This morning, L, N, & I went back to Frankfurt to pick up our documents from the embassy. Knowing where to go helped a lot! After another failed try, the lady finally explained that I needed a copy of every page even if they were the same. I guess I'm upset that she told me last week that if there were duplicates I only needed one, but at the same time I wouldn't have had enough money for that many copies anyways. It was quite expensive, but I was armed with a TON of change, so it barely made a dent! The worst part was that since I obviously needed to make a ton of copies, some people who only needed to make a few felt they were justified in rudely cutting in line and using my money to make their copies. Most of them asked politely and a few even offered to pay for their copies, but there was 1 guy in particular who at first asked to make just 2 copies, then came back and jumped into make at least 5 more. He didn't ask the second time and he never bothered to even think that 7 copies are more than just chump change on that machine! But, in the end, I got all the copies I needed and was able to leave with all of our documents properly authenticated!! 420 Euros later, that is. I'm still in shock over how expensive this entire process has been, but it will be worth it.
When we got home, we picked up DJ and wasted no time in going to mail them. (I already had my box labelled and ready to go last night so all I had to do was put the documents in and seal the last side!) Well, ok we wasted a lot of time. Finding a good post office here is surprisingly difficult. I needed it to be fast, insured, and traceable. This meant regular Deutsche Post wouldn't do. I would need to use DHL. There are a few of those scattered around, but the only ones I know of have next to no parking available and I was SO not in the mood to hunt for more parking after driving to Frankfurt again! I used our GPS to try to pick one that seemed like it would have decent parking available. Boy, was I wrong!! When we drove by, I don't even think that was a post office at all! So, I went a different route and decided to try my luck on a tiny little UPS sign that I see on my way to the custom's office, which I visit rather frequently. And what luck we had!! It was a bit of a drive, but we found a huge UPS warehouse/sorting center with a small office for customers and they even had 3 parking spaces! (See how hard parking is to come by?? I was excited by 3 spaces! Sad, huh....) I went in expecting really expensive shipping that probably wouldn't be as quick as I would like. It is guaranteed to get to our agency by 10:30 on Wednesday, which is great!! (Time change really works for us in that instance) It was 58 Euros, but that's still a lot cheaper than the prices I found on DHL's website and I don't know how quickly they were going to get there. All in all, I was incredibly excited!
Everything's moving along and it looks like our documents should make it to Crescent Moon before our deadline on September 13th! Yay!! Though, I did hate having to try to explain to L that we still have to wait a bit more before we can get Z. She was skipping along as we left the embassy thinking we were literally going to go pick her up already. It's going to be a great day when I can finally tell her (& DJ) that we are, in fact, on our way!!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
German Authentication - DONE! Crescent Moon Authentication - In Progress!!
D got back yesterday evening with the documents. It was a rough trip all around. He said the van was acting up quite a bit again. He had to pull over 3 times on the way there to restart the engine because the transmission kept shifting out of 4th and the check engine light would come on. Then, when he finally got there, they told him it would cost twice as much as it should have cost! This is because there were 2 notarizations and 2 certifications per document and both had to be Authenticated. One of those was the one they refused to Authenticate before, mind you. Oh, it's a good thing he went and not me because I might have blown a gasket about that! So, 60 Euros became 120 Euros. He didn't have quite that much cash, so he had to visit an ATM. The good news is that they were already done Authenticating by the time he was back from getting more cash. At least something went smoothly with this government! ;-) On his way home, the exit that he needed was blocked off and he had to take a long detour through Köln, which is never fun. But, he eventually made it home!! :-D
He had a work trip that he leaves for today at 4 and will be gone for the next day or 2. I didn't want to wait that long, so I went this morning. After I dropped DJ off at school, I took L & N to Frankfurt. The drive there was uneventful and smooth, which is always good! As is typical around here, parking was scarce. We actually ended up parking at a University Clinic 0.7 km away. It may have been the most run-down parking garage I have ever seen! It looked like they just ran out of money about half-way through and stopped. But, it worked. I had to carry N in his heavy stroller up far too many stairs, but at least I can check "weight training" off the list for today. ;-) L did surprisingly well walking to the embassy! Usually she hates to walk, but this time she was twirling and skipping along almost faster than I could keep up.
