Additional paperwork needed

On Sunday night of this week, we received an e-mail from our caseworker in regard to our dossier. The coordinating agency in Bulgaria, VESTA, had contacted our agency to request that Rob and I resubmit our initial application to the MOJ containing language specific to our son. Apparently, the new application to the MOJ which we sent with our dossier did not contain this specific language and that three paragraph little section hidden in the four page application would help the MOJ quickly match us with our son. VESTA was a also requesting a quick turn around on the application to the MOJ. The e-mail had been marked "high priority." The resubmitted application would also have to be notarized, certified and apostilled.

As I said, the e-mail came on Sunday night...about 10:30 p.m. to be exact. My loving husband chose not to wake me from a restful night's sleep to tell me about the e-mail. This was a very wise move on his part. We have been married for over 14 years, and he knows me well. I would not have been able to go to sleep that night because I would have stressed about getting the application done quickly, and there was not much that could be done on a Sunday night when all local government agencies are closed. So, Rob let me sleep and then told me about the e-mail on Monday morning.

Luckily, I had Monday and Tuesday off from work as I had intended on taking Julia to visit my mother in West Tennessee. Instead of packing, I found myself feverishly looking for the application to the MOJ with the correct language. After tearing up several rooms downstairs in my search, I realized that I might have saved a copy on our computer. I rushed upstairs to our office and opened My Documents to find the needed document, and then I filled out the document for what felt like the tenth time. International adoption documents must be perfect in regards to the information being filled out on the form, and no abbreviations can be used...not even for a street address. If you make a mistake in filling out one of the forms, you must start all over again. In other words, there was a real likelihood that I had filled out this form numerous times.

After finishing the application to the MOJ, Rob and I agreed to meet at the county clerk's office at 1:00 p.m. Rob and I signed the application in front of a county employee who then notarized the document. We then walked down the hall to another office where someone else certified that our notary was a true notary, and after that we were off to the Secretary of State's office for the apostille. While en route to that office, I contacted our caseworker to see what else we needed to do with the application.

Our caseworker requested that we send the completed application by FedEx to the agency's corporate office in Michigan. It would need to be in the hands of the International Services Coordinator by 10:00 a.m Tuesday morning in order to be sent to Bulgaria the same day. After leaving the Secretary of State's office, Rob, Julia and I headed to the closest FedEx location where we paid $26.00 to have six pieces of paper delivered to Michigan by the next morning, and we were grateful. I have to say that I think FedEx does a great job! The package arrived exactly when it was supposed to on Tuesday morning, and by noon the application had been sent from the Michigan corporate office to Bulgaria.

The rush of adrenalin that pushed us get everything done quickly had subsided. Rob headed back to work, and Julia and I headed to West Tennessee to spend time with my mom. Afterall, the only thing we could do now was wait to hear once again from VESTA or the MOJ, and pray that our referral and travel dates would come quickly.