Paperwork, paperwork, and a lot more paperwork...

After Khrystyna's visit, we moved full speed ahead into our "Adoption Adventure." We were told that the Ukraine wasn't accepting any new dossiers until the beginning of January, so we didn't feel the need to rush. We began gathering the documents necessary for our home study as well as those we would need to submit to Ukraine in our dossier. We had to gather birth certificates, marriage certificates, and passports along with copies of the deed to our house. We also needed to have 2 different medical forms done for each of us. I had to return to my doctor twice to have my forms fixed and I lost count of how many times it took to get Fred's papers right. We also needed employment verification letters and numerous other random documents. Our homestudy was done in November and upon it's completion we sent it off with some additional documentation to the Dept. of Homeland Security. They reviewed our documentation and gave us a date of December 21 to come to Indianapolis and have biometric fingerprinting done. By mid January, we recieved approval from the Department of Homeland Security to adopt from Ukraine. We had hoped to have all of our paperwork in Ukraine by the end of December, but it didn't happen. At the end of January, I took a gazillion papers to the Secretary of State's office in Indianapolis to have them apostilled. The "apostille" process authenticates that all of the notaries who notarized our documents have valid commissions and that they were notarized correctly. I also made a trip to California in January to have some documents from Fred's work apostilled at the Secretary of States office in California. The process was long and tedious, but at least we got it done. We sent our completed dossier to Ukraine on January 31, 2007.