I don't know why, but for some reason, I was expecting an embassy with many different offices to navigate and a decent amount of people, but not many where I needed to be. I couldn't have been more wrong. For the embassy being fairly large and it serving many regions of Germany, it seemed to me that they just liked to be crowded. They had 1 room. ONE! It was not much larger than our living room. Along one wall, they had 6 windows labelled with their respective purposes (2 for Visas) and then they had a few chairs lining 2 of the remaining 3 walls. They also had a photo booth for passport photos and a copy machine. Nearly everybody had tickets with numbers on them. I could not for the life of me figure out where they got them! I went to window 1, the Kasse (cashier), figuring maybe he could offer me a ticket and perhaps explain why there was nobody at window 4, which I needed. He simply told me to go wait there and his colleague was on her way. Seemed reasonable enough to me. When I had walked in, there was nobody anywhere near that window, but now there were 2 people waiting. I got in line and waited with them. 2 more people joined us. A long time passed. I'm not really sure how much because I was doing everything in my power not to worry about it, so I refused to look at a clock or my watch. The guy behind me decided to strike up a conversation in German, which I could carry on for a little while. Eventually, he realized that I'm more comfortable with English, which he also knew quite well. And he's Chinese, so he's at least trilingual. People like that amaze me because I get languages so muddled up in my brain! But, he was surprised that I wanted to adopt when I already had children. He commented about how strange that was when in China families are still permitted only 1 child. I thought that was changed quite a while ago, but apparently nobody bothered to tell citizens that. But, it was nice to have someone to talk to and it really helped pass the time.
Eventually, the lady came to the desk and helped the first 2 people rather quickly. I was thinking I could just drop everything off and tell her we wanted to expedite them and that would be that. Well, she was also surprised we were adopting. REALLY surprised. Honestly, I might be the first person she's ever seen to do that since Germans can't adopt from China and I'm supposedly not supposed to be able to either. She wanted me to write the name of the child and all of that information, which I gladly did, but I wonder what would've happened if I didn't know yet. Really, it's highly unusual that we already know that too. Our adoption is so atypical it's not even funny!! Anyways, after I added that information for her, she asked where my copies were. On the website it mentioned needing copies, but I had forgotten and assumed those were only for my records since they would have the originals so I didn't think it was important. So, she sent me to the 20 cents/copy machine. *sigh* I usually carry around a decent amount of change, but I try not to ever have too much. I also think that we had close to 100 sheets of paper, which I was definitely NOT copying all of! Many of them were duplicates (or REALLY close to it!) so I copied the fronts of each different form along with the main German Authentication from 1 of them. (There are actually 2 different ones since the signatures from our 2 batches were different, but I didn't think that was important) She said that wasn't good enough. I needed copies of the notaries and the certification as well. I used my last coin, which was a 2 Euro. Most of those are the same, but I tried to get each unique instance. Not good enough. She also needed a copy of my passport and my German Visa. Those were fine. By this point, I was completely out of money! All the while, N was getting horribly bored and cranky! Luckily, L was entertained the entire time by the photo booth. She told me that I still needed more copies! I have no idea what of because I really can only think of 2 at most that are different, but she acted like I had missed 10 pages or something! She kept telling me to check more carefully. I explained that I didn't know what else she needed, but that I was completely out of money. She said there was nothing she could do and that she couldn't help me. I asked her to make the necessary copies and I could just pay her for them, but she explained that she was too busy and didn't have time to make copies. I tried asking what the copies were even for, but she didn't answer. She just stuck with the fact that she couldn't help me. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and I lost it. I just started crying and trying to explain that I drove so far to be there and this was the only day I could come and that these needed to be in China very soon and I didn't have time to make this trip again, etc. She kept telling me to please not cry, but I couldn't stop. Finally she said there was another way. She could go ahead and Authenticate them and I could just make the copies when I picked them up and that would give me time to get more coins. Ugh! Why did I have to cry for her to tell me that?!? I'm still beyond embarrassed that I did that. I didn't want to create a scene or seem manipulative, but I just couldn't handle any more stress! So, our documents will be ready to pick up on Monday. I ended up not messing with getting them done quicker, because I won't be able to pick them up until Monday at the earliest anyways. But I will be armed with tons of coins this time around! ;-)
