Notaries - please sign your name correctly

I heard that notaries can be the one reason documents are returned. For most of our documents, our notary was a wonderful lady from our church. She was so careful in signing each form correctly and making sure the wording was just right. We had 2 other documents that were signed by a notary from the Sheriff's department - as the documents were print-outs of our police background checks.


Well, those documents were rejected by the Secretary of State. Apparently the notary signed the document like a doctor and her signature on file didn't match. This was a huge disappointment - as I had hoped our documents would be going to Peru today. Instead, I'm waiting on this document and we're set back another week, which is an eternity in our world of wait.

...documents, notary, certify, apostille, authenticate...

All words that our in our daily vocabulary - maybe our hourly vocabulary. As we collect more documents for our official 'dossier' (which means the final packet of documents that will be used in Peru for the official assignment of kids and adoption) we have to have a notary for each one. Copies of our passports need a notary to say they are exact, true copies of original documents. Our medical exams and tests had to have a notary. The psychological evaluation (which we suprisingly passed) had to have a notary. The deed to our house, marraige certificates, and birth certificates all had to be certified with the fancy raised seal.

Then, here's what we do with all the notarized, raised seal documents:

FedEx all documents to the Secretary of State in which they were notarized. This office will, now, certify all the documents with their fancy seal. ($2 per page - 25 pages)

When they come back with the fancy seal, we FedEx all the fancy sealed documents to the Consulate of Peru in Denver. This office will authenticate the documents - hopefully they have a fancy seal, too. ($30 per page - 25 pages)

After each government office puts their seal of approval on each piece of paper, we finally can FedEx the documents to Peru - yes, the actual country. In Peru, the documents will be translated and given to MIMDES - the division that approves adoptions. Hopefully within a few weeks of receiving our paperwork, they will officially assign the children to us and we can jump on a plane!

Asking for more info is, apparently, a good thing

We asked everyone we know to pray that USCIS would approve our paperwork sooner than the 3 month expected wait. When we heard about the request for more information, we were worried it would be delayed. WRONG! Our approval form arrived one month and one week after they recieved our paperwork!!! Yes, we did a little dance.

More fingerprints?

As I mentioned in a previous post, our paperwork is with USCIS. They sent a letter to us about a week ago, requesting more information. Usually, this is not a good thing, as it can delay the process. However, our agencies were on top of it and sent the needed documents in the same week. We also received a letter informing us of an appointment with INS for another set of fingerprints. Another set? This will be the 3rd time we've had our fingers rolled over the glass and impressions were made and saved in the system. Maybe someone forgot to push the 'save' button. The repetitive fingerprints, copies of birth certificates and setting appointments for, yet another, medical exam can be a little frustrating.

However... we also see it as a good sign. At least now we know that USCIS has actually looked at our paperwork, that they've taken it out of the stack of hundreds and given us some attention. At least we know we are one step closer to receiving their approval, which will lead us to some of the final steps in the US - finishing our dossier and sending it to Peru. Basically the dossier is more copies of documents - the LAST copies - and then we can head to Peru to embrace our children once again.