Officially waiting

I mailed the whole dossier to our placement agency today, along with our visa applications, passports, and a couple other miscellaneous items. I'm relieved, but also am still worried that the paperwork is going to arrive intact to its destination. Not counting the time I put into assembling these documents, the cost of notary fees and apostilles was over $2000! Margaret aptly noted that the dossier, which for so long had been my enemy, will soon become a precious friend, a passport to my child.

We are officially waiting now. We are waiting for the 171-H form to arrive (it's only been about five weeks since fingerprinting). We are waiting to hear of our documents being reviewed and sent to Russia. I suppose we are waiting for a region. And best of all we are waiting now for a referral. It's nice knowing that I've accomplished everything that I needed to do and can now rest a little bit. I'm anxious to start exercising again. I've got an extra 10 pounds from the holidays that I don't need anymore now that the weather is warming up. I should also make a point of getting more rest. But Anna Karenina is starting to keep me up. I think that's why I like non-fiction so well these days. It doesn't keep me from falling asleep, as opposed to a good novel. (Although, I do have to say that I could not put down Ghost Soldiers. It was an amazingly great true story!) Dare I start War and Peace? I had my passport photos taken today for the visa application and I'm hoping that scary old lady in the picture only looks like that because I have not been getting enough sleep lately. Oh well. At least the photo will be fairly accurate when we actually travel to Russia. I don't know what they use the photo for, but if they compare it to me after I've flown for 13+ hours I'm sure it will be a close match.