Prelude to the 7th anniversary celebration

Last weekend was one of the best of my life. We knew when we got our fingerprint approval back from Homeland Security that we were nearly through with the international adoption process we had been working on for over seven months. Even when this happened a week before our anniversary trip to Astoria, we had no idea that we could get all the paperwork together in a week.

When it looked like it just might be possible to finish it all, I called up Tami at our agency and asked--since we were going to be passing right by the agency office--if we could drop the entire dossier off on our way to Astoria. She said that would be no problem, so we worked night and day as much as we could on all the stuff we needed to get done in time to make this happen.

Well, we got it done! And Friday morning was filled with a hurried trip to my work in Tualatin to get the last few items notarized, then a trip south to Salem to get the Secretary of State's office to authenticate our documents and then back north to Banks, to the main office of Dove Adoptions International to drop off our stuff. Banks is right on Highway 26, so it was a straight shot to the beach and a weekend with a lot to celebrate!

I can't even begin to tell you the feeling of weightlessness that carried us into the weekend. As we drove through the Coast Range toward the ocean, we were reminded that the past seven years truly have been the best years of our life.

T-B: Anne-Marie signing the last documents; Lisa notarizing; State Authentication; our entire dossier