Heard from the Judge!

It's 9:25am Thursday and I just got out of a patient's room. I check e-mail quickly (like I do 1000 times a day) and there it is: an e-mail from our adoption agency with the title "Today's Update".

I sat there with my fingers on the keyboard ready to open the e-mail bracing for a court date. "This is it -- the moment we've been waiting for!", so I thought.

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Hi Laura,
GOOD NEWS! The judge accepted the explanation letter from NC. [the Secretary of State of North Carolina wrote a letter to our judge explaining that the way they "glued" our paperwork is the way it is always done, has always been done this way, and that they are unable to change policy at this point.]

Of course, the judge asked that we update a few items for her and after she receives these updates she will issue our court date. Here are the documents needed:
* updated medical
* updated FBI
* updated ABMS letters for all doctors except Dr. O (we updated his letter in February, so she is satisfied with this one)

We are getting REALLY close. I think that you should anticipate travel to occur mid-April.

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{deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth....}

1. Our medicals (exams with the 8 specialists we had to see) are done -- just have to send to our Agency. CHECK!

2. Within 3 minutes, I had an e-mail sent to the American Board of Medical Specialty requesting the verifications of the 8 doctors we saw. Tomorrow the documents will be couriered to the State Dept. of Illinois for apostilles and then FedEx'd to us by Saturday. OUTSTANDING

3. FBI Clearance (to show we still don't have an arrest record) was sent for weeks ago and should arrive any day. OUTSTANDING

So, one of the 3 requests are completed and we should have the other two in our hands within a few days. The documents will be sent to Russia hopefully by the end of next week. Then the woman who holds all the power in the world regarding our quest for parenthood will review the docs and set a court date.

Since our Agency is anticipating travel in mid-April, we won't have K home for Easter as hoped for but it is possible that we may be celebrating our 15th Wedding Anniversary on April 16th with her.

We can't think of any better way to celebrate!

7 months of Dossier compilation -- 3+ lbs. worth! That's a lot of paperwork...and we're not done yet!