Just a quick update to mark another milestone.
CAFAC has had my dossier notarized. This is where a notary public certifies my documents to be true originals. This includes my homestudy, provincial approvals, criminal checks, etc, plus my birth certificate, passport, and citizenship card - of which CAFAC has ALL of the ORIGINALS. This freaks me out, not having the originals in my hands. But CAFAC has assured me they will be returned to me toot suite - as in I should have them back by Monday or Tuesday. phew.
On Thursday, my dossier was sent to Foreign Affairs for legalization. This is where 'the feds' authenticate the notarization, as MetricGirl put it. This takes ~ 3 weeks and then it's sent to the Ethiopian embassy in Ottawa for another authentication.
As you can see, all Ts and all Is are crossed and dotted. It's time consuming but very reassuring to me as I know this adoption is above board.
Then, my precious dossier will be finally sent to Ethiopia where the country does its own round of checks and balances (4-8 weeks). At the end, when the Ethiopian adoption committee approves everything, I will be OFFICIALLY waiting. And it can take ~1-12 months from then to get my referral.
So who knows? I could be seeing my first pictures of Myfanwy as early as December!!!!! I think early 2008 is more realistic, but I am an eternal optimist.
WOO HOO!!!
I am very very very excited these days!! (thus the excessive use of exclamation marks! ...and the word very!)
selam
p.s. Shout out to MetricGirl who is preparing to travel and pick up her son real soon!!
p.p.s. Another shout out to Jasmine & Denko who are in town from Germany. I was able to catch up with them the last couple of nights.
p.p.p.s. No ruddy HP7 yet, BUT the owner of my old house is back from vacation and has promised to send my book to my realtor this weekend so I can FINALLY get my hands on the blasted thing.
