and send back and then we travel in about 5 to 9 weeks!  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get information on how long Colombia takes to approve us and send the papers we need.  But, at least we are moving along!

I will post any news on the adoption front when I get it, for now, no news is good news.  This adoption is very different from Anaya's.  We received monthly DVD's, pictures and Dr. reports on Anaya.  With Luisa, we do not!  While I hate not knowing, I must say that it does make it easier in a way, I have not met her in person yet and that too makes it a TON easier.  We will see how the bonding goes, because I knew Anaya, I held her, fed  her bonded with her and then watched her grow and do things through the updates and got to hear from others who met her all about her personality, she was dubbed as "personality plus plus."   {I now know what that extra plus means...!}  I have no clue what Luisa is like and really feel a sort of disconnect at this point.  Don't get me wrong, I am super excited, but it is just really different.