I'm Christy, and I just completed my adoption of a Russian child (little girl) one month ago today.
Ryan, I met your mother at a scrapbooking crop. When the subject of adoption came up at the crop, the organizers said something about my Russian adoption, and your Mom came over because she knew what a hard day you had had.
I don't know exactly what issues you encountered, but if they are similar to the issues I had with my Secretary of State, I can feel your pain. I had been told that they could apostilled them in one day. OK. I took them down there on a Friday after work, since I work full time. This was on the next to last day of one month. They about laughed when I asked if I could wait for them. That should have been my clue, but it wasn't. They did indicate that the documents should be ready within 24 to 48 hours. OK. When I still hadn't heard anything by the following Tuesday afternoon, I called them. They didn't seem to know what I was talking about. They then told me that they weren't ready yet. Hmm. I asked them to please call me as this was just about the last thing I needed to do to complete my dossier. I got a call on Wednesday to say they were ready. So, after work, I hightailed it to the office. (Yes, I am fortunate that there is a branch of the Secretary of State's Office in my city even though it is not the Capital.) When I got there, they told me that several documents could not be apostilled as the notary wasn't done right. They acted like that was my fault! I explained to them that I am not a notary, and that I would have no way of knowing what was acceptable or what wasn't. So they then proceeded to show me in a booklet the 'proper' way things should be notarized. Now, mind you, I held my tongue during this (which was incredibly hard for me) time but was thinking that they were showing this to the WRONG person!
Anyhow, I collected the apostilled documents and the ones that 'failed' the notary check and headed on my way. I couldn't shake a bad feeling, but had no idea why I felt that way. On the way home, I stopped and made 4 copies of the entire documents. Not a cheap thing to do. I then dropped off the originals at my adoption agency (located in my home city). At the agency, my social worker and I sat down and went through the documents that I had. We discussed how to handle the ones that couldn't be apostilled, and then it was finally time to go home. Later in the evening at home, I wanted to staple the documents as I didn't take the time when initially coping them. You just can't imagine my reaction when I realized why I had a bad feeling: they put the correct day of the month for the day they did the actual work of apostilling, but they put the previous month!!!!! There were apostilled documents that were apostilled BEFORE they were notarized!!!. So, I had to call the social worker, arrange to pick up all of my documents, and take a day off of work to take them back in the morning and get them done correctly. And done by the same ones who criticized me for not knowing what to look for in a proper notary seal. I won't even go into the copy issue (since I had paid for copies on using their improperly handled documents).
Please know that this type of thing is not uncommon. It can be worked through. Some days, we just don't have the same amount of patience to deal with the blatant errors of others. Other days, we can laugh it off. Eventually, you will be able to laugh about the issues!
Once you have your little ones, the troubles with documents fade away!
Christy- You are very kind to share your story so that we know we are not alone in this process. I just wish that people at the State level knew how emotional and fragile adoptive parents are so that they would be a little gentler with their words. I also wish we had known where to look for the requirements before we started collecting documents the wrong way. My comfort is in knowing that the Lord has two children He has chosen just for us, and these delays are making the timing right for those kids to come home. Please stay in touch via the blog and when we finally get to travel we might try to contact you for tips. Thanks again, Katie
I'd like to say "thanks" as well. It's good to know we're not alone in the "dossier debacle". As Katie said, things are in God's hands and we'll just have to accept it as part of the plan. It's all about expectations. I really expected to be done with the dossier. In fact, we've got a few more steps to go through.
That did make me smile! There's a commercial out right now for something but they play that song and all I can think of is the Muppets. Blessings, Penny Adopting 2 from Kras
4 comments:
Hi Ryan and Katie,
I'm Christy, and I just completed my adoption of a Russian child (little girl) one month ago today.
Ryan, I met your mother at a scrapbooking crop. When the subject of adoption came up at the crop, the organizers said something about my Russian adoption, and your Mom came over because she knew what a hard day you had had.
I don't know exactly what issues you encountered, but if they are similar to the issues I had with my Secretary of State, I can feel your pain. I had been told that they could apostilled them in one day. OK. I took them down there on a Friday after work, since I work full time. This was on the next to last day of one month. They about laughed when I asked if I could wait for them. That should have been my clue, but it wasn't. They did indicate that the documents should be ready within 24 to 48 hours. OK. When I still hadn't heard anything by the following Tuesday afternoon, I called them. They didn't seem to know what I was talking about. They then told me that they weren't ready yet. Hmm. I asked them to please call me as this was just about the last thing I needed to do to complete my dossier. I got a call on Wednesday to say they were ready. So, after work, I hightailed it to the office. (Yes, I am fortunate that there is a branch of the Secretary of State's Office in my city even though it is not the Capital.) When I got there, they told me that several documents could not be apostilled as the notary wasn't done right. They acted like that was my fault! I explained to them that I am not a notary, and that I would have no way of knowing what was acceptable or what wasn't. So they then proceeded to show me in a booklet the 'proper' way things should be notarized. Now, mind you, I held my tongue during this (which was incredibly hard for me) time but was thinking that they were showing this to the WRONG person!
Anyhow, I collected the apostilled documents and the ones that 'failed' the notary check and headed on my way. I couldn't shake a bad feeling, but had no idea why I felt that way. On the way home, I stopped and made 4 copies of the entire documents. Not a cheap thing to do. I then dropped off the originals at my adoption agency (located in my home city). At the agency, my social worker and I sat down and went through the documents that I had. We discussed how to handle the ones that couldn't be apostilled, and then it was finally time to go home. Later in the evening at home, I wanted to staple the documents as I didn't take the time when initially coping them. You just can't imagine my reaction when I realized why I had a bad feeling: they put the correct day of the month for the day they did the actual work of apostilling, but they put the previous month!!!!! There were apostilled documents that were apostilled BEFORE they were notarized!!!. So, I had to call the social worker, arrange to pick up all of my documents, and take a day off of work to take them back in the morning and get them done correctly. And done by the same ones who criticized me for not knowing what to look for in a proper notary seal. I won't even go into the copy issue (since I had paid for copies on using their improperly handled documents).
Please know that this type of thing is not uncommon. It can be worked through. Some days, we just don't have the same amount of patience to deal with the blatant errors of others. Other days, we can laugh it off. Eventually, you will be able to laugh about the issues!
Once you have your little ones, the troubles with documents fade away!
Christy
Christy-
You are very kind to share your story so that we know we are not alone in this process. I just wish that people at the State level knew how emotional and fragile adoptive parents are so that they would be a little gentler with their words. I also wish we had known where to look for the requirements before we started collecting documents the wrong way. My comfort is in knowing that the Lord has two children He has chosen just for us, and these delays are making the timing right for those kids to come home. Please stay in touch via the blog and when we finally get to travel we might try to contact you for tips. Thanks again, Katie
Christy -
I'd like to say "thanks" as well. It's good to know we're not alone in the "dossier debacle". As Katie said, things are in God's hands and we'll just have to accept it as part of the plan. It's all about expectations. I really expected to be done with the dossier. In fact, we've got a few more steps to go through.
That did make me smile! There's a commercial out right now for something but they play that song and all I can think of is the Muppets.
Blessings,
Penny
Adopting 2 from Kras
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