Weird

There are moments along this adoption journey where you realize just how surreal things are. Today is one of those days. I know this is probably random, but I can't get over how crazy it is that a 100 page document about our family is written in RUSSIAN...as in I couldn't even read it if I wanted to...and is being read by a foreign government. Sure hope the translators weren't feeling too crazy that day....  :)

Exciting Update

As most everyone in the adoption world knows Kazakhstan recently stopped accepting new dossiers while they transition over to Hague standards. This will significantly delay things for many families, but guess what - our dossier was received by the Consulate before they closed!!  For so many families this has been such a stressful time while waiting to see what is actually happening and what that means for our families, and we were no different. I will say though that our agency, Little Miracles, has handled it so well - I am so grateful - and my heart goes out to all the other families whose dreams were handled in unprofessional ways.

What does this mean for us? It means that our adoption has sped up in a big way - which is so totally exciting - I can just feel our little one in my arms!  It also means that our money is due a lot sooner than anticipated - a huge reality check. I know that God will make this happen because He has called us to it, but I am trying to make sure that we do everything that we can as well. If anyone has a good fundraising idea please let me know!!

Have a seat

So, what do you think...

 ...should we use this as the "neighborhood" shot in our dossier? :) Gotta love trash day!

Matt and I thought we should take this and stick it in our yard...and the tires are a great bonus...they'd make a nice outdoor end table of sorts.

Can we ever talk about anything other than adoption??

The answer is yes...uh, once in a while...if we have to!

Here are some photos from our recent trip to Atlanta. We figure you have all seen the big tourist attractions, so here are some of the lesser known highlights...

best hot dog

when you want to cool off

frogs on a bench

ok, this one's pretty normal

the wide slide

Phew, now back to adoption... :)

The final push...

What a week! Since we now have all of our "hard to get" government approvals and forms in we are going ahead full speed with the final dossier work. It's great news but we're going crazy trying to get everything together, completed, notarized correctly, etc. This involves trips all over the place to get more stuff from the bank, the doctor, the accountant, the social worker, and on and on and on... And then there are the massive FedEx bills we have for overnighting documents all over the country and back so we can get stuff done quickly. And when a document (that we've worked on for weeks and spent $45 mailing back and forth) comes back with black ink instead of blue for the notary signature, or with the date written out a different way, or a signature that doesn't include a middle initial used previously, and we have to start over....  Yikes! I had no idea how crazy this stuff got. And to think, once we're done with all this notary stuff, it has to go to the state and Federal levels to be authenticated or apostilled (basically where the notary is notarized). Thankfully our agency does that part!!

To make a long, boring story short - we are hopeful that we'll be able to get the whole thing in by Monday at the latest. Then the worst of the work on our end is over and the real waiting begins.

Kiddo, we love you a lot to get through this "paper pregnancy". :)

Who knew the kid had connections

Conversation went something like this...

me: "What do you mean our FBI prints are going to delay our adoption by up to 3 months?! They've done our finger prints like 19 times already!!" (said kind of loudly with LOTS of enthusiasm) "We have to know somebody there so they can speed this up."

"What about...?

Nano: "Nope - retired."

me: "Well what about.....?

Nano: "Nope - switched agencies."

(This went on for like 10 minutes....)

me: "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

And then a small, calm (and yet strangely grown-up and authoritative sounding) voice coming from the other room.....

Matt: "I know somebody at the FBI."

My hero! To make a long story short, we now have our FBI prints after only 3 weeks and we owe it all to our twelve-year-old. Thanks for the hook up Matt! Extra dessert for you...for like the next year.