Medical paperwork...DONE!

Today we met with our doctor and our notary down at the doctor's office to sign and notarize our medical paperwork.  I'm so glad all the parties were able to come together at one time, in one spot to get this done!  Thank you, thank you everyone involved for paving the way for this!! So many adoptive families have had issues with this portion of the journey and I am grateful to God and everyone involved that, for us, all went very smooth!  Thank you so much!!!

I sent in this paperwork along with 4 other notarized documents to our state-side team to be checked.  All the documents looked in order and we were cleared to send everything to the Secretary of State to be apostilled!  I will get this done Monday.  It should take about a week for the SOS to return the apostilled documents to me.  Once we have our completed home study, DPS background checks and get those notarized and then apostilled we will be able to send everything over to USCIS where we wait for our FBI fingerprint appointment.  Once cleared, we will then send all our documents (our dossier) over to Eastern Europe where everything will be translated and approved by the SDA.  Then we get our travel date and off we go to meet our little man!

That will be trip #1.  On that trip we get the official referral from the SDA, meet our little man and go to court where we officially become his parents. Yeah!!!  There is a 10-day wait period, that we are praying will be waived... and occasionally is... before we can bring him home. The wait period is primarily for the birth family should they decide to come forward and contest the adoption.  This RARELY happens.  We can come home during the 10-day wait period and then return to pick him up or just stay there and wait.  We will most likely come home during the wait period.  

The second trip is when we get to take our son out of the orphanage for the last time and walk outta there to freedom, fresh air and family.  This day is known as "Gotcha Day"!  What a wonderful day that will be!  We will then go get his birth certificate, Visa and Passport before making the trip back home.

SO, there you have it in a nut shell.  The process from this point to that.