Except...

"Vicki, your paperwork looks perfect except for..."
As I read those words on Friday I was thinking, "no, it just can't be".
Adoption is definitely an emotionally up and down adventure.  
I had to shake myself into action and quickly look over the document (s) that had interrupted my seemingly "perfect" dossier with the word ... "except" .        
Ok, no time to get down about it, I have to deal with this.
As it turns out, on the "questionnaire" document they ask for the home study agency name and I hadn't changed it to show the new home study agency. Sigh...remember I mentioned that our home study agency had been put on the Russian black list because of a missed post placement?  It wasn't her fault, the adoption agency (not ours), which is out of business now had turned in post placements 3 and 4 but not 1 and 2 that the home study agency sent them. 
Sound confusing?  It is.
Bottom line, I forgot to change the name to show the new home study agency that is not on the blacklist so that we could get our paperwork finished and on it's way.

The good news is that I was able to change the name, get it notarized and It has been sent to the Secretary of the State (6 hours from us) to be apostilled.  I am hoping that it comes back next week.
 Other good news is that the rest of our paperwork has made it to Moscow.  It is scheduleded to arrive in Vladivostok on Friday.
I have no idea when the officials there will look at it but I am praying that it will be soon and that we will receive our invitation to travel to meet our sweet little girl.

It's Back!

Our papers are back!   The Texas Secretary of the State's office doesn't waste time.  For anything that has to be apostilled, once you send it out to them they just do it and get it right back to you.   I'm very thankful for that.

Well, now that our papers are back and I have made my copies, I will go to the bank this afternoon, That is if I get out of our Enrichment classes early enough.  If not, then I'll go tomorrow morning and get the "trip 1 dossier prep fee" and get that along with the original plus 2 exact copies of our dossier sent in.

Once our agency gets this check and our paperwork they will look it over to be sure everything is there and then they will have it translated and sent to Russia.   :-)

Once Russia gets it we wait for our letter inviting us to come over and meet our "referral"... I'm praying that everything they need is there and it will go smoothly but quickly.

Sent off

Just a quick update...
I mailed our paperwork off to the Secretary of the State to have it apostilled, this is basically a "country specific notarization".  The dad of notary. lol
I also sent the immigration paperwork off.  Got them both in the mail on Tuesday.  :-)
If it all comes back with no mistakes we will be much closer to our first trip!

Is It For Real?

We have our updated home study in!!   For anyone who has adopted you know what a huge blessing this is.  What it means for us is that we have all of our dossier completed for "Trip 1". I will be sending the dossier off to be apostilled and when it comes back I will send it on to our agency and they will send it to Russia.
In Russia, you must travel twice, at least that is how it with our agency.  Trip 1 is where we will meet our little girl for the first time.  We will get an opportunity to interact with her and play.  Then we will be asked if we will accept her as a referral.  If we say yes then we sign paperwork and file it with the court system and come home.  This I am told is when the hard part begins.  The wait after you have given your heart away. After you have let yourself say, "yes, she is my daughter."
I'm trying not to think about that part and only focus on this first trip.  I want to be ready to go when they send us an invitation to travel.  I'm anxiously excited. :-)

Maybe this is for real... I'm afraid to believe it.  I want to believe it though. 
Our happy face looks like this...