Finally...something goes right!

I have finally dove head first into the dossier paperwork that I now have to assemble and have notarized. It is a daunting task and far more in depth than the one for Ethiopia :(

I was given some awesome news today. All of our notarized documents for our dossier have to be certified by the Secretary of the State they were issued in, Minnesota. Due to the Minnesota gov't shut down(who knew that an entire gov't could just go on vacation), all of our notarized documents would have to be sent to another state for certification all at an additional expense and much effort. We found out today that the Office of the Secretary of State for MN would remain open and operating during the government walk out. Yes, I am calling it a walk out!

Yeah, I can't tell you what a relief it is. It is a huge stress taken off my shoulders and it is something that has finally worked in our favor :)

Moving along

Yesterday, we received our notice that our I-800 A application has arrived at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is our application for determination of suitability to adopt a child internationally from a Hague Convention Country. Next step is a notice to go to an immigration office to be fingerprinted again and then, hopefully, a letter of acceptance. I think we have now been fingerprinted at least 6 or 7 times!

Our pre-approval paperwork was also reviewed by our agency and accepted. It will now be forwarded to China. Now we go back to waiting :)