We're Leaving on a Jet Plane!!!

We were given our official travel dates to Russia for mid January and we are already booked on a plane. We'll be gone about 7 days. We will have the opportunity to meet with our little boy two times while in the area. I'm sure it will be a great time for us and I know the next few weeks are going to fly by quickly.

I'll keep you posted as everything continues to progress.....

Much Love,
Kimberly

We Have a REFERRAL!!! WE HAVE A REFERRAL!!!

Did I mention we have a referral?!? I still can't believe this all happened so quickly. I've learned I can't say much at this point but will tell you he is a beautiful baby boy. We accepted the referral less than 24 hours after receiving it so that should say a lot to everyone. We are now waiting for our invite to travel which may be before the end of the year. OMIGOSH! Needless to say I'll be posting an update ASAP.

Here's the procedure for those of you who have lost track....
Go to Russia to meet our referral (I want to so badly say son but he's not ours yet)
Decide to accept referral (we'll be in Russia approx. 5 days)
Come home and wait for court date (could be as much as 1-3 months later..yikes!)
Go to Russia for court date (we'll be in Europe for over 2 weeks unless they waive the 10 day wait period which is unlikely to happen. David and I will travel around Europe waiting to pick up our son).

We anticipate we should have him around Feb/Mar of this coming year. We will have completed the process in about a year which is REALLY good. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed!

Can you believe it? I have his adorable picture sitting on my desk and can't believe I may be looking at my son. It's very surreal. I have cried, laughed, freaked out and all emotions in one over the last 24 hours. We are so freakin' lucky I don't even know where to begin. All I can say is we must have done something right in our lives. Please pray for our sweet little angel and give us strength as we wait to finally meet him. That's going to be the best hug ever!

Did I mention he is SUPER adorable?!? And no, I can't share a picture yet :( We have to wait until the adoption is finalized. I bet you can't wait to see him.....

Love to all!
It's an amazing day!!!!
Kimberly

Dossier is DONE!

I know....it's been awhile since I've posted which probably means I've lost all the few readers I had to begin with :) The dossier is complete and at the agencies office. They are reviewing everything and will let me know if they see any issues. Can I tell you what a relief it was to put it in the mail? I sent it overnight priority (spent $60) just to make sure it got there and I didn't have to stress about it. I tracked it online VIA FEDEX and what a relief when it arrived safely the next morning. I told the man when I dropped it off that it was the most important thing I've ever mailed and probably will always be the most important. Hopefully I didn't scare him too much. However, I can't begin to tell you how devastating it would have been to lose it. OMIGOSH! I can't even ponder the thought. We still think by early next year we could see the first pictures of our son. I can only hope and pray he is doing well and dreaming about the life he will soon have with us. Our family will be complete and a little life will be saved. It truly is a miracle closely matching that of conception itself. There probably won't be more to post for awhile as we're truly just waiting. However, the exciting posts will be coming soon and than there will be lots to share. Hang in there and I promise you won't be disappointed. This is the part of the movie when it's fine to take a potty break and pop some popcorn.....make sure you don't miss the ending though because you will never guess how it all happens!

Long Time....No Post!

It's tough because there's just not a whole lot to post about right now. Of course, this will all change once the process really gets moving forward. We are waiting for the home study paperwork to go to our agency. I'm finalizing all of the Russian Dossier documents and will have the apostilled in the near future. In case you have the desire to know....apostille means we have to bring them to a government agency in Georgia which is responsible for the notaries in the state. The agency will check all of the documents notarized in our packet and provide a document which says they are official. Basically, it's a check of the notary process. Russia requires ALL documents be notarized AND apostilled. We were lucky that we have someone who has done almost all the notary work at no cost. I did buy her flowers as a thank you. The apostille is pretty reasonable in GA and costs $2 a document. Some states charge as much as $20 per document from what I've heard. You end up needing about 30 documents apostilled so it can get very costly!

While we're in this wait period life is moving forward. The kids are in school and I'm real busy with work. We know the process will take time and we are being very patient. I promise when something significant occurs I will post and I may even post if nothing at all has happened so you don't think I've forgotten about you!

Thanks for all your well wishes,
Kimberly

Home Study, Paperwork and Stories...OH MY!

I have our registration packet pretty much ready to go out the door. The biggest challenge was getting a close up picture of David and I. Can you believe we don't have pictures of just us over the last year or so? This is what happens when children enter your life. We had Katelyn (our 4 year old) take a picture. She is really good with a camera. Thank goodness for digital! Our final home study meeting is next week and the home study should be completed about 2 weeks after that date. I spoke with our agency contact for over an hour today. We went over the Russian paperwork in detail. I'm going to start working on it full steam ahead over the coming weeks. We feel fairly confident we should have our child early next year. Apparently Russia shuts down for almost the entire month of January so February/March is fairly realistic if we don't have any major bumps along the way. Anyone who knows me is already chuckling at the fact I'll be in Russia during the dead of winter. AM I CRAZY?!?

We spoke to a friend of a friend tonight about his experience with adopting from the Ukraine. He has two boys (adopted ages of 2 and 4). He adopted them almost 4 years ago and they're doing great. He had a pretty amazing story to tell. The part that sticks out most in my mind is how much these children just want to be loved. They just want someone to nurture them. I know the trips to Russia are going to be hard on me and will really test me. I will witness a world I choose to normally pretend doesn't exist. It's so much easier to think all children are healthy, happy and loved. Reality will hit me hard and I know my emotions will be hard to keep controlled.

And as a final thought....please pray for our son. He is living in Russia and has no idea how much his life is going to change in just a few months. Until the day we hold him in our arms may God keep him safe. Yes, just like a pregnancy you love them before you even hold them....

Coincidence? I think NOT!

