Friday, November 11, 2011

Authentication: Round 1

There was a very important Fed Ex delivery today!  Our first batch of documents to be authenticated in Washington, D.C. at the State Department and the Embassy of Ch*na arrived.  The authentication process is simply a way of making a formal document, even more formal than it already was by verifying that it is a true original a fourth time (signed 1st, notarized 2nd, certified 3rd, authenticated 4th).  Here's what authentication looks like...



The process is getting more and more exciting as we get closer and closer to sending our completed dossier (aka important paperwork for adopting a child from Chi*a) off to the Far East.  This shipment of documents included everything we need for our dossier except Carl's new employment letter, an updated financial statement reflecting his new job and our approved 797 which is still in process with the USCIS.

So now we wait some more...
We wait on:
1. Hearing when our fingerprint appointment will be with the USCIS (we should hear in 2-3 weeks when that appointment will be, maybe less)
2. Receiving approval of our I800a application, granting us a 797 which grants Carl and I approval to adopt from China on the US side of things (praying this will be sometime around mid December, but who knows)
3. Sending off the last batch of documents to be certified in Pierre, SD and then to be authenticated in Washington, DC.  That will be the LAST step before we turn over the biggest part of our adoption paperwork.  After that Dossier is in Ch*na, we will still have a long wait in front of us but the worst of the paperwork is over.  That, my friends, will be a day to celebrate!!

In the meantime:
We're doing a bit of shopping for our girl, her nannies and her friends at her foster home for Christmas.  We have a very strict budget right now which makes things a bit tricky but Hope is going to have a wonderful Christmas with lots of special little things from all of us, even the boys.  We're wrapping and getting ready to send them off very soon.

Please pray for a very quick 797 approval.  It is taking around 60 days for this process from receipt to approval and we really don't have that kind of time if we are going to make it with our goal of getting our DTC by December 27th.  Praying that Holt has a plan in place if we're a little behind that Dec. 27th date.  I'm sure that they do and if not...well, I don't know.  God knows we don't have a back up plan.  Hope's our baby girl.  He's our plan and this is His story so we'll just keep givin' him the glory.  Can I get an AMEN??  :)  Authentication Round 1-Done!

4 comments:

Nancy @ Ordinary Miracles & The Crazy 10 said... [Reply to comment]

wonderful wonderful progress!!!! YEA!!!!

OK, a prayer for you for the 797 to come lickety split! So Hope can be united with her mama quickly!

It's all coming along. Good stuff indeed!

Nancy

TanyaLea said... [Reply to comment]

This is great to see! Doesn't progress feel good?! ~ it's so exciting!! You are going to feel a huge load off your shoulders once you are DTC. Praying everything moves along smoothly and quickly so you can make your target dates. If not, I'm sure Holt will just request and extension. I'm guessing they'll have a good idea of where you stand in about a month (or sooner) so they would make their request at that time. We had to do the same thing and getting an extension was not a problem.

Just wondering if you have contacted Karen at NDFH to let her know you are matched with Hope and were granted your PA. They will put an asterisk * by her name when you let her know. I just remember how exciting it was to tell her once we got our PA and they were able to put that * by Khloe's name. It's just a mark that she has her family in the process of working to bring her home. I keep checking but it's still not there, so I was just wondering if you had notified her or not?

Take care and know you remain in my thoughts and prayers!

Blessings,
~ Tanya

Beth Nagel said... [Reply to comment]

@TanyaLea

Yes, I can't wait to get this paperwork out of our hands but we're getting close. As long as we're home from China by mid-June so we can make it to the Nevus Conference in Dallas, TX with both kids so they can get seen by the experts I will be one happy lady. As much as we will want to keep our world "small" as soon as she's home, we HAVE to get to that conference if we can so that we can get the latest in research and see the doctor's (for free!!). That's good to hear about the extension process. I was wondering. As for the *, it pains my heart :( BUT...Hope's file was designated to Holt as a LID before LOI child. So until we get that DTC, we don't have our PA. Referral? yes, but no PA. We are kind wondering if *maybe* this will actually help us hurry things along in that all of our paperwork LID,LOI,PA will go bing, bing bing and it won't get slid to the bottom of the pile before the LOA process. ND knows all about our situation and they are rejoicing with us, but can't wait to see we have that PA as well :) How are you guys doing? What's next?

Beth Nagel said... [Reply to comment]

@TanyaLeaI mean what's new :)

 

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