Kicking it into overdrive!?!

There was lots of big news in the land of PBC this past week. Here’s all the poop, fit to scoop:

Our Home Study has been completed! This phase included lots of financial, family, and personal details, reviewed when a state approved social worker interviewed us at home. We also had our first round of physicals (we will each have at least two more) and we got reference letters from a small group of our friends and co-workers. It was very humbling and gratifying to hear the kind words that people wrote.

We are now officially on our agency’s ‘Waiting for Adoption Referral’ list! The head of our agency told Kathy that he received 7 referrals this week. He encouraged us to get our paperwork done as soon as possible. With the downturn in the economy, there are apparently fewer couples adopting at this time. This means that there is a very strong possibility we will be receiving a referral soon after we complete our Dossier.

Through all of the stages of adoption so far, we have been advised that the Dossier will be the most time-intensive, frustrating portion of the process. But even with all of the warnings, once you actually get the document checklist, it is a bit of a shock. The list contains forty (!) documents from different agencies and sources. Each parent needs to fill out, print, and sign two copies (four total). Each of these (total of 160) are notarized and apostilled.

Not sure what apostilled means? Neither were we, before starting this process. Microsoft Word doesn’t even have the word in their dictionary!
Having a document apostilled is the international equivalent of notarization. A notarized document must be brought to an apostille (US State Department employee), whom adds their stamp to certify the legality of the document. All documents that will be sent out of the country (in our case, to Russia) must be apostilled.