We're pregnant!!!

Paper pregnant, that is!!  This is the glorious sight of 30+ documents, bearing their little apostilles, ready to ship to Russia.  Now we wait.... did I mention how much I HATE waiting?

The next step will be translation by the wonderful folks in Russia, then registration with the MoE (that's the Ministry of Education, the people that give us our referral).  Once we are translated and registered we wait for our travel dates.  That probably won't happen until late September or Early October, so we've got a little time to kill.

It's such a relief to have this done.  It was hanging over my head like a giant thundercloud, ruining my quiet time.  Whew!!  I'm glad it's done!!  Of course that's just the first round....

Sorry for the lack of updates...

Well, we met with our SW Friday and completed the "re-interview" process, successfully got all our documents notarized, and got the docs license without even a raised eyebrow!  Things we sent out in the mail are trickling back in, which is nice.  I'm sending the marriage certs BACK to Nevada to get them apostilled... long story.  We should be pretty darn close to submitting our dossier paperwork once we have the homestudy.

Lance asked me if I was sick a couple of days ago.  "Why?" I asked.  He said "You haven't even opened 'The Notebook' (our dossier paperwork) in two days!"  Masterful planning on my part?  Nah!  Just a very straightforward process, made easier by our lovely town and state.  Seriously.  This process (except for the fingerprinting) has been a dream this time around.

Jack has been having a grand time this summer, lots of visits to the park and the beach.  Despite sunblock he's getting a little tan, specially on his neck!  My cousin and her family are coming out next week, so we're gearing up for some family fun time.  Planning on heading to Plimoth Plantation and taking a Duck tour for starters, who knows what else we'll do?

We'll keep you posted on our progress!

Gearing up the next paperwork push...

Here we are at the beginning of a new week.  I've been hustling over here like a one-armed paper hanger!  We're going to our final meeting with our social worker on Friday morning, then heading to the bank to notarize the first batch of documents for our dossier.  There's ONLY sixteen of them... this time.  After the bank, we have to convince our PCP (primary care physician) to cough up a copy of her medical license, something they tend to not want to do.  Ahhhh, but charm and good looks will prevail... we hope!

We've got documents scattered all over the country at this point.  Some in Nevada, some in West Virginia, some in Georgia.  That's the hardest part... waiting for people to do what they need to do.  We're nothing but a document to them, unfortunately.  One more piece of paper that crosses their desk.  They have no idea that a little boy in another country is waiting for them, and waiting for us.  That's the weird part of all this... he's been born and is living his life unaware of the changes that are coming.

We're coming little man.... we're coming.

The picture at the top is from our camping trip to NH on the summit of Mt. Washington.  Little man did so well!!

One more thing done....

Well, we found out today that our application was accepted by Catholic Social Services (CSS) and we should be receiving our packet with all the dossier requirements some time this week.  We went to the doc today and had our mini physicals and medical forms filled out to complete the homestudy.  One more step along the way...

We had an awesome time camping in NH this past weekend.  The weather was great, for the most part.  Jackson had a great time on Mt. Washington... he fell approximately 657 times, but no major injuries.  The rain held out until last night when it started raining... and raining... and raining.  We were getting ready to call in an ark, but instead decided to break camp and come on home.  Stuffing a car full of soaking wet gear was not on our agenda, but we survived.

Once I figure out how to post photos, I will.  And I did.

In the beginning....

there was a couple that moved Heaven and Earth to have a baby.  It didn't work.  So they adopted the cutest, most wonderful little boy from Russia you can imagine.  Fast forward 2.5 years... we're going back for number two!!  Our son Jackson is excited to be a big brother, although he really doesn't understand exactly what it entails.  If you ask him, he'll tell you that he's going to teach his new brother how to be nice to the dog and how to play with trains.  Good enough for me!

We've hemmed and hawed about the process for the last year or so and finally started to move forward.  We loved the agency we used for Jackson, but unfortunately they're still not accredited and are using regions with really, really long wait times.  So we decided to make the leap to a new agency... to be named at a later date once they've officially accepted us.

We think we have the money allocated.  If not, I have plans to sell that pesky extra right kidney; it's just weighing me down.  If that's not possible, then I plan on investigating some more, ahem, unsavory methods of money-making.  HAH!! Who am I kidding?  I'm a 43 year old mother of one, who in their right mind would pay for it?!?  I think I'll just pick up an extra shift or two in the ER.  That might be best.

Right now we're just finishing up the paper chase for our homestudy.  Once that's done, we can move forward with our I-600A.  Here in MA, you can't turn in your application until your homestudy is complete and attached.  

I'll be sending invites to people I think might be interested, as well as those who might not give a hoot.  Our last adoption was a blast... this one promises to be the same!

Much love,

Kim and Lance