On the way home, our exit was blocked and the GPS stubbornly kept trying to direct me to that route even after I followed the detour signs. Eventually I got far enough away that it recalculated correctly, but that cost us quite a bit of time and frustration! It also had some REALLY rough downshifts as I was trying to pass a slower semi with some fast cars on my tail. That was "f.u.n.".... NOT! I am very tempted to drive the van back and forth on the Autobahn tomorrow morning in the hopes that it freaks out again so I can go to the mechanic and let him know we aren't crazy! But, 1 thing at a time.... once I mail our Dossier next week, he'd better be ready because he's on my list. ;-)
So, all in all, a gloriously productive past few days, but oh so stressful at the same time. It's strange because despite the outward stress (and believe me, we've had the lion's share this week!), I'm still maintaining an inward calm and peace. Obviously, I'm overjoyed that we're finally at this point as well, but that's a bit buried by all of the stress and hiccups that we keep encountering. Satan may be trying to thwart us, but he will not succeed! The peace that God has given my goes much deeper than circumstances. God has been providing for us in amazing ways that blow our minds if we even stop to think about them for a few seconds. And that's what it's all about!! :-D
He had a work trip that he leaves for today at 4 and will be gone for the next day or 2. I didn't want to wait that long, so I went this morning. After I dropped DJ off at school, I took L & N to Frankfurt. The drive there was uneventful and smooth, which is always good! As is typical around here, parking was scarce. We actually ended up parking at a University Clinic 0.7 km away. It may have been the most run-down parking garage I have ever seen! It looked like they just ran out of money about half-way through and stopped. But, it worked. I had to carry N in his heavy stroller up far too many stairs, but at least I can check "weight training" off the list for today. ;-) L did surprisingly well walking to the embassy! Usually she hates to walk, but this time she was twirling and skipping along almost faster than I could keep up.
I don't know why, but for some reason, I was expecting an embassy with many different offices to navigate and a decent amount of people, but not many where I needed to be. I couldn't have been more wrong. For the embassy being fairly large and it serving many regions of Germany, it seemed to me that they just liked to be crowded. They had 1 room. ONE! It was not much larger than our living room. Along one wall, they had 6 windows labelled with their respective purposes (2 for Visas) and then they had a few chairs lining 2 of the remaining 3 walls. They also had a photo booth for passport photos and a copy machine. Nearly everybody had tickets with numbers on them. I could not for the life of me figure out where they got them! I went to window 1, the Kasse (cashier), figuring maybe he could offer me a ticket and perhaps explain why there was nobody at window 4, which I needed. He simply told me to go wait there and his colleague was on her way. Seemed reasonable enough to me. When I had walked in, there was nobody anywhere near that window, but now there were 2 people waiting. I got in line and waited with them. 2 more people joined us. A long time passed. I'm not really sure how much because I was doing everything in my power not to worry about it, so I refused to look at a clock or my watch. The guy behind me decided to strike up a conversation in German, which I could carry on for a little while. Eventually, he realized that I'm more comfortable with English, which he also knew quite well. And he's Chinese, so he's at least trilingual. People like that amaze me because I get languages so muddled up in my brain! But, he was surprised that I wanted to adopt when I already had children. He commented about how strange that was when in China families are still permitted only 1 child. I thought that was changed quite a while ago, but apparently nobody bothered to tell citizens that. But, it was nice to have someone to talk to and it really helped pass the time.
