Singing the "Paperwork Blues"

People who have gone through an international adoption understand about never-ending paperwork! In the beginning you rush around spending countless hours collecting and completing paperwork. Your goal is to get it all in as soon as possible. The first time you go through the process you think that once it is done it is done. During our first adoption we learned how that is so silly to think because most of those documents "expire" within 12 months of when the document was notarized. (Yes, even our birth certificates and marriage certificate expired! Can you believe that one?) Now the second time around we are thinking we are more "experienced" with the paperwork. Of course I got it all in quickly but I also knew in the back of my head that a lot of this would have to be re-done before the adoption would be complete. Since things have been moving more quickly than with Travis I mistakenly thought that we would be in good shape in terms of our paperwork. Most of our papers were done last June and if we have court this June it should be ok. Well, silly me! I got an e-mail today stating that we have to re-do about 6 different items because now the rule is that the documents in the dossier have to be valid for 6 months AFTER the court date!! That was a new one for me! It isn't that it is hard, it is just time consuming and tedious. We knew we had to re-do our medicals but now we also have to re-do our fingerprints for an FBI check, our employment letters, our financial statement and the warranty deed to our house. We need to get on the ball for the FBI clearance letters because those can take 6-8 weeks to get back. I also need to make copies of our tax returns and W2's for the past 3 years. I have them, I just need to get them copied or print them off of the computer (which will take a lot of ink!). We have to bring those with us on our next trip. I may need a suitcase just for those alone!! LOL I know it will all get done. I just have to chuckle inside when people ask me "Is adopting from Russia difficult?" I guess it all depends on how you look at it!