Little By Little, Were Inching Towards Our Baby

So as of today we are officially on board with our new agency! This morning we met with the Vietnam program coordinator and discussed a bit about the program with her. We also dropped off the contracts and our initial payment. So now we finally get to start collecting the paperwork for our dossier! Much of it we have already like the birth certificates, passports, background checks, homestudy report, and of course we cant forget the granddaddy of them all........the 171-H. The only things we have to get is our letters of employment, and our medical forms signed off on again. No biggie.

For those who arent familiar, the dossier paperwork is what get sent overseas to the adoption officials. Its the information that represents us to the Ministry of Justice as prospective adoptive parents. Not only do we have to collect this pile of paperwork, but then it has to go through the Secretary of State, the US Embassy, and Im not exactly sure if there is anyone else who needs to have a hand in the certification/authentication of all those documents. Thats where everyone has to attest to the fact that all of the papers and notarizations are authentic, hence the name. Then after all THAT is done, then the good people at FedEx can get it on its way to the airport where it will spend 4 days making its way to Vietnam.

Anyway, back to this morning, our adoption coordinator thinks that we may be able to have our dossier heading off to Vietnam in about 2 months!!! Then the wait for a referral is 1-3 months, but I have a feeling it will happen fairly quickly. Then travel is roughly 6 weeks later!

Its looking like we may have our baby by the end of the year if things move along smoothly!!! PLEASE let things go smoothly!!!!!!!