Bye Bye, Dossier #2.

Thirty-four very important papers left our post office yesterday, headed for the state capitol to be appostilled, which proves to the Russian court that they are real, signed by us and truly notarized.   Each one of these papers cost us $15 to have appostilled, for a grand total of $510.  (ouch.)

Some of these papers were pretty easy to fill out or get from people.  Others, like our mortgage verification, USCIS approval and FBI fingerprint clearance, took some time.  My FBI clearance took four months because I had to go in a 2nd time to have my fingerprints taken and they are incredibly slow.  So handing this big envelope off to the lady at the post office felt similar to loosing about 20 pounds. 

After each document receives its official appostille from the state, it will travel to Tuscon, Arizona to be carefully reviewed by our agency for possible mistakes.  Then it will head on an airplane to St. Pete to be translated by our Russian coordinator.  Right now, the plan is for her to submit it to the court in December.  We're crossing everything we can cross that the courts will allow dossiers to be submitted in December, even though they aren't assigning court dates.  That way our court date will come sooner, like late January, instead of February or March.

Ahhh, it feels good to have that done.  The only paperwork we have left will be gathering a few things for our appointment with the US Embassy in Moscow when we have Anna with us.  I do NOT like paperwork.  I'm so excited to be done with this!