The Dossier (aka: Paperwork Land!)

They (ever wonder who "they" are) say that the paperwork stage is equivalent to labor! The process is more tedious than difficult (which sounds the opposite of labor to me), and you have to simply plod your way through it one form at a time. I will say that I think our new best friend is going to be the Notary Public guy in Athlone. You can only imagine all of the forms and legal documents that have to be notarized. Right now it seems like a million but that might be a slight exaggeration. I'm convinced that they have all of this paperwork so that you have something to occupy your mind during the beginning process.

A Dossier is a collection of papers giving detailed information about a particular person or subject. It includes things like birth records, marriage certificate, fingerprinting, FBI background check, medical history, taxes, etc. So we are having fun collecting this information and getting things back to the agency as soon as possible. They say you can complete your dossier anywhere from 1 to 6 months. We're aiming for the one month completion date!

I (Brenda) had another dream...
We were in the orphanage with some other parents who were ready to bring thier child home. As I looked around the room everyone had little tiny 6 week old to 6 month old babies wrapped up in these cute little blankets laying in thier bouncy seats. Then we came to our son who was 2 years old and he was also laying in a bouncy seat but he was huge. Compared to the other little infants our son was a giant. I was so confused as to why our son was so big and asked the ladies in the orphanage... and then I woke up.

Dreams are a funny thing sometimes. I'm sure Fra will have a good interpretation of this dream! (It's a Ray household joke!)

Application Completed

FIRST, we sent in the initial Application that gets you in their system.

SECOND, we filled out the Application for Adoption and Home Study.

Then... trying to find a Notary Public in Ireland was a bit tricky but thanks to Mary Concar (our good friend here in Ireland) she gave me the suggestion to go to a Solicitor (Lawyer) to find out their contacts. (Who would have thought) So I did and I found one located 40 min. from our house. Not too bad since we thought we were going to have to go to the US Embassy in Dublin (2 hours away) every time we needed to get something notarized. Whew!

So the mounds of paperwork begins and will be well worth it! It's funny the things you thought you knew about yourself until you're filling out a form... like what's the name of the hospital where you were born? I realized I didn't have a clue. Well, we keep moving forward - it's one form and one day closer to bringing our son home!