Press On

I write this post with tears flooding down my face. It's been a difficult day. I thought our papers would be ready to go to Russia this week.  It seems I have more papers to chase, noterize, and apostille. Several months ago when we started the process we had all of our papers ready to go only to find out that our social workers agency had been black listed in Russia. (Long story) The best option at that point was to have our social worker re-do our homestudy and supporting documents indep.  We were not able to secure one document needed. (Letter from the state supporting my social workers liscense) The state will only write this letter for an agency. We thought we had enough supporting documents to work around that but found out this morning that it would not work. So, back to the drawing board. 
I'm totally overwhelmed and emotionally spent. I know once my paperwork makes it to Russia there won't be any problems..I just feel like it will never get there. I'm starting to doubt..maybe I'm not supposed to adopt? Did I not understand God's calling? At this point I don't think my paperwork will make it until the end of May at best. I'm tired of waiting.. I'm not a patient person and I did not pray for patience... I know better=) I just don't understand how Russia can have so many children in their orphanages that need a good home but they make it almost impossible to give them a good home. I know God's timing is perfect... but today.. I don't like it.

ASC Appointment Notice

I'm not real sure what ASC stands for. I just know this is an important step in the adoption process. Back in mid Feb. we sent our I600A-Application for Advance Processin or Ophan petition to the Department of Homeland Securtiy-U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...We now have an appointment on April 9, at 12:00pm to get our biometrics (fingerprints) done. Once our fingerprints are done it apperantly takes a long time to process. All I know is that we can make our first trip to Russia without our clearance but we can not recieve a court date until all is clear. This is what holds families up.. I am praying for a quick turn around=)
The bottom of our notice says, no cell phones, cameras, or other recording devices..limited seating.. and if you have open wound please reschedule...huh?? This could be interesting!

Good News, Bad News

Well... our agency did recieve our dossier first thing this morning just like Fedex said they would. Thats good! I kept checking my email all morning like a crazy lady just waiting to hear some sort of confirmation from them..either a) all is good or b) corrections need to be made... Email finally came through and the subject line was "problems with apostilled documents"... no, no, no, no!!! Mostly, just minor things that were correctable via email but the main problem was .....drum roll please.. passports! Imagine that..If you remember a couple of weeks ago the state sent my copies back to me and told me I could not have the notery state that it was a copy of my passport.. that I had to make the statement,sign, then have it noterized... so I did just that.. and they apostilled.. The agency however says that Russia will not accept this.. They want it done the first way..but Texas won't etc. etc.. to make a long story short.. every state has different apostilling laws so now I amovernighting copies of my passports to our agency in NH and they will noterize and have them apostilled there.. This will of coarse delay our papers going to Russia at least another week..I just keep telling myself that God's timing is perfect. I have to add that I am very thankful we are working with such an awesome agency. I would much rather catch all the mistakes state level instead of in Russia!

Spring Break Fun

Spring Break came and went all too fast. We had good times! We spent lots of time at the park, sleeping in late (well until 8:00), and spending time with family and friends. On Tuesday evening the girls and I met Michael in Grapevine to go iceskating..You might notice in the pictures that my girls have on short sleeves...when we were leaving the house I told them to put on their shoes and get their jackets..(guess we will work on following 2 step directions?) It's a good thing mommy and daddy had their jackets-=) They both did really good.. at first they were holding onto the rail but by the end of the night they were skating all by themselves..

By the end of the night Mika was so tired that she kept "falling". When I asked her if she was ok she said, " I didn't fall mommy, that's just my new trick!"

On Friday Mimi took all her grandkids to the Dallas Zoo! We had lots of fun and it was a beautiful day.

All the cousins... I gave up trying to get them to all look at the same time!

Finally=)

I just sent our 195 page, 4lb dossier to our agency!! They should recieve it first thing Monday morning. All they have to do is make sure everything is in order then they will ship it off to Russia... woohoo!!!!

To the State.... Again

So I finally got all my papers together to resend to the state...I almost had a heart attack when the the Fedex place gave me the total cost for all my shipping.. let me just say that within the last 2 weeks I have spent a little over $200 dollars on postage between my house and the state.. I guess if I would have got the paperwork right the first time it would have been half the cost but then again who would have thought the state would be sooo picky!.. the lessons to be learned=)Maybe next week will be the week my papers make it to my agency?

