Success!

Yesterday was jam packed from start to finish but successful by all accounts! First thing in the morning Lucy and I made the 2 hour trip up to DC to visit the US State Department to get our documents authenticated (3rd level of authentication). Here's the really impressive building where this important task occurs:

So random. I was looking around for an official looking government building and here it was, in the middle of (essentially) a nice strip mall, next to a coffee shop. I walked past it 4 times before I finally realized "this is it".

The BEST part of the authentication process was that I got to meet Terra, our family coordinator at our adoption agency. She's the person who has been reviewing all our paperwork, supporting us and helping us to know what to do next. It was so nice to meet her face-to-face after so many emails and phone calls.

Here are the three of us:

After 3 signatures from Hillary Clinton...well, signed by someone else on her behalf, finally it was off to the Rwandan Embassy to drop off our new documents. The embassy is located in a row house located in NW DC on New Hampshire (for you map nerds out there).

You know, I obviously would rather if all our documents were sitting on the Minister's desk in Rwanda right now, but it was neat to get to visit these 2 places myself. I like understanding how the process works a little more. I really like being able to picture the buildings where the activities are happening, being able to picture the nice lady at the embassy whom I'll be incessantly calling next week to get our papers to us quickly, being able to picture Terra who will be the one who calls us when our official approval comes through. So, while it wasn't 100% ideal, it was a great day anyway!

Please pray the documents will be ready next week so our dossier can be on its way really soon!!!