They tried to deliver our documents yesterday morning, but they required 162 Euros cash to deliver. I'm not a big cash person over here. Needless to say, I didn't have it. The lady gave me a slip to pick it up at the main post office. We went while we were out around 3:30 and the guy said it wasn't there yet, so I would have to come back the next day. Things like this are SO much easier without 3 small children in tow! D and I were originally going to stop by the post office on our way to church group tonight since it's right on the way. In typical "me" fashion, I couldn't stop worrying about why it was 162 Euros. We had 24 documents and they each cost 10 Euros to Authenticate. I was worried they lost some or that they were mailing them in 2 shipments for some reason. I was trying not to think there was even a possibility of them not authenticating some of them because we had followed all of the necessary steps. I attempted to call them to ask why it was that amount, but the person I called spoke NO English and insisted that nobody there did either. This was not the kind of conversation that would be easy in English, so there was no change in German. Ugh!! So, knowing that I would have no rest until I had the documents in hand, I took all 3 kids to the post office to pick them up. Fortunately, they were not busy! We waited less than a minute and the lady was very friendly. She couldn't fathom why the documents were so expensive, but I don't really blame her there! ;-) Aside from L wanting to pick up every card they had (they apparently also sell cards there), the kids were very well behaved! Early morning trips are always best for us.
Once we got back to the van, I just had to open up the package to see what was going on. I was hoping to find an invoice for the remaining amount to be paid via computer. What I found was that they had authenticated 16 of our documents. They had taken it upon themselves to slap a giant sticker on the copies of our passports that say that the original was not verified to be an official document or some-such nonsense. I'm not thrilled about that. It had better not cause us problems because the Notar very much did verify them! The worst part is the letter they included with the remaining 8 documents.... Apparently, they cannot authenticate documents unless ALL signatures have been verified. Yup, that again. The letter didn't translate perfectly, but from what I can tell, they even say that my little "testimony" that the signatures are valid is completely unrelated and irrelevant. The letter says that if we cannot have the signature of our Dr. verified in person that we can bring that directly to them, but it doesn't say how that will make a difference. It implies that the letters from D's employer and the guardianship forms will have to be completely redone because I somehow "ruined" them by certifying that the signatures were valid. I'm so confused because I did the same thing to the Dr. form and they didn't seem to mind that. I'm going to have to try to call a different number and see if I can get ahold of the guy who speaks English again. He was really helpful and maybe I explain just how impossible it is to get those people to go to the Notar and how important, yet not important, this stamp is. It won't mean much except to let us get the Authentication from Crescent Moon. Beyond that, it's worthless. UGH, this is SUCH a pain!!
And, to top off my emotional struggles, L had spent the entire drive to the post office talking in as great of detail as she can imagine about our trip to Crescent Moon to go get Z. She was convinced that after we got this thing from the post office, that we could go buy plane tickets tomorrow and go get Z. She was telling me all about these stairs that we were going to have to walk up and down to get to her and how happy she was going to be to see her little sister, etc. I was having to hold back tears during our 10 minute drive and then seeing the forms not done....well, let's just say that I'm having a rough day now. I'm not sure how to fix this or how long this is going to set us back now. I'm trying to stay as optimistic as I can, but I feel like German Bureaucracy just sucks the life out of me. I am hoping for good news when I call, but we'll see....
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Packet mailed!
I mailed our documents to Köln this morning! Mail here is really quick, so hopefully they receive it tomorrow and can begin working on authenticating all 24 documents! I hope someone is in the mood for quick tedious work! lol!!!