Eventually, the lady came to the desk and helped the first 2 people rather quickly. I was thinking I could just drop everything off and tell her we wanted to expedite them and that would be that. Well, she was also surprised we were adopting. REALLY surprised. Honestly, I might be the first person she's ever seen to do that since Germans can't adopt from China and I'm supposedly not supposed to be able to either. She wanted me to write the name of the child and all of that information, which I gladly did, but I wonder what would've happened if I didn't know yet. Really, it's highly unusual that we already know that too. Our adoption is so atypical it's not even funny!! Anyways, after I added that information for her, she asked where my copies were. On the website it mentioned needing copies, but I had forgotten and assumed those were only for my records since they would have the originals so I didn't think it was important. So, she sent me to the 20 cents/copy machine. *sigh* I usually carry around a decent amount of change, but I try not to ever have too much. I also think that we had close to 100 sheets of paper, which I was definitely NOT copying all of! Many of them were duplicates (or REALLY close to it!) so I copied the fronts of each different form along with the main German Authentication from 1 of them. (There are actually 2 different ones since the signatures from our 2 batches were different, but I didn't think that was important) She said that wasn't good enough. I needed copies of the notaries and the certification as well. I used my last coin, which was a 2 Euro. Most of those are the same, but I tried to get each unique instance. Not good enough. She also needed a copy of my passport and my German Visa. Those were fine. By this point, I was completely out of money! All the while, N was getting horribly bored and cranky! Luckily, L was entertained the entire time by the photo booth. She told me that I still needed more copies! I have no idea what of because I really can only think of 2 at most that are different, but she acted like I had missed 10 pages or something! She kept telling me to check more carefully. I explained that I didn't know what else she needed, but that I was completely out of money. She said there was nothing she could do and that she couldn't help me. I asked her to make the necessary copies and I could just pay her for them, but she explained that she was too busy and didn't have time to make copies. I tried asking what the copies were even for, but she didn't answer. She just stuck with the fact that she couldn't help me. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and I lost it. I just started crying and trying to explain that I drove so far to be there and this was the only day I could come and that these needed to be in China very soon and I didn't have time to make this trip again, etc. She kept telling me to please not cry, but I couldn't stop. Finally she said there was another way. She could go ahead and Authenticate them and I could just make the copies when I picked them up and that would give me time to get more coins. Ugh! Why did I have to cry for her to tell me that?!? I'm still beyond embarrassed that I did that. I didn't want to create a scene or seem manipulative, but I just couldn't handle any more stress! So, our documents will be ready to pick up on Monday. I ended up not messing with getting them done quicker, because I won't be able to pick them up until Monday at the earliest anyways. But I will be armed with tons of coins this time around! ;-)
On the way home, our exit was blocked and the GPS stubbornly kept trying to direct me to that route even after I followed the detour signs. Eventually I got far enough away that it recalculated correctly, but that cost us quite a bit of time and frustration! It also had some REALLY rough downshifts as I was trying to pass a slower semi with some fast cars on my tail. That was "f.u.n.".... NOT! I am very tempted to drive the van back and forth on the Autobahn tomorrow morning in the hopes that it freaks out again so I can go to the mechanic and let him know we aren't crazy! But, 1 thing at a time.... once I mail our Dossier next week, he'd better be ready because he's on my list. ;-)
So, all in all, a gloriously productive past few days, but oh so stressful at the same time. It's strange because despite the outward stress (and believe me, we've had the lion's share this week!), I'm still maintaining an inward calm and peace. Obviously, I'm overjoyed that we're finally at this point as well, but that's a bit buried by all of the stress and hiccups that we keep encountering. Satan may be trying to thwart us, but he will not succeed! The peace that God has given my goes much deeper than circumstances. God has been providing for us in amazing ways that blow our minds if we even stop to think about them for a few seconds. And that's what it's all about!! :-D
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Certification - DONE!! Authentication - In Progress
Yesterday I had called the notary to see if our documents were ready yet and they said that it would be either today or tomorrow. I had been told on Friday that it would be Monday or Tuesday. :-\ I explained that D had already taken today off work to drive them to Köln, so we really needed them ASAP! The lady said the certification office was very busy and there wasn't anything they could do but that she would know by 9:30 today and that I should call at 9:45 to talk to her. On my way home from dropping DJ & L off at school, I really felt a calm that they would be in this morning. I called at 9:48 and someone else answered the phone. All she knew was that the documents weren't there and she had no idea when they might show up. Well, my bubble of hope popped. I started cleaning the desk to keep my head distracted from my thoughts because it looked hopeless. D took today off, but he has work trips for basically the next week. I can maybe handle going to the Crescent Moon embassy by myself in the morning, but Köln is too far away to get there & back in the morning and DJ can't miss school. The thought of having to wait a whole week because of a 1 day delay was just too much for me to handle! I even made D try to call the certification place a couple of times to see if they could hurry up. They never answered. After about 45 minutes, my phone rang. It was the lady who knew what she was doing from the Notar. She said our documents were ready to pick up! She knew how important this was and even offered to stay in the office over her lunch break if we needed her to. Talk about sweet!! That's seriously unheard of here in Germany! D was able to get them before noon, so she still got to enjoy her lunch break. D took the documents to the Federal Office in Köln and will hopefully have no problems getting them Authenticated for us today. I will update again when he gets home. :-)
Friday, August 17, 2012
Notary - DONE!
