And We're Off!!!

This is what my desk at work looked like yesterday when I got back from getting all the documents certified by the county and state.

Steve ended up not being able to go take these last few documents to be certified but luckily I had no plans during the lunch hour, so I ventured out to do it myself.  I had already had several of them done, so I kind of remembered where to go and what to do.  However, one of the office buildings had moved since we were there last, so there was some panic on my part in having to figure out how to get to a new place.

That was my first stop and it was super easy to find (using Mapquest) and then there was absolutely NO WAITING when I got there.  It was fantastic!  I was in and out in no time at all.  However, the state certification was a little more trickly because it was downtown and you have to navigate one way streets and parking meters/no parking zones etc.  Many office buildings downtown have their own private parking areas, but they aren't open to the public.  I managed to find the building fairly quickly, but the meters I had lucked up on the last time were covered and you weren't allowed to park there.  I drove around the block several times before paying $6 to park in a public lot that was about 2 blocks away. 

It was 50 degrees, so it wasn't too bad of a walk and I got my steps in for the day!  The certification place wasn't crowded, but there were definitely more people waiting than last time.  And bless the lady's heart...she's sweet as can be, but slow as Christmas.

Anyway, all that to say, I got everything done that I needed and here we are...

This is the complete dossier package...OUR LIVES ON PAPER...headed to China (which you can see on my world map in the background).  OK, it's not actually headed to China right now.  Right this minute it's on it's way to Virginia, where our agency is located so that I can use their courier service to run this little jewel over to the State Department and Chinese Embassy in Washington DC to be authenticated.  Once it is authenticated then it really WILL be off to China.

I admit, I did get a little choked up leaving the state building knowing that this part of the journey was almost over.  But then actually taking the pictures and putting it in the mail was anticlimactic.  I guess I thought there would be angels singing or shafts of light from heaven.  Not so much.

But it will be nice not to have to carry around my huge expand-a-file of adoption documentation. 

And now...we wait.