



8:15 a.m. Arrived at Madison County Court House. We had all 9 documents notarized at the court house. We then went down stairs to the county clerk's office to have the Notary's signature certified (this step makes no sense to us).
9:30 a.m. Headed south to Montgomery!
12:30 arrived at our State Capitol to obtain our GREAT SEAL!
While in Montgomery ... we had to locate a place to make 2 copies of all nine documents (multi-paged), assemble, then separate. We both worked hard at OFFICE DEPOT, then on to Byron's favorite store "WAL-MART" to purchase a money order, and he did some quick shopping /looking.
Last but not least we locate a FED-EX to send all of these documents to TECO in Atlanta. Byron used great care to place our documents neatly in an envelope, only to have the Fed-ex worker shove them into several different size envelopes to find the best fit. I had to stop her and explain the importance of these documents and they needed to arrive unbent. She was very nice about this and was more careful. Byron of course checked to see that it was properly sealed!!! And then we were done (or so we thought).

3:30 p.m. We left Montgomery to head back home. (WHEW!!)
6:30 p.m. Picked Andrew up from friends (Thanks Brandi!!)
7:00 p.m ; 400 miles and almost 12 hours later we made it HOME!!! I was stressed, tired, and really relieved!
The Next day.... I received a call from TECO that the county clerk dated the forms the wrong day!! Several calls later and two faxes that problem was resolved without any additional driving!!
I received word for Journeys of the Heart that our documents have been sent to Taiwan!!!!!Now officially done with the referral packet and ready for the court process to begin!!!!

Here is a group of friends from our previous church. Glenda (bottom right) formed this group after our previous church went through some changes and many of us left and went to other churches. She called the group "Girlfriends". We meet once a month and try out different restaurants. It is a great way we can stay in touch with our previous "Church Family" , which I really miss. They are also following our adoption. I missed all of you who were not there!!
OUR EXCITING RAFTING TRIP!!!!
ADOPTION UPDATE.
We still have no news. We are really hoping for a referral very soon. I think 08-08-08 would be a great day for a referral!!!! We have now been on the "list" for 8 months. We started this process about one year ago and compared to other programs we are moving really fast (just seems so slow).
OTHER ADOPTION NEWS...... Common Wealth Adoptions suddenly closed this week, leaving all of those families in limbo. My heart stopped when I read this news. I cannot even imagine what they are going through. This was one of the agencies we had considered last year. We have been blessed that we are with Journeys of the Heart. With the overall slow down in international adoptions, I expect we will see more agencies closing. So pray for those families and ours as well.
Taipei, Taiwan |