More Notarization and Grant Application

On Friday (23rd) we had Sweeti's referral notarized. We had to sign across a picture of her which was stapled to the referral. It was a new/updated photo of her--kind of like a passport photo. She sure has grown since October! We got everything notarized and sent off the few documents that still need to be apostilled. When we get those back, we will send the referral and the dossier together to the agency along with a chunk of change. On Friday we also sent off an application for a grant that we received in the mail Friday morning. Hopefully, they will be able to help us with our remaining balance at the agency.

REJECTED!

We got our dossier documents back from the Secretary of State office last Friday, and some of the documents were not certified. One of the notaries we used was not registered with the state, and another notary did not say "Subscribed and sworn before me this ____ day of _____ 2008" by their signature/stamp. So, we're having some documents re-done. We received one back today, are waiting for one, and have one here to be notarized ourselves when we go to the notary ourselves. Hopefully in a few days we'll be ready to resubmit those documents to the State.

We received Sweeti's official referral acceptance papers yesterday, so those will need to be notarized (but not apostilled) and sent to our agency along with our dossier to be forwarded to India.

The agency notified us today that they will send a disk with video/pictures of Sweeti to us and that they are looking into a grant for us too.

It is energizing to see the process pick up momentum and finally be going somewhere, but somewhat draining to always have "one more document" to notarize or "another form" to fill out. Knowing we are making progress and getting closer to getting our daughter home helps ease the difficult truth that we are still many, many months away from meeting her for the first time.

Acceptance and Clearance

E-mail received today:

"She is down with chicken-pox and hence we were not able to take her back for her follow-up. But her doctor has reviewed her blood reports which are fine and feels that she is ready for surgery now. We would like to have the formal acceptance letter from the Stafford family right away, as we have got her clearance."

We have sent off the acceptance letter via e-mail, so it looks like this is a go!! Our agency sent us the form letter for the acceptance letter this morning, and as soon as Ashraya receives that via e-mail, they will release her official documents to the agency. Our dossier went off to the MN SOS this week for apostilling and so when we get that back we need only to add the pictures we are having developed/printed and then it can go off to India to get the court process started. Our work is almost done--now primarily relying on the slow Indian courts. We hope that everything in our dossier is acceptable--I don't want to have to redo anything that will slow the process down.

Dossier is off!

We mailed off our dossier to the Secretary of State's office today after a notarizing session last night w/ our city's mayor who happens to also be a notary. Thanks to everyone who helped us by writing letters or serving as notary!

Now we wait for the documents to be apostilled and returned to us. We can then forward them on to our agency (along with some economic stimulus $$$) who will forward them on to India so we can get started with the court system.

No word yet as to if Sweeti's final clearance came in or further information regarding her bloodwork/surgery.

Rainbowkids Update and a New Cousin!

Our agency wrote a follow-up article today to the December article which told us about Vee, Eye and Sweeti- 3 kids with spinal issues at the same baby home. (See previous posting- Friday, December 7, 2007) This new May article is more information about Vee. It includes the following in reference to the December article:

Two of my friends told their story too, but they were luckier than I was, their new families are already preparing to travel for them..

So I guess we are Sweeti's family! It's good to hear some finality. There is too much up in the air in the adoption process. Even when things are looking up, you don't want to get too attached or excited because you're afraid the bubble may burst.

My cousin and his family were blessed with their new infant son/brother this week through adoption. Welcome to the family, "S"!

Photos and More!

We received several photos of Sweeti yesterday, along with medical information and child history. Sweeti was left at Missionaries of Charity-- started by Mother Theresa-- and spent the first 5 1/2 months of her life there being taken care of by nuns. They are the ones who named her. She is cute as a button and doing well. She crawls, plays with toys, feeds herself cookies (biscuits), walks if someone holds her hands and vocalizes. She just turned one, with 4/16/07 as her birthday. She should be cleared for adoption this week.

We sent her medical information to Dr. Dana Johnson at the International Adoption Clinic at the U of M, and he is optimistic about her prognosis. Her surgery scheduled for April 9th was cancelled because of the results of pre-surgical blood tests, so we are waiting for more information on that. Otherwise, everything looks promising.

We are waiting on one letter and one trip to the notary still.

Almost There!

One more reference letter and visit to the notary and we're ready to send everything off to the Secretary of State's office. The pictures don't need to be apostilled, so I've still got some time to get those together while the SOS has our other documents.

Consulting a few Indian websites and international baby name books, I've discovered that Sweeti's name also can mean "to honor" or "to shine". Our 8-year old's name means "sunshine", so how perfect it would be to have two sunny daughters!

As the tortoise said to the hare: "Slowly but surely wins the race!"