10-24-07 Went to pick up my re-done pics at Walmart and oh yea, they were still bad! I had to take my neighbors digital camera, run around retaking them, dropped them at Wallgreens and finally got them right. Put them in fed ex envelope along with a big check to the agency, and THATS IT!!! :) Finally all submitted and out of my hands! Don't know that they'll be anything to report too often now but we'll see.... Make sure you take the poll on the front page!

10-23-07 Got another doctor to re-do my medical form and luckily he had a notary in the office. Picked it up at noon and back to Trenton AGAIN!! Dropped off for it to be Apostilled. It'll be done and Fed Ex'd to agency tomorrow. But now I needed pictures of every room in my house, a formal one of me, one of a nearby school and a park. Well, if anyone was following me they'd think I was stalking children or something! Got pics done and went to Target to get developed in 1 hr..... yea right.... OF COURSE....its under construction and isn't open. Off to Walmart....dropped off, waited an hour, went to pick up and they're all blurry and cropped wrong! Seriously?!?!?!? Can NOTHING go smoothly this week? They're re-doing them and I'll go get them tomorrow. Hopefully. Agency said rest of my dossier is on its way to the translator! :)

10-22-07 Ok, I just need to vent! I'm at the end of the good ol' paperchase and just as I think my dossier is done, there's always another problem. So now, my medical evaluation form. My doctor recently left the practice but knew I'd need this filled out, so he still agreed to do so. He then had it notarized (correctly) in NY (I live in NJ) NEVER THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE AN ISSUE! Sent all my dossier docs to be apostilled. Paid $620 to have it expedited! Went to pick it up today and the medical form was rejected. I was unaware that where I was going in NJ was only good for NJ notaries. So now after numerous calls to my agency while practically in tears out on the sidewalk, I would have to get a county certification in NY first THEN apostilled in NY. OR get him to re-do and notarize in NJ. Fine. THEN.... oh yes... it gets better. I realize my "doctor" isn't even an MD. He's a DO (or something like that) so Kaz won't accept it from him ANYWAY! Tomorrow I have to track down another doctor entirely and have to find one that will get it notarized....and the right way. I thought this was all gonna be done as of today. Nothing like a little bubble bursting. My dossier is submitted to my agency now,though. Joe went with me and helped me make the apostille copies and attach to all the other 6 copies. Took over an hour! They can begin translating it but just waiting for this medical form, and then apostille it...AGAIN. waaaaaaaa!

10-19-07 Picked up realtor's letter, perfectly done! Made my necessary copies of it, and had CIS approval notarized and drove straight to Trenton to drop off my entire dossier to be apostilled!!!! (this is pretty much a notary of the notaries... really, I know!) Trip took me only about 50 minutes. The regular service is $5 per document (which I had 31) and was told usually takes 7-10 days. Well apparantly my luck they're so backed up they're looking at closer to 30 days!!!! Oh good God no, I'm not losing another month. So you can have them done quicker for an ADDITIONAL $15/per document~ So $620 later.... I'm picking them up on Monday (today is Fri). I will pick them up, and bring the entire thing, and all my document copies to the agency for the final drop off!!!! It was completely bizarre dropping it off today. All this hard work, energy, stress, asking people favors, timelines.... just to turn it over to someone you dont know and pray nothing happens to it. I got in the car and felt like "wow" finally. Yet still feel like I must be missing something, I can't have NOTHING to do now (in terms of this paperwork). But that REALLY is about it (I think). I'll pick it up Monday, drop it off to agency and wait....about 5 months.

10-18-07 GOT CIS APPROVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Notice of favorable determination concerning application for advance processing of orphan petition" wow! finally!!! Told Don and he said they actually never even got thru to plead my "case". Just need the Realtor's letter and I'm done!

10-12-07 Picked up my medical form completed and notarized perfectly. I needed the "home ownership" form filled out by a realtor, mortgage company, etc. Well the mortgage company I HAVE MY MORTGAGE WITH wouldn't do it b/c they can't vauge for the amount of rooms, bathrooms, etc. But if I wanted to pay for an appraisal first, THEN they'd do it. Moving on... Asked the realtor that sold me my house. He kindly did it, but picked it up today and he didn't follow ANY of the notary rules I told him.... notarized completely wrong. Said to use ink stamp not raise seal. Got raised seal no ink stamp. Said spell out New Jersey. Got NJ. Commission can't expire within one year. Expires in 2 months. Completely useless. He was already a bit annoyed at all the "rules" (which he didn't follow anyway) so I couldn't ask him to re-do them. I got in the car and walked in to the first real estate office I saw, explained what I needed and they agreed to help. So just need this letter AND THE CIS APPROVAL!