Since I had already met with our Dr. at the notary, the only 2 signatures remaining were both employees at D's work. It was very hard for me to let him handle that as tactfully as he did. But, as of yesterday, both of them had stopped by the notary for us! Yay!! Now I need to make them some brownies or something! ;-) I called the notary this morning and they said that hopefully they will all be certified by Monday, but it should be no later than Tuesday. I really hope they are right! I called D and he is going to try to take Tuesday off work so he can drive to Köln and try to get the authenticated right then. Considering it's just a corner folded down and stapled to their form then a stamp over the corner, I wouldn't imagine it would take that long for them to do it. If all goes well with them, I might head to the Crescent Moon embassy Wednesday morning to get the final authentication. I will probably pay a bit more to have the 2-day service, but not pay more for same day service. I'm assuming "same day" means I would have to wait until the last minute they are open that day rather than just waiting an hour or so and I just don't have that much time in the mornings. As it is, I'm a bit nervous about the prospect of driving there while DJ & L are in school because if there are many delays, that could create a HUGE problem when I'm not able to pick them up in time. Once we get those back, we will ship them back to our placing agency via the fastest mail option we can reasonably afford. If all goes well, we should hopefully be able to get everything there in time for them to forward them to Crescent Moon before the deadline of September 13th. You know, when we started this process, I was determined to be the family who does everything in record time because I would fill out forms and return them without ever setting them down and then we wouldn't have to wait for anything. HA!! Turns out, me doing everything as quickly as I can doesn't amount to much when I still have to wait on lots of others. Though God is really helping me to deal with the waiting much better than I was even a few weeks ago, so that's good!!
Except for the dream I had last night.... In my dream, there was a portion of our documents that also had to be authenticated in London. For some reason, I held onto them while we were waiting on local people to visit the notary. In my dream, I finally realized that I should've mailed those to London as soon as I had them so they could be there and back by the time I finally got the local authentication done. So, I panicked big time because not only were we going to have to drive local documents to Köln, but now I was going to also have to drive other documents all the way to London to be authenticated there! It sounds silly, but it was like the world was crashing down in my dream because there was no way I could possibly drive to London and I no longer had time to wait for them if I mailed them now. In real life, we have nothing to do with London but it's still not a good feeling to wake up after stressing all night like that! Luckily, the good news from the notary trumps that ridiculous dream! :-)
Except for the dream I had last night.... In my dream, there was a portion of our documents that also had to be authenticated in London. For some reason, I held onto them while we were waiting on local people to visit the notary. In my dream, I finally realized that I should've mailed those to London as soon as I had them so they could be there and back by the time I finally got the local authentication done. So, I panicked big time because not only were we going to have to drive local documents to Köln, but now I was going to also have to drive other documents all the way to London to be authenticated there! It sounds silly, but it was like the world was crashing down in my dream because there was no way I could possibly drive to London and I no longer had time to wait for them if I mailed them now. In real life, we have nothing to do with London but it's still not a good feeling to wake up after stressing all night like that! Luckily, the good news from the notary trumps that ridiculous dream! :-)
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
1 hurdle overcome
I guess I forgot to post the other day. Well, the letter had mentioned an option of a "Gesundheitsamt", which is basically the overseers for all of the Doctors in town. I was hoping they would have signatures on file to they could verify that it was our Dr's signature without having to interrupt his schedule. So, I did what I still hate to do more than just about anything else in the world....I loaded all 3 kids up and away we went! (While they typically do much better than I expect, I still hate the uncertainty of waiting, especially in a country that thinks a 20 minute wait to check out at the grocery store is "normal"!) With the aid of our trusty GPS, we ventured into a new area of town that had remarkably wide roads. That instantly brightened my mood. (It's the little things in life....) We were able to find a pretty good parking spot and the kids did relatively well, especially considering the situation. We were told to go to the 3rd floor to a small office. The office was located in the middle of a LONG narrow corridor that might have been the most bleak, depressing hallway ever! It