More Officialness

Ok, so officialness is probably not really a word, but seems close to me.

The big stack of paperwork we have been collecting is for our Dossier. The dossier is the compilation of all the documents that our agency will eventually put together. Once complete, the dossier will be sent to China, Also known as DTC, dossier to china.

We've been working on this part since May. Some were things we had to get from government agencies-birth and marriage certificates. Some we had to create-adoption petition, financial statement. Some we had to do-physicals, and some we had to ask for-police clearances and employment verification letters. Plus the home study, back ground checks, and child abuse clearances.

Each document had to be notarized (shout out to Linda GH and the fab ladies at the JC Clerk's office). Once notarized, the stack went to the Secretary of State's office to be certified and then to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to be authenticated.

Luckily our agency gives us a detailed guide of how to complete each step. We were able to send everything to a courrier in Chicago to take them to the Secretary of State's office and the Chinese Consulate.

We got everything back this week. It passed inspection.

The Jesse White seal of approval!

The official seal of the Chinese Consulate. 

Now that we our documents were approved, we needed 3 passport pictures each, 3 couple pictures, and 8 family life pictures along with 2 more checks. 

This seems like Deja Vu, I have seen these stacks before....

The last almost 4 months of work come down to this. 

I mailed it all to Colorado on Wednesday and got an email from them on Thursday that it was received. The agency will review everything again. Unfortunately we have to wait for one more document (the immigration approval) before it can all be sent to Ch*na, but it is a huge relief to have this part complete. I think I'll sleep better at night knowing all these irreplaceable documents are out of the house!