Adoption

I have added an item to the side of the Blog, documenting our adoption journey, so those of you asking how things are going, have a reference to refer to. It is a tedious job of gathering documents for each agency needing things, many of them redundent, but everyone needs their own copies. Several things had to be the official Court House copies, but the ones we had in our files weren't good enough, because they had to be dated within the last 6 months. Things then need to be notorized, then off to the appropriate Secretary of State to have the Notary Authenticated (credentials checked) by the State. Then they go off to the appropriate Chinese Consulate (different zones in the country must use certain Consulates). The Consulate will then Authenticate the Secretary of State's credentials. So, Mike's Ohio birth certificate needed to go off to the New York Consulate (which has been Consulate Authendicated now), and all our other documents will need to be sent off to the Chicago Consulate. I am getting ready to send everything I have ready off to the Secretary of State on Monday. Then the only thing that will need to be finished is our approval from the Dept of Immigration/Homeland Security, to State Authenticate and send everything off to the Chicago Consulate. After that, all our documents (our Dossier) get sent in to the Adoption Agency for final apporval, and translation to Chinese. They will then bind it all into a nice report and send it, along with several pictures of us, in to China. We then have a chance to breath while we wait for China to give us their final approval. We will then get 1-2 weeks notice that it is time to travel. Mike and I will then have to take Zach and head to China for approximately 16 days. When we come home, Zach will be adopted and a citizen of the United States of America. Wish us luck, and for speedy government agencies!!!