First Dossier ALMOST complete & a gamut of emotions....
So, today definitely ran the gamut of emotions for me and I am sure that where emotions are concerned, this is just the beginning. I was a bit stressed and have been this whole week because I have had to scan documents to our agency for approval, get all of them edited and completed, get Aaron to be able to coordinate times with me to get passport photos made (we already have passports, but they need the photos to identify us with our dossier), photocopy our passports AND notarize documents together.
Then tomorrow, we have to drive to Columbus (which is about an hour and a half away) to have these documents apostilled. What's an apostille? Well, in English it's a way to ensure that legal documents which are notarized here in the U.S. are accepted as true and accurate in other countries. Since we're adopting from Russia, today required a trip to TWO different county court houses (when I should have only had to go to one).
It should have been an easy task to take these documents to the court house in our county and have them certified (that is required before they can be apostilled). Basically, there are THREE forms of authentication required for these documents before they can be accepted in Russia. So, I get to the court house in our county and everything is going according to plan....then we get to the last document which was notarized by someone in Aaron's office (the one verifying that he is employed) on base and we find out that this person's notary is NOT registered in our county, but in the next county over. It's now 3:30pm and I have to get to that county's courthouse before 4:15pm. That normally would not have been such a big deal, but the ONE time I let my car's fuel get right at a quarter of a tank, I live to regret it. I thought when leaving to take care of this today...well, I can just stop at the gas station on the way back and then mosey on over the grocery store to pick up something for dinner. Yeah, my plans were COMPLETELY altered!
So, in rush hour traffic (school traffic and such), I sped (safely, of course) to the next county's courthouse and was able to get that document certified! YAY! Sheer happiness was felt by me when I completed this task that was supposed to be easy, but just wasn't because of having to visit two fairly LARGE courthouses all in one day.
So, I head back to my car, narrowly escaping a thunderstorm with hail involved and it's almost on dead empty (this further emphasizes my self-imposed rule of never letting my tank get below a quarter of a tank). I was using the GPS and praying for a gas station while trying to get home because I knew I would not make it home with so little gas. So, God answers a prayer and produces a gas station.....but not one that I would normally ever stop at because of WHERE it was located.
Can we say, scary neighborhood? Yeah, basically I somehow ended up (led by the Garmin Nuvi GPS) in the hood. It was really scary to stop at that gas station, but I did....while worrying the whole time that I was going to get robbed or something far worse. Anyway, it had a self-pay sign on the tank, so I went inside wanting to pay for my fuel before pumping it and the nice guy inside said something to the effect of, "go ahead and get it, then come back in and pay...I trust you." As I am walking out of the gas station back to my car to pump my gas, my fears were lessened a little when I saw a member of our great Air Force in uniform. I thought, I am ok. I'm somewhat in familiar territory and it will be fine. Then, as I am pumping my gas, I hear this woman say something very inappropriate to me (something like how good my jeans look on me and then how she doesn't like women). Could have fooled me....either that or she was really intoxicated. That fear returns very quickly and I just wanted to get the heck out of dodge and get back in familiar territory. So, I quickly filled up my tank and paid the man inside.
Anyway, I made it back into familiar territory and picked up dinner for Aaron and I at Panera Bread. So, I have no idea where the courthouse is located in Columbus, but since tomorrow is an Air Force Family Day and he's off, he's going with me to this one. I can't take another experience like that alone. Wow!
Well, when getting home, I almost cried because today (with all it's scary stuff) was a success! I really feel God's wondrous care and that he is watching over Aaron and I through this whole process. I feel deep down that he has hand-picked our daughter for us. We will soon see, we hope. Please keep praying for us and for our little Katie, which we are sure has probably already been born. Please pray that she's getting love and that we are able to give her a life she wouldn't normally get in an orphanage in Russia.
I know myself well enough to know that I am going to want to bring all those children home when we go, so I am trying to prepare myself for that experience. Also, trying to prepare myself for going to meet our baby girl and then having to leave her in Russia. I've already told Aaron to bring a case of Kleenex because I'm probably going to need them. But that will be more motivation than ever to get back home and complete the second set of paperwork to get our court date. Then, once we have our court date, we travel back to Russia to the region for court...then we get to be questioned by a Russian judge and our translator will, of course translate, then we wait out a ten-day waiting period and we bring our baby Katie Allison home.