In other news, the mechanics can't find anything wrong with our van. Story of my life when it comes to cars.... I hope it was just a strange glitch and not a sign of trouble to come. Though, they can't explain why it seems to drag at higher speeds. D is going to pick it up tomorrow on his way back to church and he will see how it handles then. Maybe being taken apart and looked at will be enough to get the transmission to behave again. ;-) If not, maybe it will at least have the courtesy to misbehave when they are open and when I have time to drive it there! Still, it will be nice to have our van back again. They gave us an old Peugeot to drive in the meantime and it was a bit cramped. Though, DJ did enjoy getting to sit in the front seat! (It's legal here "if there's not room in the back" and the car had a special switch for me to turn his airbag off) It also handled pretty rough when under 50 km/h (anywhere in town) and couldn't go above 110, so the Autobahn was a nightmare too! And it lacks A/C, but fortunately that isn't much of an issue since it's less than warm here anyways. :-P
In other news, the mechanics can't find anything wrong with our van. Story of my life when it comes to cars.... I hope it was just a strange glitch and not a sign of trouble to come. Though, they can't explain why it seems to drag at higher speeds. D is going to pick it up tomorrow on his way back to church and he will see how it handles then. Maybe being taken apart and looked at will be enough to get the transmission to behave again. ;-) If not, maybe it will at least have the courtesy to misbehave when they are open and when I have time to drive it there! Still, it will be nice to have our van back again. They gave us an old Peugeot to drive in the meantime and it was a bit cramped. Though, DJ did enjoy getting to sit in the front seat! (It's legal here "if there's not room in the back" and the car had a special switch for me to turn his airbag off) It also handled pretty rough when under 50 km/h (anywhere in town) and couldn't go above 110, so the Autobahn was a nightmare too! And it lacks A/C, but fortunately that isn't much of an issue since it's less than warm here anyways. :-P
Monday, July 16, 2012
Failed expectations
I forgot to update the other day. The notary came through and I was able to pick up our certified copies of our passports about an hour after my last post. To say I was impressed is an understatement! It's Monday and we still have no word about our translations, unfortunately. I was really hoping to be able to get them today and send them to Koln this afternoon! This is the last week of Kindergarten for DJ (ever!!) and L. After that, we have 3 weeks of "summer break". This is all well and good, except that I still have to make a trip to the embassy in Frankfurt for the final Authentication. I was REALLY expecting to be able to do that one morning while they were in school. Taking N to an embassy for a lengthy legal process didn't rank high on "fun factor", but taking all 3? Well, that's almost as pleasant as a root canal..... at least they give you pain meds for the root canal! ;-) It looks like D might have to take the morning/day off of work to come with us just to help with them. To be fair, when we went to the US Embassy, they did much better than expected but kids and endless bureaucracy just don't mix and this time we will be adding a potential language barrier. Heck, I might just see if I can leave them home with D while I go by myself!
Speaking of getting to the embassy, our van is having some issues. D said when he was driving it home from church Thursday night, it shifted really rough and the check engine light came on. The light has gone away and it now drives ok, except that we seem to have "lost" our top gear. In the US, this wouldn't be a problem. Here with the Autobahn, though, it is. 120 km/h is our top speed without really pushing the rpms higher than we want. (In case you're curious, that's 75 mph) Typing that makes me a little glad to have such a problem. In the US if we couldn't make it over 75 mph, we would hardly notice! Here, we have to stay close to home where there are speed limits (100 and 130 mainly). If we venture into the "fun" territory, we're liable to get rear-ended if we try to pass anybody and we don't want to be stuck behind a semi who can only go 90. Oh, and then there's that thing about not wanting the problem to get worse. The frustrating thing is that the transmission has been on my worry list since the day we brought the van home last September. I'm going to take it to the place we bought it tomorrow for them to take a look at it and see if they can find (and fix!) the problem. I really hope it's something simple like a sensor or something and not the whole transmission! I also hope they don't expect us to pay much for it since we told them about our concerns immediately after we brought it home. I don't mind paying some, but we'll see what happens.....
In other "news"..... my expectations were really put into place this weekend. For some bizarre reason, I was thinking/hoping that we would be able to travel in around 2-3 months. Our placing agency would never give me even a rough estimate, probably because they cannot guarantee anything and didn't want to get my hopes up. I just wanted a general guess so I could know whether or not we might be able to go to Disney for L's birthday or whether I can make it to my BFF's wedding and tentatively figure out who might be able to watch the kids for us while we go to Crescent Moon. They finally told me that once our Dossier makes it to Crescent Moon, it will likely still be 4-6 months before we travel because they have to translate and review it first, then we have to do our I-800, etc. That was not a good thing to read. I have assumed we were going to be travelling around September pretty much this entire time. That was my initial thought and I got some vague confirmation from Dr. A and one of the people at our placing agency (WAY back before our home study dilemma, of course) It had never occurred to me that we might not get to travel this fiscal year (which ends Halloween) or worse, that we may not be able to bring Z home for Christmas! I am hoping that things go much quicker than expected, of course. Maybe we can get her over Christmas break. That would save a lot of D's vacation time and we would have plenty of family available to help watch the kids for us. And, what better Christmas present for any of us?! I will say this though....I do NOT want to wait until her 5th birthday at the end of February to get her! That is just TOO far away! I am sure that we'll start to have a better guesstimate of when we'll get to travel as we get closer to that day. I just wish we could know now! I'm trying really hard to just let it go and trust that God knows when He wants us to get her. He seems to be delaying things pretty often, so there must be a reason.
