two sides of the pond

On that side...
the agency needs to find apostilled documents that were sent to them. Facilitators need to find the check I sent. SW needs to sign agency agreement and send to facilitators. Facilitators need to apostille final documents and send them to this side of the pond.

On this side...
WOW! I met with part of the Russian team and he was brilliant. (This is the person I was instructed not to communicate with since he was "only the translator". Anyone who has used this team knows that's ridiculous.) Not only was he incredibly efficient and proactive (what a nice change) he also gave me a definite timeline for the work he's doing now. He will translate all the documents that need signatures into Russian for me, customizing them as he goes, and will go with me to notarize them by this Friday (best case) or next Friday (worst case). He said that while not extraordinary, my case was unusual and should be treated as such. We were both puzzled by the facilitator's insistence that we not communicate. He said it made much more sense for us to work here since I'm here. He went through my documents and told me what could be tossed out (my medical forms--which aren't needed to file with the committee), what we could do while we wait for the facilitators to send everything, and what I still needed. He took copies of the letters the committee asked for at the last meeting to be approved by them.

He has put a spring back in my step. I was feeling like I'd be trudging through muck for ages and ages. I just become resigned to slow, inefficiency. He showed me how close I am and what needs to be done to get there. And, since I'll be dealing with the Russian office almost exclusively (no "almost" if I have any say in it) once my papers are here, I saw that I'm almost through with the facilitators in the US.

So, good news over here!