Dossier complete!

Today is a glorious, joyous day for our family.  We have completed the long process of gathering paperwork, and our dossier now sits in a Fed Ex envelope to go to Bulgaria, by way of our adoption agency in the United States first.  It took perseverence and God's hand, but we have finished it!

My dear husband drove for hours in the rain to get to our state capital, only to be told that one of his documents was not signed by the proper government official and could not be authenticated.  Jon was undeterred, however.  He drove to the courthouse in a neighboring county, and was then told that this particular official was out of the office.  Still unshaken, the workers in the courthouse were helpful and kind.  They phoned the official, who spoke to Jon personally.  It happened that this official was in our state's capital that day and was willing to meet Jon and sign the document.  A few hours later, Jon met him in a small coffee shop in the shadow of the capital building, and quickly returned to the office to have the document authenticated.  With that last hurdle cleared, he was ready to bring the documents to the Fed Ex office and send them on their way!

A gorgeous pile of documents, weighing just over a half pound, ready to leave our hands and speed to our future son's country. 

For those interested in timelines, it took us just about three months to complete this process; from the time we committed to our future son until now.  We have worked very  hard and made it through many hurdles to make this happen.  It will not be the last pile of paperwork we must complete, but it is one of the most significant piles of paperwork.

Unfortunately, our state does not "cap" the amount a family must spend to authenticate documents, so the total was $195 for this stack.  This doesn't include out of state apostilles, although New Jersey offers a significant discount for families who are adopting.  We only needed one document for that, however.  The vast majority had to be authenticated in Pennsylvania.

We are entering another exciting phase of our process; the phase that will start us toward our first meeting with our little boy.  This is a critical moment that brings us amazing joy, unbridled excitement, and even a little fear.  Our costs and fees continue to pile on, and we need the prayers and support of so many of you to make this adoption actually happen.  Our Reece's Rainbow account hasn't received donations in weeks, and we are praying that this money will grow enough to be able to afford our travel expenses.  If you are reading this, would you please consider a donation of any size to that tax-deductible account?  If you cannot, would you please consider sharing our family's story with others who can pray for us and give? 

We have also received ten orders from our Avon website that helps support our adoption expenses.  Please share our website with anyone who might be interested - it is another unique way to help us by making yourself beautiful and doing something beautiful too!  And do you know that when you share this link, it is helpful?  We received an order from someone last week who did not know us, but knew of our Avon website from someone like you!  When you share, you help!

http://www.youravon.com/jennifermenges

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts! Thank you for caring for us and for our future son.  Thank you for REJOICING with us on this wonderful day - the day our dossier is complete and ready to arrive in our future son's country of birth!