The extended stretch

Boring paperwork updates ahead for anyone interested:

Tomorrow morning, we're mailing off a big ole packet of stuff to Kate, after getting it all notarized at the bank. Included in this packet are our FBI fingerprints, our letter of why we want to adopt, Ted's updated medical form, my home-maker letter, a bunch of new pictures of the house, and the letter from the bank.

Ted ended up getting the bank letter by going to a different branch, actually one of those rinky-dinky ones that are part of a larger one-stop-shop store. They did it with virtually no problem. The only snag was that they couldn't notarize the actual letter, but rather had to attach a separate page to the letter, which they could notarize. I don't understand why, but Kate said it's fine. The lady who did our letter today did exactly what the lady at the other branch said the bank couldn't do, on several points.

I'm always amazed at how little you could get done in life if you merely accepted the first answer you get from some official. I remember trying to mail a package that I'd wrapped up in the classifieds and being sent away with instructions to repack it in a solid color. They even told me the number of the postal violation this was. So I drove to another post office branch, actually a larger one, and they mailed it exactly as I'd first wrapped it, no problem.

Now there's a hand-full of things we're waiting on, like those three letters of reference. We also have to get a financial statement from a c.p.a. next week and get a couple of more passport photos made. Then when our home-study is finished, it's sent to the CIS office, and they'll call us in to get fingerprinted.

So, mailing this packet off tomorrow will be a big burden lifted, though there's still a few things hanging out there. It's coming along.

Thanks for all the encouragement, those of you who've commented on this blog and talked to us in "real life." It means a lot.