Our Dossier Has Been Sent to Washington DC! WooHoo!!

I have anxiously been waiting for the last two forms from our agency to complete our dossier. They were sent 2 day air on Thursday (via FedEx - Booo - for those of you who don't know, we own a UPS store so I have to say that :-) ). I waited all day yesterday and didn't leave the house because I wanted to get it so we could complete the dossier. It never came or so we thought. As I was walking the dog this morning I noticed a big white piece of cardboard in our holly bush at the end of our yard and went to investigate. You guessed it, there sat our FedEx envelope frozen and sopping wet. Apparently he delivered it late yesterday afternoon onto the porch but didn't ring the doorbell as he was supposed to so it blew off the porch and sat out in the rain/snow mix we had last night. I brought it in and peeled off the cardboard. The pages were so wet, I couldn't touch them without wripping them so I brought out the blowdryer. Fortunately the documents were typed so the ink didn't fun. I contacted my agency and they said as long as it's readable, go with it so we did. They look awful but we're hoping the Embassy won't be too picky :-)



After that, it was off to get authenticated. I had to take the dossier to the Davidson County Clerk's office first and then on to the Tennessee Secretary of State's office for their authentication seals. Then I went to the UPS store and made all the copies and shipped them off. Our dossier was exactly 100 pages long! Then multiply that times 4 required copies. I killed a lot of trees today but I'm so glad it's complete and sent off. Here's a picture of the completed dossier (minus the national seal of course).



The next step is the US Department of State in Washington DC. We sent it to a specialized courier service and they'll handwalk it to the US DOS to recieve the national seal and then it will be overnighted back to our agency where it will be reviewed once again before being sent to the agency attorney in Ethiopia. From there it's translated into Amharic and can be submitted to court once we choose a child and that child's paperwork is ready.

The best part about sending in the dossier is that we are now considered "paper ready" and can go on the waiting list to receive a referral. I have been praying for our child all along but it will be so wonderful when we can accept a referral because then we'll know if it's a boy or girl, how old they are, what their sweet little face looks like, etc. We can't wait! Keep those prayers comin - we can feel them. Love you guys!

Blessings,
Valerie