Last week we received our i797-c but, just like our i700 back in 2005, it contained a typo with Matt’s name.  Who on Earth spells Matthew with just one “t”.  It looks so weird as “Mathew” but according to USCIS, that’s how we should be spelling it.  Anyway, last time to get it changed it took a bunch of calls, a form, and a couple of weeks.  This time, the i797-c came with instructions for email.  I emailed the address provided and told them of the mistake and asked what form we would have to fill out.  This morning I get a response saying that there is no need for a form and that he had already fixed it in the system.  WHOA!  That’s what I call efficient.  Now if only this whole process could be that easy.

Our dossier that is.  It left our hot little hands on Friday and is currently somewhere between Portland and the AAI office in WA.  I’ve requested information on a few other waiting children but am still waiting to hear back.

We had a little bit of a drama filled time getting the final piece of our dossier…the stinkin’ Financial Statement.  It’s a document created by a bank or CPA that states something specific.  Well since we don’t have a CPA, we started talking to our bank.  Not surprisingly, the bank (BofA) will only create documents that they have specific forms for.  Well the closest thing we could get to the Financial Statement was a bank “reference letter” which said a lot more than we would have liked it to – account number, balance, etc.  Well after talking to the bank 2 weeks ago and paying their $10 fee, we received the reference letter in the mail.  Thankfully the agency said that they could make it work somehow.  All I needed to do was take it to the bank branch to get notarized (which is what the bank’s 1800 number told me to do) but when I showed up on Thursday to get it done, they tell me that it’s incorrect and that notarization is not possible.  NNNOOO!  After a hour of arguing with them they agree to overnight something else that will include the same info but be able to be notarized.  HOWEVER, we will not get it until Monday – at the earliest.  This of course will not work if we hope to get our dossier out on time.  So Thursday was full of me contacting every CPA I could find in our area.  Most were either not open until after the New Year holiday or weren’t interested in helping us since we were not regular clients.

Finally on Friday, after I had given up, I received a call back from a very nice guy who exclaims he would be more than happy to help us with the form since he was a huge fan of international adoption.  We were invited to stop by at anytime on Friday to bring him our paperwork so that he could type it up.  Needless to say, I was doing a MAJOR happy dance!  We were in and out of his office in 30 minutes and only charged $15 for their trouble!  While we never ended up getting to meet him in person, he was out with dental issues when we showed up but were helped by his partner, we let them know that we would be back for our taxes next year.  They were awesome.  We got the letter AND still had time to get to the UPS place in time for overnight delivery.  It was truly a blessed day.

We officially have a completed dossier!  We’re overnighting it on Friday to our agency and they will be taking it with them to their September Thailand trip.  Yay!