A personal letter to Secretary of State Roger Williams and staff

May 15, 2007

Dear Mr. Williams and staff,

I am sure it is not often you are able to see the face of the child you are helping to come home by providing these seemingly never-ending apostilles. So I wanted to share with you a picture of our sweet V who is living in an orphanage in ____, Russia and to thank you for your part in helping us bring our daughter and new sister home where she can enjoy the benefits of a loving family.

We have been waiting on our courtdate in Russia to adopt V for over 15 months now and we are on our third dossier. I have lost count of the number of apostilles we have had to request for this adoption. I want to thank you for always being timely in producing and returning the apostilles to us. Each time we are asked for updated paperwork, we feel an urgency to get it done as quickly as possible.

We also want to express our gratitude for the $100 maximum that is required per adoption. If not for this cap, we would have spent thousands of dollars on apostilles for V’s adoption. We very much appreciate this gesture by the state of Texas and your office.

Sincerely,
The Y family

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To my blog readers,

My Mama always taught me that you can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar. I'm sure the people at the SOS sometimes feel overburdened by the number of adoption apostilles they must produce each day. Sometimes it helps (not just oneself, but those coming after) to take a moment and share a kind thought. I know most families do not have a picture to submit with their apostille requests, so hopefully V's sweet face will help keep the Texas SOS motivated especially as accreditations come soon and their jobs will no doubt become more stressful as the number of requests come pouring in.

So, I thought I'd share with you the letter I have sent to the SOS with our latest request for 56 apostilles!! Sorry you don't get to see the picture of V's sweet face! Maybe soon!