Adoptions require inordinate amounts of paperwork...completed forms, personal histories, birth certificates, marriage certificates, medical, legal, social, you name it. These documents are completed, checked over, notarized, authenticated, legalized, hand-delivered, over-nighted, tracked....
We've been through many rounds of these processes over the past many years. When a Home Study is completed by the social worker, it is submitted to DCFS for approval. This has to occur before other pieces can fall into place. In our experience, as with the experiences of others, this approval can take weeks - even months. So what's the miracle? This time around, our wonderful social worker, Heather, called DCFS directly, told them the story of the girls, and our Home Study was approved in 3 hours...3 hours.
Tomorrow, several of our documents are being hand-delivered to Haiti. First of all, what an amazing blessing that we aren't worried about the tracking for this set of paper. However, before the documents can be taken to Haiti, they have to be legalized at the Haitian Consulate. Initially, our agency was told this would take at least 4 days or more. So, what's the miracle? One of the top folks at the Consulate called Heather last night to let her know they had completed the process in a day and the documents would be ready.
Fortunately, these events seem to occur right on the heels of other events that can be complex and downright challenging. These bright spots in the tunnel of the paper chase keep our spirits high and recharge our hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment