Wednesday, April 11, 2007

I'm approved to be approved!

Yep, I cleared the first hurdle (albeit the easiest) in our journey to bring home little sister. I got CIS approval, which came about a month before I expected. Of course I was over the moon. Now if I could get all those niggling little pieces of paper to finish their journeys for notaries, stamps, authentications, reviews, etc., etc.

I've hit one snag along the way... not realizing my divorce decree had to come from Virginia's vital records department, I got a notarized copy from the court where the divorce was granted. Then I sent it off to the Virginia state department to get authenticated, where they told me it wasn't dated so they couldn't authenticate. So I called the court, and they said, oh... you need it certified and authenticated so you can get it authenticated? Okay, we'll do that. Send us a letter... so the court in speedy order sent me a new dated, certified divorce decree. Then I was reading the form letter that the Virginia state department had sent me, and saw a spot (not checked, mind you) that said vital records that need to be authenticated must come from the vital records department. Sorry, didn't know that a divorce decree was a vital record. Apparently in the commonwealth, it is! So now I'm back to square one on the divorce document. I've sent a letter and money to the vital records department requesting a certified copy of my divorce, and asking them to send it on to the Virgina state department to authenticate. This has set me back about two weeks in getting the dossier done. I always hated that divorce.

And, I'm still waiting for my birth certificate from the middle state of Illinois. Hurry up!

Griffin is so sweet, by the way. He built me a house in the living room (using his favorite building materials, every pillow and cushion within the living room confines, plus a few step stools). This house has an upstairs and a downstairs, and a super-soft floor. He is amazing. He told me he built it just for me, using all his skills.

Adios for now. I must work.

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