Speaking of getting to the embassy, our van is having some issues. D said when he was driving it home from church Thursday night, it shifted really rough and the check engine light came on. The light has gone away and it now drives ok, except that we seem to have "lost" our top gear. In the US, this wouldn't be a problem. Here with the Autobahn, though, it is. 120 km/h is our top speed without really pushing the rpms higher than we want. (In case you're curious, that's 75 mph) Typing that makes me a little glad to have such a problem. In the US if we couldn't make it over 75 mph, we would hardly notice! Here, we have to stay close to home where there are speed limits (100 and 130 mainly). If we venture into the "fun" territory, we're liable to get rear-ended if we try to pass anybody and we don't want to be stuck behind a semi who can only go 90. Oh, and then there's that thing about not wanting the problem to get worse. The frustrating thing is that the transmission has been on my worry list since the day we brought the van home last September. I'm going to take it to the place we bought it tomorrow for them to take a look at it and see if they can find (and fix!) the problem. I really hope it's something simple like a sensor or something and not the whole transmission! I also hope they don't expect us to pay much for it since we told them about our concerns immediately after we brought it home. I don't mind paying some, but we'll see what happens.....
In other "news"..... my expectations were really put into place this weekend. For some bizarre reason, I was thinking/hoping that we would be able to travel in around 2-3 months. Our placing agency would never give me even a rough estimate, probably because they cannot guarantee anything and didn't want to get my hopes up. I just wanted a general guess so I could know whether or not we might be able to go to Disney for L's birthday or whether I can make it to my BFF's wedding and tentatively figure out who might be able to watch the kids for us while we go to Crescent Moon. They finally told me that once our Dossier makes it to Crescent Moon, it will likely still be 4-6 months before we travel because they have to translate and review it first, then we have to do our I-800, etc. That was not a good thing to read. I have assumed we were going to be travelling around September pretty much this entire time. That was my initial thought and I got some vague confirmation from Dr. A and one of the people at our placing agency (WAY back before our home study dilemma, of course) It had never occurred to me that we might not get to travel this fiscal year (which ends Halloween) or worse, that we may not be able to bring Z home for Christmas! I am hoping that things go much quicker than expected, of course. Maybe we can get her over Christmas break. That would save a lot of D's vacation time and we would have plenty of family available to help watch the kids for us. And, what better Christmas present for any of us?! I will say this though....I do NOT want to wait until her 5th birthday at the end of February to get her! That is just TOO far away! I am sure that we'll start to have a better guesstimate of when we'll get to travel as we get closer to that day. I just wish we could know now! I'm trying really hard to just let it go and trust that God knows when He wants us to get her. He seems to be delaying things pretty often, so there must be a reason.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Miracles DO happen!!