was dark and hot and LOUD! The kids, unfortunately, are not exceptionally good with the concept of "quiet". I tried to turn whispering into a game but, let's face it, the echos of their regular (loud!) talking voices and footsteps were just far too appealing. The lady I spoke with seemed to understand exactly what I needed and gave the impression that this was a reasonable thing to ask of them and that it should be only a matter of a few minutes. Well, after 45 minutes of various comings and goings of 4 different people who all insisted on giving us their best "German stares", they all finally came out and surrounded us. Then 1 guy asked me what exactly I wanted. Never a good sign. I explained again that I needed our Dr's signature verified or notarized. He talked to the others in German for a while and one of the other ladies told me that they did not have his signature on file, so they wouldn't be able to help me. I would HAVE to get the Dr. to go to a Notar in person and that was my only option. Ugh! Such a pain!
I felt terrible even asking him to do that but everyone made it clear that there was no other option, so I called and explained the situation to him. He was not upset with me, but thought the situation was absurd! He had no problems laughing about the ridiculousness of their request. Luckily, he was really sweet and was willing to do it "just for us", he said. He actually told me that the reason he was willing to go for us was because he wanted "one more in Heaven". :-) It was funny though, because he asked me if he would need to bring his mom with him so that she could verify that he was who he said he was! lol!! I'm so glad he's such a great-natured person! We went to meet him there an hour ago. He had a very small window because he had phone calls and house visits to make. (Yes, a Doctor that still makes house visits every day! I told you he was awesome!!) The Notar's office was locked when it was supposed to be open. We waited and kept ringing the bell outside the door that is supposed to ring inside, but nothing. Finally the Dr. had the idea to go downstairs (the office is on the 1st floor upstairs) and see if the phone number was on the front door. Luckily, it was! When he called, a lady answered and said that of course they were open! She had forgotten to unlock the door!! Yikes! If he hadn't called, who knows if they ever would have noticed that and he would have had to leave to go back to work without getting to meet the Notar. I hate to even think about that!!
Unfortunately, all the craziness rubbed off on DJ & L (N was sleeping) and while we were waiting, they decided that they needed to run up and down the stairs. These are marble stairs in a very small sterile environment, so it was LOUD! Then when we finally got inside, they decided that they needed to fight with each other. DJ kept taking away L's toys and holding them an arms length from her while she freaked out. L decided that it was a good idea to climb on the chairs in the least safe way possible. They were so bad, the Notar actually asked me if we were certain that we wanted another child. I HATE that question. A lot! Especially when it's completely reasonable to ask it. *sigh* At any rate, that notarization for those forms is done and they will also get them certified for us. That just leaves the proof of employment letter from D's work and there are 2 signatures on that letter. Both of the people said they were willing to go to the Notar's, but they didn't say when. I hope they go in some time this week so we can get these certified documents to the German Federal Office to be authenticated. We really need to get everything to the Crescent Moon embassy ASAP so they can be on their way to our agency in the states, then sent on to Crescent Moon before September 13th. No pressure or anything.... ;-)
I felt terrible even asking him to do that but everyone made it clear that there was no other option, so I called and explained the situation to him. He was not upset with me, but thought the situation was absurd! He had no problems laughing about the ridiculousness of their request. Luckily, he was really sweet and was willing to do it "just for us", he said. He actually told me that the reason he was willing to go for us was because he wanted "one more in Heaven". :-) It was funny though, because he asked me if he would need to bring his mom with him so that she could verify that he was who he said he was! lol!! I'm so glad he's such a great-natured person! We went to meet him there an hour ago. He had a very small window because he had phone calls and house visits to make. (Yes, a Doctor that still makes house visits every day! I told you he was awesome!!) The Notar's office was locked when it was supposed to be open. We waited and kept ringing the bell outside the door that is supposed to ring inside, but nothing. Finally the Dr. had the idea to go downstairs (the office is on the 1st floor upstairs) and see if the phone number was on the front door. Luckily, it was! When he called, a lady answered and said that of course they were open! She had forgotten to unlock the door!! Yikes! If he hadn't called, who knows if they ever would have noticed that and he would have had to leave to go back to work without getting to meet the Notar. I hate to even think about that!!
