a⋅pos⋅til
  /əˈpɒstɪl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [uh-pos-til] Show IPA
–noun
a marginal annotation or note.
Also, a⋅pos⋅tille.

Origin:
1520–30; < class="ital-inline">apostille, n. deriv. of apostiller to add marginal notes, deriv., with a- a- 5 , of ML postilla marginal note, perh. from the phrase post illa (verba) after these (words), with illa construed as the L dim. suffix
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It doesn't make any sense to me, either...

But an apostille is a BIG DEAL to anyone who adopts overseas!! It's basically a seal that is put on a document.

First, you have to have the document notarized. Then, in certain states (like in TN, I know from experience!) you have to have a county person certify that the notary is a notary. Then, you have to have yet ANOTHER "apostille seal" (usually another 8 1/2 X 11 document) stapled to the certification from the state stating that the certification is an actual certification!!

Fortunately, in FL we can skip the certification step and only have to endure the notarization and apostille.

Remember the photo of the documents that I had on my last post? Well, each and every one of those documents had to be notarized (or certified, such as our marriage certificate - no notary needed on those) and then each and every one had to have an apostille attached.

So where is my beautiful husband today? On the road to Tallahassee with the stack 'o' stuff (what we call our dossier of documents) to get apostilles on them so we can FedEx everything to Ukraine tomorrow!! Bless his heart, the a/c is out on the Caddy (what a beater!) and so he took my beloved yellow Bug with the flower decals all over it on his trip! He HATES to drive my Bug!! (Can't really blame him, though, it is a total "chick" car!!) It even has flowers on the dashboard in a vase and a Snow White ornament hanging from the rear view mirror. Poor guy!! Ech - it's good for him. ;op