Ahhhhh....

Today was an eventful one. Eight months of filling out forms, collecting documents, being visited by the social worker, sending emails, making phone calls, writing checks, visiting the post office, having fingerprints taken (five times, but who is counting?), watching the mailbox - all have led up to this day when OUR DOSSIER IS ON ITS WAY! We were told to expect our I171H by the end of the week. It arrived right on schedule. I heard the mail truck and immediately ran out to the mailbox where I discovered a nondescript white envelope with USCIS as the return address. I danced a little jig right there in the street and then ran into the house where I called my sister and begged her to drive me to Springfield. She and my niece arrived soon after to accompany me on my important journey to get the Illinois state seal on my dossier. When we arrived at the Secretary of State's office, I pulled out my camera and made her take my picture. A little strange, I know, but this is an important day that I want to remember. As soon as we walked into the office, the girl at the front desk said, "You're an adoption case, aren't you?" We laughed and asked her how she knew. She said she had seen us taking a picture and the only people who take pictures in front of the Secretary of State's office are adoptive parents. Ha! I asked her if she wanted to be in the picture, but she declined. A short while later, we headed down the road to the post office where our dossier was packaged into an Express Mail envelope and sent to Washington, D.C. to be authenticated. I must admit that leaving there without my paper baby left me feeling a bit naked, but oh so relieved! I can't believe we have made it this far. The dossier:

Just for fun, here I am outside the Secretary of State's office...

Now we move on to the next phase of our adoption journey. We will wait for a referral. We're not quite certain what the timeline for that will be. We'll keep you posted...