Unfortunately, all the craziness rubbed off on DJ & L (N was sleeping) and while we were waiting, they decided that they needed to run up and down the stairs. These are marble stairs in a very small sterile environment, so it was LOUD! Then when we finally got inside, they decided that they needed to fight with each other. DJ kept taking away L's toys and holding them an arms length from her while she freaked out. L decided that it was a good idea to climb on the chairs in the least safe way possible. They were so bad, the Notar actually asked me if we were certain that we wanted another child. I HATE that question. A lot! Especially when it's completely reasonable to ask it. *sigh* At any rate, that notarization for those forms is done and they will also get them certified for us. That just leaves the proof of employment letter from D's work and there are 2 signatures on that letter. Both of the people said they were willing to go to the Notar's, but they didn't say when. I hope they go in some time this week so we can get these certified documents to the German Federal Office to be authenticated. We really need to get everything to the Crescent Moon embassy ASAP so they can be on their way to our agency in the states, then sent on to Crescent Moon before September 13th. No pressure or anything.... ;-)
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Dream
Last night, I had a wonderful dream! I dreamt that D&I finally got Z. There was a lady who worked at a house that sort of doubled as day-care/school and orphanage, but it was a bit nicer than you would expect of such a place in Crescent Moon. I had been explaining to her several of the obstacles we had encountered and she sympathized with me and we were talking about how the system itself is in need of some improvement. As we were talking about ways we felt would improve the system, I expressed special sorrow for those orphans who have heart problems who need medical help ASAP. (Is advocacy in my future? Perhaps...) She also showed me around the facilities and she had long cords that resembled the old coil telephone cords, but much longer. She said that she would knot these up a special way and then paint the child's name on them in various colors so that when it was unknotted, it would simply have a unique color pattern that had a deeper meaning than it appeared to the untrained eye. She explained that she started doing this for each child when they got their first baths in the facility because they were often scared and having such a special thing to look at that was uniquely theirs really brought them comfort. After that bath, the coils would be unknotted and then hung over their bed to identify it in a subtle way. I guess it doesn't sound very special when I write it out, but in the dream it was the coolest, sweetest idea I had heard in a long time! She had even made some for DJ, L, & N for me since I told her how much I loved the idea. She really was such a sweet lady!!
After showing me around and talking for a long while, she told me that it was time to go meet Z. She had been in kindergarten and the class would be getting over any minute, so we headed over there. Several kids filed out of the room and I could feel my anticipation mounting. At last, I saw Z slowly come out of the room. I noticed that her eyes seemed very bright. They were beautiful big brown eyes. She seemed like she had some difficulty seeing well, but she could clearly see some. The lady who I had been with went and took her by the hand which really reassured Z. She led Z up some stairs to where I was and she introduced me, but didn't tell her yet that I was adopting her. I remember her politely shaking my hand with her left hand instead of her right. Not surprisingly, she melted my heart almost instantly. The lady, Z, & I went over to a quiet area and just talked. The lady was asking her about her day and Z's comfort level seemed to indicate that this was a daily routine for them. I was amazed that Z seemed to know quite a bit of English and spoke it perfectly. After a while, the lady somehow introduced the concept of "mom" into the conversation. Z got a little sad and looked away with her head down because it was a foreign concept to her, but one she knew she wanted. The lady told her that I had come here to be her mom from now on. Z's face brightened up and she looked at me with anticipation and said, "Mom?" That was the moment my heart became a puddle of goo....
