Update - Will the madness ever end?

So the agency told me to send them color copies of the photo collage and to have the social worker letter faxed to them and these should act as placeholders until the actual documents arrive. Additionally, my social worker came through and is copying and notarizing the letters again and has assured me that they will arrive in Springfield tomorrow. AND the wonderful woman in the Secretary of State's office told me she will ask the mail room to be on the lookout for a package for her from my social worker to process the documents right away, and everyone seems to be hopeful that they will arrive in Ohio before the weekend.

Whew! Now if only I physically felt better, but this will do! I kept looking at RP's pictures today telling myself that this is all worth it because SHE is worth it.

Thanks for those fingers being crossed - so far, so good (but please keep them crossed for a bit longer - I have a feeling I'm gonna need it!).

Oh, and while I had the agency on the phone I asked about travel dates - no such luck, as no one seems to know when I'll be invited to go. For today, I'll take the small success of getting documents coordinated AND that Moscow has asked for them - it indicates progress, right?

Will the madness ever end?

So, I am home sick today (don't ask - you don't wanna know, and I don't want to get into the details!) and have been running around like a crazy woman all day. This is remarkable in that all my running around has been at home - never left the house with all the madness, but it certainly feels like it!

My agency called me this morning to tell me that I had to have my photo collage and verification letter (properly notarized and apostilled!) to them by Friday in order to be in Moscow by the weekend. Yep - MOSCOW requested these documents ASAP. Not a big deal, as I'm on top of it and the documents are in Springfield awaiting apostilling, and for all I know are already done! A quick phone call and I'll be back to being miserable in my illness, right?

Wrong! I called Springfield, who located the documents and told me that they would be done today or tomorrow, and sent out to Ohio for a Thursday arrival. Whew! Of course nothing in this process has gone according to plan, so I wasn't necessarily surprised when 10 minutes later I received an e-mail that said that two of the document (I sent 6 total) could not be apostilled because the notary's name was one way on his certificate, and another on his stamp. Guess which documents these were? You got it - the photo verification letter!

This has now caused 18 e-mails (and no I'm not exaggerating - thank you Gmail for keeping a tally on the number of e-mails in a thread!) and at least 7 phone calls to try to figure out what I can do. My biggest fear was that they were going to say "sorry, no referral - we're giving her to someone else and back of the line for you!" but I managed to e-mail them the photos and hopefully the SOS will send them a fax of what we have so far that they can use until the notarized documents get done. I would like to point out that I have not yet heard from my social worker, who needs to do this document over again, despite my quite frantic voice mail and THREE e-mails (2 of which were in response to the director's e-mail response to my initial request).

Wish me luck and please keep those fingers crossed - I'm still not out of the woods, but have at least stopped hyperventilating due to these issues!

Just plugging along...

So, now that I have recovered (well, okay - semi-recovered!) from my meltdown the other day I am back in full paperwork mode. My parents were kind enough to sign the support letter and rush it over for notarizing yesterday morning, so I have four new documents (their two letters plus two Power of Attorney documents of my own!) that are now on their way to Springfield for apostilling. For anyone who doesn't know, apostilling is basically a process that the Secretary of State's office does to certify that your notary is really a notary. They look up the notary's information and attach a really official-looking document with a big, bright, shiny seal on it to every page that is notarized. In the state of Illinois this service costs $2 per document, but as I found out the hard way, the state of Wisconsin charges $10 per document, and $35 per document if you need a 1-5 business day turnaround, which of course I do for the guardianship letters my brother and sister-in-law had to sign and have notarized. They have also been fantastic about getting right on getting the letters signed and notarized for me and as of yesterday those letters were on their way to the Secretary of State in Wisconsin for apostilling. While this is all a delightful pain in the a$$, I am thankful that I do not live in a state that requires certification of documents BEFORE the apostille is done! Now I just have to pray that my home study agency, who has already lost documents on me in the past, gets to this ASAP and meets next week's deadline for the documents. I've been in touch with my social worker and hopefully she is on top of it this time; otherwise, the director, who has already had to call me once to apologize for problems, will feel my total wrath!

I'm already anxious to start packing and booking my trip to Russia, although I am in no hurry to spend umpteen hours on an airplane and head off somewhere cold!!! This will truly be an adventure, but one well-worth the effort. The agency told me to expect to travel in 8-12 weeks, and then, if I choose to pursue the adoption, plan on waiting another 8-12 weeks before I can be scheduled to go to court over there and make everything legal. While this does not sound like a long time, putting it into context means that this will not be done, and my little princess will not be coming home with me, for approximately 6 months. Yes - SIX months from now. That makes me sad, and while I'm trying to tell myself that the time will go by very quickly as there is much to be done between now and then, I still can't bear the thought of my little girl spending another night in the orphanage instead of having her home with me...

Just some random updates...

Whew! The new template is in place and looks pretty dandy if I do say so myself - finally! It was a lot more work than what I thought it would be, and while it isn't exactly what I was looking for it's a nice change of pace. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to add new posts from that page since it isn't a traditional Blogger template, but it'll do...

Anyhow, nothing still from the agency, which isn't a surprise. I am starting to become concerned with the Secretary of State as it has been almost two weeks since I sent off my notarized copies of my I171-h (which is my official approval from the Department of Homeland Security that I can adopt from abroad - woo hoo!) to get them apostilled, and they STILL have not sent them on to Ohio. Everything else I sent down to Springfield has taken a week, tops, so this is somewhat alarming and I will be PISSED if they lost it and I have to do that whole part of the process over again.

I also heard more about the "domestic" adoption (I now feel the need to differentiate - is anyone else's head spinning... rapidly...). The girl and her mom are torn because they would like to keep the baby, but can't afford to do so and feel guilty about giving her up. She is due right before Christmas but having some complications now, which is adding to their confusion and anxiety. I can't even imagine being in that position and am trying not to push or prod or anything else - just leaving my options open and letting them know, through the FOF that they do have options and I'm happy to meet with them to alleviate any fears or answer any questions they may have.


I guess when all is said and done, I'm truly leaving this one up to God - whatever is meant to be will be. Is it selfish that I'd really just like to know which way this is gonna go? Someday, this will all make a GREAT story..... :)