Stick a fork in it... it's done!!!!

Two minutes ago I received an email from FedEx notifying me that our dossier was delivered to our agency!!! BIG sigh of relief!!! Amazingly, dotting all those i's and crossing those t's was pretty simple.

We received the paperwork from Taiwan last Thursday. On Friday we went to the bank & had everything notarized. On Monday, I went to the Secretary of State's office to have it all certified. I was worried about this step but it turned out to be a piece of cake. I simply went in, filled out a form and wrote out a $90 check. As I was about to leave, the lady said "Wait a minute. I'm going to go ahead and enter your payment in the computer. The state of Texas has a law that no family will have to pay more than $100 for an adoption. Once I enter it in the computer I can give you your account number. That way, when you need documents certified for the re-adoption, all you'll have to pay is $10."

Cool. So I wait a few minutes and she says "Did you try to adopt another child?" I'm thinking noooo. Then she says we've got an account number & have already met the $100 limit. Then it hits me. The agency we were going through for the China adoption must have had some documents certified for us. We never saw them (probably never will) so I had no idea. Anyway, she tore up the check and sent me on my way!!!

That afternoon I called the TECO office (kind of like the Taiwan Consulate) to find out what I need to do to get the documents authenticated. The lady I spoke to was very confused. Somehow she thought she had to authenticate AND translate them. She wanted to charge $45 a pop! That would have been $405!! After a half an hour on the phone trying to explain what I needed, she said to just send her $15 for each document. Whew. So I put everything in the FedEx envelope (including a return FedEx)and added the secret weapon... a picture of Tessa! It worked. I got the package back yesterday morning & shipped it off to our agency last night.

Now everything will have to be translated before it goes to Taiwan and that will take a few weeks but what a relief to have this step done!

Now if we can just get the Department of State to issue our renewed passports... but that's another post!


For the other waiting families who want to know what went in the package here goes:

Homestudy - 1 original, notarized, certified and authenticated
Adoption Agreement - 3 originals notarized, certified and authenticated
Power of Attorney - 5 originals notarized, certified and authenticated
Color Copies of Passports - 1 for each parent
Copy of our State Adoption Laws - 1 copy (over 90 pages!!!)
Photos - 8 photos of us, 8 photos of our home (including one of the baby's room)