10-11-07 MAJOR MELTDOWN DAY! The overwhelming paperchase has officially taken its toll. I sat here trying to make heads or tails of what I had done, what I still needed, who I needed it from, was everything in the right order, were all the staples in the right place (seriously, not kidding, a missing staple can ruin everything!) What needed to be notarized, what was able to be copies (and notarized as such), how many originals for dossier #1, #2 and the 5 additional copies.... WHERE THE HELL IS THIS CIS APPROVAL! I'm doing the "timeline math"... when I first started it looked like I'd be traveling in Feb.. 3 weeks there 2 home and 3-5 days on 2nd trip. Now that it took a month longer than expected to get my homestudy report submitted and this CIS pain... looking like traveling in END of Feb. Then I find out its not 2 weeks home but 2 weeks of the mandatory waiting period THEN 2 weeks for them to process the baby's paperwork (birth certificate, visas, etc). THEN go back for 2nd trip so now looking at not bringing her home till end of April! Ok, I know EVERYONE wants their child as soon as possible. And everyone is anxious. But I started this process at a specific time for a specific reason. In the business I'm in I can't be taking off a month or two when my busy season is just starting. So there's the stress of THIS time issue. Anyone that knows whats been going on with my grandmother, well she's not doing well at all. She's on 2nd round of chemo and dr's saying if it doesn't "work" this time, it could potentially leave her with a matter of months. She's saying to me "I'm ONLY hanging in here to see this baby. Is there anything you can do to hurry it along?" OH nothing like a punch in the gut. Its out of my hands. I'm frustrated its taking this long. And There's nothing I can do. I lost it. I called Don at the agency and told him I needed to come over. I brought all my papers and needed to make sense of everything. I started to tell Sonja (our director) and Carol (Social worker) what I was going thru. I started crying. They didn't realize my situation was this detailed and said they'd put another call in to see if it could be rushed. I spent the next 2 hrs going over everything spread out over their conference table and piecing together what goes where and what still needs to be done. There was no way I could have done it via phone. It was a huge help and I'm grateful that they always DO seem to be there when you need them! I went to my office and began the dreaded copy making. 5 full copies of the complete dossier... front and back, staples vs. no staples, correct order, etc. Feel like I made headway today.

10-10-07 Still no CIS approval! I called my agency and told Don my dilemma with the receipt number and how I can't seem to find out what the hold up is. He put a call in, just to find out... Oh yea, they HAVE it but looks like another 1 1/2-2 weeks!! So disheartening when everything that was in your control was done the right way in the shortest amount of time and now all these other steps are taking longer than you planned.

10-3-07 Ok, I was supposed to have this CIS approval back in 2 months from the day my homestudy was sent in (Aug 1st). Still nothing. They give you this phone number to check on the status of your application but they ask you to punch in your 10 digit account number in the upper left corner of your receipt but I have 6 digits in the upper right corner. So NOW WHAT? Of course you can't get a human either. Just a "sorry, you've entered an invalid #" Guess I have to wait. Had to track down my Dr. (since he left the office I used to see him in). Fortunately for ME....I originally met him when he hired me to videotape his daughter's BarMitzvah last year...so I had his home info! He already filled out the medical forms I needed for the homestudy and had agreed to fill out the one I'd need "in the future". Well that time is NOW and he's left the office. After sending him a pleading letter to his home, he called and said it would be no problem! Yea! Phew.

9-15-07 Minor heart attack! I just got a letter that my agency's corporate President has resigned. As of October 1, 2007, the agency's name will be changed to "Child Promise". I was worried that THIS would be a problem since ALL my homestudy approvals have Reaching Out's name on them, but after a frantic phone call I was assured that the new license will be in conjunction with the old one. They will be "formerly Reaching Out" and maintain their active license, I guess until everything changes over.This is not supposed to effect me in any way. Phew!