YEA!!

We finished our dossier!! That means we put together a huge document filled with everything from letters of reference to bank statements to police background checks and more! I think there were about 27 documents in all. We drove to Austin yesterday, went to the Secretary of State's office and had all of the documents authenticated (she checks to make certain all of the notaries are legal and then attaches a form to the top of each document). Smooth sailing until Homeland Security has changed some requirements, if you are in this process, the copies of y our passports must have the statement, "I certify that this is a true and accurate copy of MY passport", not the original passport, but my passport!! Crazy! Anyway, after a trip to the UPS store, new copies and new statements notarized by Josh, we were back at the Secretary of State and finished everything! We then headed to FedEx, made copies of all her certifications and then we mailed it to D.C.! Already this morning our wonderful courier has picked up the documents and is taking them to the Department of State and then to the African embassy. Once everything passes there and is certified again, the courier will overnight it to our case manager at Buckner and she will send it off to Africa!! And then we wait for a court date. It is so great to be finished with our part of the process, at least to this point. Who knows, maybe in the next few weeks we will have a match meeting and find out about this little girl for whom we are waiting! I'll let you know!