Starting my Dossier

I surprised my parents by showing up on their doorstep (actually in their living room, haha) on Monday.  I road tripped with the amazing Karen, Clint and Grace.  We left The Woodlands Sunday at 5:00AM and arrived into Ames, Iowa at 7:30PM.  We stayed at a hotel Sunday night and then toured Iowa State (gag me, haha) Monday AM and then drove to Iowa City to tour The University of Iowa and meet with the director of admissions at the Wendell Johnson Speech Language Pathology department to get information for Grace.  After our U of I tour (with a stop at UIQuickCare to get a TB test) I surprised my parents.  And surprised they were!

I had big plans for Tuesday.  Or should I say ... I officially started my Dossier by obtaining my Birth Certificate.  Mom started her morning by applying for a passport.  With my birth certificate in hand we drove to Des Moines to the Secretary of the State's office for an apostille.  

An "apostille" is a form of authentication issued to documents for use in countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961.

Yesterday and today have blurred together with the amount of paperwork I have been doing.  Here's what my MyAdoptionPortal task list looks like:

A few of these (i.e. marriage certificate) don't apply to me ... and some I just need to obtain the form to upload (i.e. employment verification)

It's a balancing act because as I am obtaining the Home Study documents, I'm also obtaining my Dossier documents.  Some overlap and some are the same thing on a different form.  

Tonight I registered for my Hauge accredited adoption education.  Honestly ... I had never heard of the Hauge convention prior to a few weeks ago.  I'm learning as I go!  If you are not familiar with it -

The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Convention) is an international agreement to safeguard intercountry adoptions. Concluded on May 29, 1993 in The Hague, the Netherlands, the Convention establishes international standards of practices for intercountry adoptions. The United States signed the Convention in 1994, and the Convention entered into force for the United States on April 1, 2008.

The hardest part of it all is having to put faith in other people to do their part to get everything done smoothly.  I will be hiring a courier service to take my birth certificate with it's state certification to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.  Once it is authenticated it will be sent back to me.  Once my dossier is complete (it cannot be complete until my Home Study is issued) I will hire a courier to take it to Austin (unless it's at a time I can road trip there) to get state certification and then hire another courier to take to the Chinese Consulate in Houston.  I also am waiting for my employee verification from my school district, reference letters, reference forms, medical forms from doctor ... the list goes on.  

On my most immediate TO DO list: Completing my "Heart of the Matter" Education, writing my autobiography ... and enjoying family while I'm in Iowa.  

Can you believe it???  Ryan will be turning FIVE!  She is having her 5th birthday party on Friday and I'm excited I'll be able to go!  Her theme is "Trolls".  I need to watch the movie with her ... I still haven't seen it!

Thanks for following my journey!

Love,

Jen