I took the lady aside the next time I got an opportunity and told her that as much as I loved Z and getting to be a part of her life, I was worried that I was violating some laws because we had not yet submitted our I-800, which is the petition for Z to be found eligible to be adopted. She explained that it wasn't really a vital part of the process, but that it's more of a "strong suggestion". She said that there was another thing we could do instead. (I can't remember what, but it somehow involved Jamaica) She said we could have 14 days to get that completed, which should be plenty of time. Then, after that 14 days, we would not have to worry about the adoption falling apart any longer.
The next thing in my dream, Z & I were walking hand-in-hand along with D through various situations - church, a walk, playground, meeting new people, etc. She had a blue box/car that seemed very precious to her that she sometimes wanted to be in, but sometimes she was content to just have it near her. We were so busy just enjoying the special time that we weren't taking many pictures and I remember feeling really bad that we hadn't taken enough pictures of her old life so that she could see them when she got older if she wanted to know more about this time of her life. She was amazingly open with D & me, but very shy around new people. Often people that we knew, especially those who prayed for & followed along on our adoption journey, would be so excited to finally meet her that they would approach her a bit too quickly or touch her shoulder or something innocent for them, but a bit much for her. I remember telling her that these were friends who just didn't understand that they made her feel uncomfortable and that they only meant to make her feel welcome and loved. She seemed much better after I explained that. In particular, I remember introducing her to "Mr. Cooper". Oddly enough, I don't remember ever introducing DJ, L, or N to her. Perhaps we were waiting until after the 14 days was over so we didn't have to take their new sister away from them.
After showing me around and talking for a long while, she told me that it was time to go meet Z. She had been in kindergarten and the class would be getting over any minute, so we headed over there. Several kids filed out of the room and I could feel my anticipation mounting. At last, I saw Z slowly come out of the room. I noticed that her eyes seemed very bright. They were beautiful big brown eyes. She seemed like she had some difficulty seeing well, but she could clearly see some. The lady who I had been with went and took her by the hand which really reassured Z. She led Z up some stairs to where I was and she introduced me, but didn't tell her yet that I was adopting her. I remember her politely shaking my hand with her left hand instead of her right. Not surprisingly, she melted my heart almost instantly. The lady, Z, & I went over to a quiet area and just talked. The lady was asking her about her day and Z's comfort level seemed to indicate that this was a daily routine for them. I was amazed that Z seemed to know quite a bit of English and spoke it perfectly. After a while, the lady somehow introduced the concept of "mom" into the conversation. Z got a little sad and looked away with her head down because it was a foreign concept to her, but one she knew she wanted. The lady told her that I had come here to be her mom from now on. Z's face brightened up and she looked at me with anticipation and said, "Mom?" That was the moment my heart became a puddle of goo....
I took the lady aside the next time I got an opportunity and told her that as much as I loved Z and getting to be a part of her life, I was worried that I was violating some laws because we had not yet submitted our I-800, which is the petition for Z to be found eligible to be adopted. She explained that it wasn't really a vital part of the process, but that it's more of a "strong suggestion". She said that there was another thing we could do instead. (I can't remember what, but it somehow involved Jamaica) She said we could have 14 days to get that completed, which should be plenty of time. Then, after that 14 days, we would not have to worry about the adoption falling apart any longer.
The next thing in my dream, Z & I were walking hand-in-hand along with D through various situations - church, a walk, playground, meeting new people, etc. She had a blue box/car that seemed very precious to her that she sometimes wanted to be in, but sometimes she was content to just have it near her. We were so busy just enjoying the special time that we weren't taking many pictures and I remember feeling really bad that we hadn't taken enough pictures of her old life so that she could see them when she got older if she wanted to know more about this time of her life. She was amazingly open with D & me, but very shy around new people. Often people that we knew, especially those who prayed for & followed along on our adoption journey, would be so excited to finally meet her that they would approach her a bit too quickly or touch her shoulder or something innocent for them, but a bit much for her. I remember telling her that these were friends who just didn't understand that they made her feel uncomfortable and that they only meant to make her feel welcome and loved. She seemed much better after I explained that. In particular, I remember introducing her to "Mr. Cooper". Oddly enough, I don't remember ever introducing DJ, L, or N to her. Perhaps we were waiting until after the 14 days was over so we didn't have to take their new sister away from them.
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