Friday, April 27, 2007

Progress - One Year into the Process

Checked our FedEx tracking number this evening and discovered that our application has left the Consulate, en-route to Kazakhstan!

Based on estimates from our coordinator, we hope to travel mid-late June. Keep us in your prayers for early travel.

Update: Shortly after posting this, Cathe looked in her planner and noted that one year ago today, April 27, 2006, was our first face-to-face meeting with our Social Worker. Time sure does fly!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Dossier on its way!

Received word today that our dossier has finally been reviewed, compiled and sent to the Consulate!

If you've seen the Walt Disney World commercial where the little boy says, "I'm too excited to sleep!" then you'll understand how we feel.

We have now been working on this process for a year and are finally getting some forward momentum.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

444.5 miles and an Education

Friday March 30th was a long one for us. We covered a lot of territory but suceeded in our mission!

Due to our change of agency representation, we needed new agency and cover letters. Unfortunately, most needed to be notarized, authenticated, then apostilled.

Tennessee is a long and narrow state, sort of like Florida, only east-west instead of north-south. Memphis is in the far southwest corner, and Nashville, the capitol, is in the center.

We are amazed at how some things can come together quickly... Monday March 26th we had the info we needed to have the letters re-done. Tuesday we spoke with the agency which completed our Home Study and they agreed to help us. We passed specifics and had notarized copies by Thursday afternoon. Friday morning we headed to the Shelby County Clerk's office to have the notary authenticated, then headed off to the capitol. After making some copies, we sent the original apostilled documents to our coordinator and scans to the translator. This past Monday, April 2nd, we received confirmation that the documents were received and the translations were complete.

Any day now, we will have confirmation that the package has been received by the Kazakh embassy. Keep your fingers crossed that things go quickly for us from this point forward.