Thursday -
- Talked with adoption coordinator about questions/concerns regarding the next set of documents we needed to start on. (Basically, this court dossier isn't needed until after our first trip but there are many documents that we can start on ahead of time to get them going.)
Friday -
- Ordered our daughter's birth certificate
- Requested our marriage license (still waiting on that one; need to call again)
Saturday -
- Got new passport pictures taken to send to Qatar in order to get our "Certificate of Good Conduct" from them (need police clearance from all states/countries we've lived in the last 10 years)
- Got cashiers checks for Qatar Embassy
- Tried to get prepaid envelope from UPS for Qatar - unsuccessful
Sunday -
- Painted our daughter's new room to get it ready for her to move into it since she is going to share with the new child (not related to dossier, but adoption-related nonetheless)
Monday -
- Went to county clerk's office to get the deed to our house
- Attempted to get appraisal form filled out there as well but ended up driving 30 minutes away to the Appraisal District Office to get house ownership verification
- Prepared "Certified Copy of Original" forms for multiple documents
Tuesday -
- Well-baby checkup for my son and tried to get Pediatrician's Doctor's License (required to send a copy of current children's Dr's license) and could not get it (they are very reluctant to give a copy of that out - still working on that one.)
Wednesday -
- Went to Qatar Consulate in Houston to have them check over "Certificate of Good Conduct" documents such as passport copies with residency pages, cashier's check obtained on previous day, and a letter explaining what we needed (it was never fun dealing with their government while in Qatar and this experience was no better), the lady at the consulate found many things "wrong" with our paperwork - According to their website, the documents had to be addressed to their Embassy in Washington DC but since we live in TX, we were to address it all to their Consulate in Houston. Not something that can't be changed. Additionally, for some reason, we weren't allowed to get three copies of the final report like we wanted. All those changes meant refunding the other cashier's checks and getting a new amount, changing our letters, and just a general frustration after dealing with an 18-month old who did not enjoy being along for the ride!
- After all that in the morning, I had a checkup with my doctor for my diabetes in the afternoon. It was actually a new doctor for me since I have not been happy with the care of my previous one. I am now going to the same doc as my hubby and it is just outside our neighborhood, which will make visits much easier.
- Rewrote letter for Qatar Consulate
Thursday -
- Went to bank to refund previous checks and get new ones issued
- Mailed UPS package full of very important (revised) documents to Qatar Consulate in Houston
- While in parking lot outside the UPS store, as soon as I shut the car door after putting the boys in their seats, I get a call. Samira (lady from the Qatar Consulate) was calling to say she needed the pages from our previous old passports that were considered destroyed as far as the US is concerned - and at the time, we considered lost. Luckily, we were able to find them after some serious searching, so we sent an additional UPS package to her the following week. The next day, I get a call from her again telling us that the second set of checks were addressed to the wrong place as well - I guess we need to be held by the hand when doing government paperwork for a foreign-already-confusing country. So....after changing the checks for the second time to be addressed to the Consulate and not the Embassy (!?) we were able to get all that confusing documentation to her and hopefully that paperwork is on it's way to Qatar right now. This is the part of our paperwork we are the most nervous about since it takes 6-8 weeks to hear anything back from Qatar. In the end, I realized the Consulate lady was in fact being VERY helpful. She was genuinely concerned that our paperwork get sent overseas correctly. I was just frustrated at the time and did not enjoy the interaction - although everyone was quite pleasant, myself included.
Friday -
- Had it on my list to call the county in Indiana where our marriage license was filed but to be honest, I still haven't done it.
Saturday -
- Took the whole family to the fingerprinting place to get our police clearance for Texas. That was so easy. We're already "cleared" and have our letters from them. Yeah, United States of America!
Sorry if a lot of that made no sense and wasn't very easy to read. It has been very confusing to me, as well! Just take away from this post that we had a rather paperwork intensive spurt all of a sudden after months of doing nothing! That means things are progressing and it's becoming real! Yikes! ;)
We are now at a point where we are just waiting for the paperwork to roll in so there is not as much that we can do, except for a few minor things. The rest of our court dossier needs to wait until after our first trip because several documents only have a 3-month validity. But after so many months of doing nothing and just waiting, this was a stressful and intensive week for me (and J too, but I did a lot of the paper chasing during the day between school drop offs, missed naps, and with 1 or 2 boys in tow).
Sometimes in the back of my mind, I wonder (especially in the middle of a week like that) - "What if all of this is going to fall through and all of this will be for nothing. So much frustration and yet what if we don't end up with our child?" What I had to make myself realize, a midst all of the frustrations, is that GOD FINISHES WHAT HE STARTS! So why should I let the frustrations discourage me and make me feel this isn't going to happen? God has started this. He wants this for us. Why wouldn't he? So trust that He will finish what He has started!
(By the way, the word WAIT is in the bible 141 times.)
