One Family's Journey: Submitting Paperwork for Sentencia

By Notorious MLE -
Yesterday the Colombian courts finally re-opened after winter recess which means we can now formally submit paperwork to request that our adoption be finalized. We met with our lawyer today (Oscar Abril-comes with great recommendations and was very nice) to finish up our paperwork and get everything started. Here's what we did today:

1) Authenticate documents: Today we headed over to the notary to authenticate the following documents. 1) A request to finalize the adoption 2) Power of Attorney for our Lawyer 3) A letter saying that we legally allow that Elian be taken out of the country by either myself or my husband. (This is only in the case that my husband leaves before me). To authenticate the documents you need 1) The Documents (your lawyer gives these to you) 2) ID's (passports or cedulas) 3) About 14,000 pesos Colombianos

2) Because my husband is Colombian he also gave the lawyer his "pasado judicial" which is the Colombian criminal record clearance. In some cases this document also needs to be authenticated.

Our lawyer said that he will submit the paperwork today and should have something to tell us by next week. There are 22 family courts in Bogota and we will be waiting to find out to which we are assigned. Some are faster than other so it's our hope that we get a fast court. Cross your fingers!

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