This morning, I finally got the email I have been anticipating for some time now. Our placing agency emailed me that they have received their copy of our I-800A Approval!!! YAY!!!! We're past the major hurdle and everything else *should* be smooth sailing! :-D
Our next step now is to mail all of our authenticated documents to the agency so they can translate them and forward them to Crescent Moon! We have most of our documents in hand, but we are still waiting on our certified translations of our local police reports to be "state" certified. (Certifying already certified documents doesn't really make sense to me, but when does bureaucracy ever make sense! lol!) I keep thinking those should get here any day, but I've been thinking that for a week now. :-\ I also noticed that the certified copies of our passports were missing from the rest of our stack of documents, so I called the notary and they found them and said they will TRY to have them done today. I'm assuming I will get them Monday or Tuesday, but either way it won't be long. Once we finally get those 2 things, we will be able to forward a HUGE stack of documents (an envelope is impossible and at this rate, our box might not be big enough either!) to Koln for them to be Authenticated by Germany. I need to call them this afternoon and see how long they are expecting that to take. The last time I talked to them, they said it would only take 2-3 days plus mail time, which isn't bad at all in Germany. If that's no longer the case, I might ask about the option of driving the documents there to be done the same day. D says that's a terrible option because Koln is at least 3-4 hours away, but the sooner those get done, the sooner we can get Z!! Once Koln does its thing, we then take the documents to the Crescent Moon embassy in Frankfurt in person! That will be done in person and then we carefully entrust our documents to the certified mail to be taken back to the placing agency. I still haven't figured out which carrier to use for that. Probably FedEx since that's what everyone seems to use stateside, but their presence is meager at best over here, so I might go with DHL. I still have a little time to figure that out though! ;-)
On a less technical note, L has REALLY been wanting Z to be here lately! When we went to pick up our documents, I tried to explain that these documents were things that we needed before we could get Z. L interpreted that as "We are going to pick up some documents, then get on an airplane and get Z". I did say many times that we would still have to wait before we could go get her, but L didn't pay attention to that part. When we came home after getting those papers, she broke down crying. She said she was just going to wait in the van until it was time to go to the airport. She spent the rest of that day sulking and crying about. At bedtime, she nearly cried herself to sleep because she didn't want to sleep alone anymore. She wanted to share her room with Z. :*( D & I were heartbroken! We agree with her 100%, but we still have to wait. At times, I don't even understand why we have to keep waiting, so it's no surprise that a 4-year-old can't understand either. DJ seems to understand much better, but he still retains keen insight that I wish he could tell Congress! He really gets the orphan's cry and thinks the sooner they can find a home and a family, the better everyone would be. He's been surprisingly good at keeping me grounded throughout this emotional roller coaster. Most of the time, he knows just what to say to cheer me up and remind me of the big picture as I get lost in the technicalities of the confusing legalization process. I always knew adoption would bring us a new child to love, but I never expected it to give me new ways to love the children we already have!
Our next step now is to mail all of our authenticated documents to the agency so they can translate them and forward them to Crescent Moon! We have most of our documents in hand, but we are still waiting on our certified translations of our local police reports to be "state" certified. (Certifying already certified documents doesn't really make sense to me, but when does bureaucracy ever make sense! lol!) I keep thinking those should get here any day, but I've been thinking that for a week now. :-\ I also noticed that the certified copies of our passports were missing from the rest of our stack of documents, so I called the notary and they found them and said they will TRY to have them done today. I'm assuming I will get them Monday or Tuesday, but either way it won't be long. Once we finally get those 2 things, we will be able to forward a HUGE stack of documents (an envelope is impossible and at this rate, our box might not be big enough either!) to Koln for them to be Authenticated by Germany. I need to call them this afternoon and see how long they are expecting that to take. The last time I talked to them, they said it would only take 2-3 days plus mail time, which isn't bad at all in Germany. If that's no longer the case, I might ask about the option of driving the documents there to be done the same day. D says that's a terrible option because Koln is at least 3-4 hours away, but the sooner those get done, the sooner we can get Z!! Once Koln does its thing, we then take the documents to the Crescent Moon embassy in Frankfurt in person! That will be done in person and then we carefully entrust our documents to the certified mail to be taken back to the placing agency. I still haven't figured out which carrier to use for that. Probably FedEx since that's what everyone seems to use stateside, but their presence is meager at best over here, so I might go with DHL. I still have a little time to figure that out though! ;-)
On a less technical note, L has REALLY been wanting Z to be here lately! When we went to pick up our documents, I tried to explain that these documents were things that we needed before we could get Z. L interpreted that as "We are going to pick up some documents, then get on an airplane and get Z". I did say many times that we would still have to wait before we could go get her, but L didn't pay attention to that part. When we came home after getting those papers, she broke down crying. She said she was just going to wait in the van until it was time to go to the airport. She spent the rest of that day sulking and crying about. At bedtime, she nearly cried herself to sleep because she didn't want to sleep alone anymore. She wanted to share her room with Z. :*( D & I were heartbroken! We agree with her 100%, but we still have to wait. At times, I don't even understand why we have to keep waiting, so it's no surprise that a 4-year-old can't understand either. DJ seems to understand much better, but he still retains keen insight that I wish he could tell Congress! He really gets the orphan's cry and thinks the sooner they can find a home and a family, the better everyone would be. He's been surprisingly good at keeping me grounded throughout this emotional roller coaster. Most of the time, he knows just what to say to cheer me up and remind me of the big picture as I get lost in the technicalities of the confusing legalization process. I always knew adoption would bring us a new child to love, but I never expected it to give me new ways to love the children we already have!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)