Super Bunny Kind of Day

My 5 year old often refers to herself as "super bunny"... not sure why, but when she is "super bunny" she can do anything.  Well, today I decided If I called myself  "super bunny" maybe I could conquer this paperwork that needed to be redone. Well, really lots of prayer! So I called my sister-in-law and she was able to pick Kennedy up from school and I went straight from work and hit 3 government offices and my doctors office all within 1.5 hours, getting papers redone with correct ink color etc...Everyone was so nice and had no problem with redoing my papers. Now if I could only figure out the passport thing I will be doing really good! So I'm feeling pretty good at this point. As I am about to pick up the girls I look down at the documents I just got redone at the police department only to realize that the dates don't match between the letter's date and notery date...deep breath.. no worries.. tomorrow...I get home with the girls and check the messages only to find out from a friend who is also adopting from Russia that the Rockwall Appraisal District also put the wrong dates on my newly redone papers....seriously? How does she know this you may be wondering? Well, 10 min. after I walked out she walked in for the exact same thing and made the point that the dates have to match.. they then said... "oh no.. a girl was just in here for the same thing and I put the wrong dates on hers." My friend said, "Would that be Leigh Ann Cagle?"... So, she called and left me the message that I will need to go back  tomorrow to get it redone....again.  Maybe 3rd times a charm? Thank you Lord for your interventions.. I never would have checked that paper! So maybe super bunny is only for 5 year olds... Lord give me strength for tomorrow=)

FedEx Delivery!!

Today was a rainy stay at home Monday with no agenda... finally a relaxing day... I am all caught up on laundry, housework, blog update,  etc...During Mika's nap I even got some time to read a book...it's a rarity! Anyways, on Monday afternoons I keep my precious little nephew for about an hour (good refreasher coarse since he is only 18 months old).. When my sister-in-law came to pick him up she came in the door with a FedEx package..She said, "Did you know you had a package?" I looked at it and at first I thought it was one of Michael's many packages he gets from work but then I recognized the address.. "AAHHHH" It was my appostilled papers I have been waiting on.. I wasn't expecting them back so soon.. My mind automatically started calculating...(If I get the neccessary copies made for the agency  tomorrow then I can get them overnighted to the agency and maybe they could have them to Russia by the end of the week) My day was made. I opened the package and pulled out 49 beautifully apostilled documents...but wait... behind the perfect papers was an official letter with all caps and bold title RE:DEFICIENCY NOTICE OF AUTHENTICATION REQUEST...YOUR REQUEST FOR AUTHENTICATION OF A NOTARY PUBLIC COMMISSION CANNOT BE PROCCESSED AND IS BEING RETURNED TO YOU...what? I have 7 documents that have to be redone.. thats right.. redone..apperently you can't just make a photocopy of your passport and have it noterized.. I have to write a statement stateing that I am the owner and that it is indeed just a copy. Really?  I have never been so frustrated and just wanted to cry..and throw papers in the air and just say "I give up!" But I know there is a little boy on the other side of the world waiting for us so I must persevere. I have to trust that God's timing is perfect. So tomorrow after work I will start the paperchase again=)

Dossier Complete!

I'm a little overdue for an adoption update so let me bring everyone up to speed.  We are at an important point in the paperwork process.  Things are more overwhelming than I had imagined they would be. I didn't know I could be so emotional and not have hormones to blame:)) The unknown is difficult. With my pregnacies I had doctor visits every month to check on the progress of my babies, heartrate, growth, etc... I had a due date to know when to be ready... with adoption.. nada! It has been an emotional rollar coaster to say the least... but we finally got our dossier sent to the state for apostilling. Our dossier is our complete set of papers that will go to Russia. Apostilling is basically a notery on steroids.  I got everything sent off last Tuesday afternoon. The Fedex guy went over and above by waiting for me to get my "novel" shoved in an envelope before he left for the day.  As soon as papers return to us, we will send them to our agency and they forward all documents to Russia. We are praying the process goes smoothly and uniterupted!  Check out this bad boy!  It's like a Twilight sequal (haha).

Our completed dossier