As of this afternoon, our Dossier is IN THE MAIL!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday was an exciting & adventurous day!
This is how it all went down:
My incredible best friend (since we were 11!) offered to keep K for me all morning & pick up G from preschool. Our oldest 2 go to the same school, so at morning drop off, I handed over K to play with her little N (both 3 yr old boys who are best buds!) at her house.
And of course she thought to wear her ADOPT shirt for this special day! =)
You are my sister and I'm so grateful we get to do life together.
THANK YOU for *everything*, friend!
Okay so here's the Dossier: completed, notarized, separated by notaries,
and ready for apostilling!
Remembered these.
And the GPS.
Made the trek to the ATL.
GPS was actually right on & I found the Secretary of State office pretty easily,
although it was quite a hike.
Despite the size of the building & complete lack of directions/map/assistance in the building, I managed to find the office easily too. Whew.
(But not before I found a bathroom. And siezed the opportunity, b/c as you moms know, it's a rare treat to get to pee alone. However, there was NO where to safely put the Dossier folder. There was some problem-solving and praying, but I managed.)
I waited a few minutes in the lobby. Then I was told to see this lady (behind the window desk). I told her why I was there, and reluctantly handed over my precious documents. (I was giving her a look like, "Girl, you better not lose one of these papers!" as she casually ate her breakfast.) Anyways, at least she does this sort of thing often, so I was fairly confident.
She said to sit down, that she'd need a few minutes to preview.
So this pic is me intensely watching every page flip she made:
I'm pretty sure that helped.
She called me back & said that everything looked good EXCEPT this one document. Of course. It was my husband's birth certificate. See, he was born in Cuba, and he has only one original. We, obviously, didn't want to send that to Honduras, so we made a copy & did the whole 'we swear this is a copy of a certified original, yada yada yada' form. Apparently, it wasn't exactly the form they wanted & notarized in the way they wanted it.
She gave me the copy & the form they wanted us to use. After I asked several questions to find out exactly what she wanted me to do, I realized I needed to try to fix it within the 1 1/2 hr time block she gave me to be back. They said I could take it to a bank nearby & have them notarize MY signature, although it's not my birth certificate. However, after asking more questions (can't you just TELL me?!), I discovered it would be best if it were Cuban Daddy's signature (we don't want Honduras sending this sucker back!)...although he was about 40 mins away. I called him on the way out, we did some quick calculations & decided I would drive all the way to where he was (he was working), have him sign & get it notarized right then & then I'd drive it back to the SOS.
Executed the plan flawlessly. (Yes, I've been watching 'Celebrity Apprentice.')
Drove back to ATL to the SOS *right on time.*
I gave her the new form, she apostilled & gave me the rest (all completed with no problem!!)
YAY!!!
I paid $90 = $3 per document x 30 documents.
This was an awesome relief b/c our agency told us it was $10/document...which would've been $300. Big difference! Praise the Lord!
They handed the documents over to me with NO idea the significance, straight faced as can be. Meanwhile, I was fist pumping myself on the inside! I kept it together, left the office, turned the corner & then had to pull it out to see!
So this is what it's all about, huh?
Dossier completed and apostilled!!!
I text my friend to let her know it was finished. She sent me this in response:
"And the crowd goes wild!"
LOL. Love these kids!!
I'm trying to convince her that 4 kids look good on her. :)
On the drive back, I kept looking over at it.
Could it be? Was it really done?
If I had to slam on my breaks, I would have totally thrown my hand over it to keep it from moving (you know the move, right?)
On my way back, I dropped them off with Cuban Daddy.
I gave him the "Don't lose anything!!" look too.
Heck, I may have even said it. I did.
Anyways, I left to get the kids while he made 3 copies of every page
(and there were tons of pages!)
And this mess is what he brought home to me last night.
I stayed up til 1:30 am, but it was done.
All originals & copies organized, in order, double checked, clipped, and ready to mail.
(We kept one copy for ourselves & sent 3)
Included mailing address, instructions, and a $2,000 translation fee.
Cuban Daddy mailed the Dossier
to our agency in TX today!!!!
There it goes!
So, after months and months of fighting the paperwork fight, it is done.
Hoping and praying that the agency sees it as flawless & mails it to Honduras right away.
Next steps?
(1) Agency approves & adds a couple of their forms
(2) Agency mails Dossier to Honduras
(3) Honduras translates ( takes a couple of months )
(4) Honduras approves us
(5) Honduras meets and gives us a NUMBER! ( probably a couple more months? )
Praising God & sleeping well tonight,
~ 6 in Love ~
