I've never had an actual baby, but I know what labor pains are!!! Adoption labor pains, that is!! The above is the product of many weeks and months of an extreeeeeemely long labor!! It is coming down to the wire, too, and the pains are quickening!!

The above is what is called our "dossier". It is an un-Godly amount of paperwork (but still a fraction of what some countries require...!) that is required so that Mark and I can become parents. I will tell you what the bulk of it is. In no particular order. Ready??

1. Our Homestudy (which includes massive amounts of paperwork in and of itself! This is a 10-page (or so) summary of who we are as a family and what we can and want to offer to Simon. It had to be done by a licensed social worker. It's a BIG DEAL.
2. Copy of the social worker's license
3. Copy of the social worker's agency license
4. The all-important I-171H document, which is the permission by the INS (USCIS) to us saying that we're decent enough folks to adopt and bring an orphan here to the US.
   
5. Two color copies of our passports
6. A Power of Attorney letter giving our facilitator permission to act on our behalf when needed in-country
7. An employment letter from my employment
8. A letter re: Mark's self-employment
9. A Certified copy from the Property Appraiser of our county re: our house
10. A letter from our mortgage company describing our house
11. FBI clearance for each of us
    
12. Two copies of our marriage certificate (isn't that romantic?)
13. A copy of the warranty deed on our house (if we rented it would be so much easier!!)
14. A Petition to Adopt: this is a thing stating what kind of child we want, like disability types, age range, etc. This goes to the officials in Kiev.
15. Two copies of a Letter of Obligation: This just tells the officials over there that we'll register Simon at the Consulate, etc. when we get him.
16. Our IRS 1040 form for 2008
17. Mark's income verification statement
18. A somewhat detailed Medical form filled out by our doc
19. A copy of our doc's license
20. A letter specifically requesting that Simon be offered to us when we present ourselves to the officials in Kiev.
    

Each and every single one of these documents has to be notaried or certified, and sent to Tallahassee for an apostille, which says that the notary is an actual notary, and not a fraud.

When that's done, then we sent it all off to our facilitator who then translates it all (poor thing!!) and submits it to the authorities (the State Department of Adoptions) in Kiev and hopefully they will approve it!! If and when they do, they give us an appointment date and you'd better believe we won't miss it!!

I think it's neat that the boys have been able to witness what Mark and I are doing to get little Simon and bring him here. When I got Reese, I tried involving Natasha so she could see what I went through to get HER, but I know she remembers nothing of it. Then, when we got Nikolai, both Nat and Reese could see what I went through to get him, but I'm sure Nat doesn't remember any of it either (I don't believe she remembers much of anything from her years with us - probably a lot of it is "selective memory"). Reese says he only remembers how "hard" it was, with Nikolai being one of maybe less than 1% of Russian orphans being adopted directly out of a mental institution; and the director doing so much to try and stop it. It was incredibly stressful! But this time they will both remember it (Reese and Nik - of course, Nat isn't here with us), and I hope it will help them cherish him a little bit more, seeing the process and what all of us have done to get him here. :o)

So that's that. We still have a document here and there that needs to be finalized, but for the most part, we are READY. I'll let you know when they are 100% complete and ready to be sent for their apostilles!! It's getting close!!