Then tomorrow, we have to drive to Columbus (which is about an hour and a half away) to have these documents apostilled. What's an apostille? Well, in English it's a way to ensure that legal documents which are notarized here in the U.S. are accepted as true and accurate in other countries. Since we're adopting from Russia, today required a trip to TWO different county court houses (when I should have only had to go to one).
It should have been an easy task to take these documents to the court house in our county and have them certified (that is required before they can be apostilled). Basically, there are THREE forms of authentication required for these documents before they can be accepted in Russia. So, I get to the court house in our county and everything is going according to plan....then we get to the last document which was notarized by someone in Aaron's office (the one verifying that he is employed) on base and we find out that this person's notary is NOT registered in our county, but in the next county over. It's now 3:30pm and I have to get to that county's courthouse before 4:15pm. That normally would not have been such a big deal, but the ONE time I let my car's fuel get right at a quarter of a tank, I live to regret it. I thought when leaving to take care of this today...well, I can just stop at the gas station on the way back and then mosey on over the grocery store to pick up something for dinner. Yeah, my plans were COMPLETELY altered!
So, in rush hour traffic (school traffic and such), I sped (safely, of course) to the next county's courthouse and was able to get that document certified! YAY! Sheer happiness was felt by me when I completed this task that was supposed to be easy, but just wasn't because of having to visit two fairly LARGE courthouses all in one day.
So, I head back to my car, narrowly escaping a thunderstorm with hail involved and it's almost on dead empty (this further emphasizes my self-imposed rule of never letting my tank get below a quarter of a tank). I was using the GPS and praying for a gas station while trying to get home because I knew I would not make it home with so little gas. So, God answers a prayer and produces a gas station.....but not one that I would normally ever stop at because of WHERE it was located.
Can we say, scary neighborhood? Yeah, basically I somehow ended up (led by the Garmin Nuvi GPS) in the hood. It was really scary to stop at that gas station, but I did....while worrying the whole time that I was going to get robbed or something far worse. Anyway, it had a self-pay sign on the tank, so I went inside wanting to pay for my fuel before pumping it and the nice guy inside said something to the effect of, "go ahead and get it, then come back in and pay...I trust you." As I am walking out of the gas station back to my car to pump my gas, my fears were lessened a little when I saw a member of our great Air Force in uniform. I thought, I am ok. I'm somewhat in familiar territory and it will be fine. Then, as I am pumping my gas, I hear this woman say something very inappropriate to me (something like how good my jeans look on me and then how she doesn't like women). Could have fooled me....either that or she was really intoxicated. That fear returns very quickly and I just wanted to get the heck out of dodge and get back in familiar territory. So, I quickly filled up my tank and paid the man inside.
Anyway, I made it back into familiar territory and picked up dinner for Aaron and I at Panera Bread. So, I have no idea where the courthouse is located in Columbus, but since tomorrow is an Air Force Family Day and he's off, he's going with me to this one. I can't take another experience like that alone. Wow!
Well, when getting home, I almost cried because today (with all it's scary stuff) was a success! I really feel God's wondrous care and that he is watching over Aaron and I through this whole process. I feel deep down that he has hand-picked our daughter for us. We will soon see, we hope. Please keep praying for us and for our little Katie, which we are sure has probably already been born. Please pray that she's getting love and that we are able to give her a life she wouldn't normally get in an orphanage in Russia.
I know myself well enough to know that I am going to want to bring all those children home when we go, so I am trying to prepare myself for that experience. Also, trying to prepare myself for going to meet our baby girl and then having to leave her in Russia. I've already told Aaron to bring a case of Kleenex because I'm probably going to need them. But that will be more motivation than ever to get back home and complete the second set of paperwork to get our court date. Then, once we have our court date, we travel back to Russia to the region for court...then we get to be questioned by a Russian judge and our translator will, of course translate, then we wait out a ten-day waiting period and we bring our baby Katie Allison home.
Comments
Post a Comment