Adoption Fog

Yes, I thought I had all my paperwork done, and I was just waiting for my fingerprint letter from immigration. I some how got it in my head that I needed my I-171H before I sent my documents to Assistant Stork. [For those of you that don't know what that is, it is a courier service that we at Hope Adoption use. After we receive our documents back from the Secretary of State, we put all our documents in order by the dossier cover sheet list. There are more items that we had to have authenticated than what's stated on the dossier cover page, so you just add the extra documents behind similar ones listed. You also have to add birth, marriage, death, and divorce certified copies if applicable. Don't forget to put your passport photos in a separate envelop and label them "passport photos." Then you contact Laura at Asst. Stork and let her know that you are sending your dossier and give her your contact info in case there is a problem. Then you send the appropriate fees with your dossier via DHL, FedEX or UPS to her. My fees were: a personal check to her for $80, a personal check to "US Department of State" for $16, and a certified check to "The Embassy of Ethiopia" for $189.60. I also sent a self-addressed, stamped envelope to her, so she will send me my receipts. She then checks that I have everything and in the correct order. Then she takes it to the State Department in Washington, then to the Ethiopian Embassy...] Now that I've put you to sleep, the whole point of the post was to mention that I did NOT have to wait to send my dossier, and I sent it today!!!!