Russia FINALLY started issuing new accreditation to agencies this month with the first ones going out in early July. Our agency was part of the 2ND wave that received them. Low and behold after waiting for a long time (they originally expected it back in March) the letter arrived dated July 19, 2007. For those who know us, this is a significant day. On this very same day we celebrated 10 years of marriage. Yet another message that we're following the right path. I'm a believer in signs and paying attention to them. How much clearer of a sign do we need?

Government Efficiency --- A True Oxymoron

I pre-ordered the children's birth certificates today and drove about 50 minutes to the downtown area to pick them up. Since it took 30 minutes on the phone to place the order I knew I was in for quite a treat! I guess a simple web site where the orders could be placed would be way too easy.

Here's what I saw.....I walked in and there were 3 windows. Window # 3 had a line of about 15 people in it. There was also an almost full room of people sitting. No one was at Window #2 and 1 person was waiting to speak to someone (anyone) at Window #1. If you don't phone ahead, you fill out an application and get in line. They process at Window #3 (yes, a little backwards....again it's a government run agency) and you wait while they print off the certificate and certify it for pick up at Window #2. Window #1 is for corrections but seemed to be used more for an Info Window since there really wasn't one. In a sign on the wall they warn you it could be a rather lengthy wait and encourage you to go to the park next door while you're waiting. Keep in mind, I knew ahead of time to call and have it processed. However, I still had to wait in the line for Window #3. One person was servicing all applicants while 4 others were sitting at desks. I'm guessing these are the people who process the certificates. No one was available to assist those who phoned ahead in a separate line. I waited for about 20 minutes and it took literally 3 minutes to hand me the certificates and receipt the money. I know, you're wondering where I'm going with this.....it's my blog so I'm going to create Kimberly's Government. I would insist all birth/death certificates were pre-ordered either by phone or online (yes, I would actually have an online order taker and not rely on the very slow phone taker from my experience). Anyone who didn't pre-order would have their own very long line. All pre-orders would bump to the front. Therefore, it would be so encouraged to pre-order and explained fully to everyone. Rather than process the certificates while the room was full, it would be a mostly empty room. The processors would fill all orders (perhaps even after hours if you require 24 hours notice) and the day would be spent filling the orders as people showed up. Okay, I'm done changing the government. If they were actually spending time and money wisely we'd have nothing to make fun of anymore.

Bottom Line.....I have the children's birth certificates in my hand, David is the father and all information is complete and accurate. This in itself more than exceeds my expectations of a government facility.

Paperwork, Paperwork and MORE PAPERWORK!

We're drowning in paperwork.....save us! I should really say SAVE ME! I've taken on the task of handling all the adoption paperwork. It really needs to be handled by one person or it would get even more confusing. I bought an accordion file to keep everything organized. This is key so you don't lose your mind. I have a slot for the Home Study paperwork. Much of this paperwork will be part of our Russian dossier. You have to make copies of EVERYTHING so I'm spending a lot of time at the copy machine when I'm in the office. Of course, signatures are required everywhere. I put things together during the day and bring them to David at night. He must fill very important to have a stack of papers to sign. Truth of the matter, the signatures on this paperwork will change our life more than anything else we've ever signed. The house closing paperwork wasn't nearly as important. We're putting our signature on the hope for a child. It's symbolic of attempting conception although I'm sure the husband will agree not nearly as much fun!

We're almost done with the initial paperwork needed. Our FBI clearances are being sent out today. I pick up certified birth certificates of the children today. I was able to order the certificates by phone so I can pick up later and not wait long. We'll see how that goes.....I'm always skeptical when a government agency is involved. I ordered my birth certificate from Texas since I can't locate it. That was easily $60 once I paid the processing fees and postage costs to expedite.

The Home Study is progressing at a decent pace. I had my one on one session this week. Our social worker asked me to elaborate on items I had completed in advance. We discussed how David and I met (no, I didn't mention his ever famous pick up line) and a lot about my family life growing up. It was an easy discussion and lasted about an hour. David meets with her next week for his session. He's not a huge fan of discussing his personal life with others so that should be interesting. I almost wish I could listen in without anyone knowing. I guess I'll just have to read the report! The paperwork for the home study is near complete. David and I both need physicals done. This seemed easy enough, right? WRONG! I call my doctor's office who has always taken me promptly in the past to find out it will be almost a month before I can get an appointment. I even tugged at their heartstrings with my adoption story but it didn't work. This will actually delay our home study a week or so. I guess I should have been more on top of this but the timing is so tricky. Your documents have to be less than a year old at the time of adoption. If we had gone to the doctor too early, we may have had issues later. David hates going to the doctor and the needle in the arm. I certainly wasn't going to have much luck getting him to go again. He's more of a once every 5 years visitor.

Tomorrow I will spend a good hour standing at the copy machine making 2 copies of each of the last 3 years of tax returns. Since I have my own company I need to make copies of the company returns as well. Yes, it will easily be an hour. I guess this will be my morning sickness. See....it's just like a pregnancy!

Here We Go!

I'm going to start with a quick introduction to us. Not that I expect there will be many visitors who don't know us but just in case here's the quick story of my life (at least the last 10 years).

David and I were married July 19, 1997 after a very short courtship. We're still convinced EVERYONE thought I was pregnant. We were married only 9 months after our first date. We met, fell madly in love, got married and have been fighting like brother and sister ever since! Love him to death but honestly, we are so much alike it's frightening. When we were first married and would be out and about people would ask if we were brother and sister. Scary! Considering we both grew up in the south it may have been best to get the DNA test but too late now....

We've gone through a lot in 10 short years but still love each other to bits. There's no one who is better for me and all I need to do is look at my 2 precious daughters to know we made the right decision. Having children was always in the plan but we figured it would be best to get to know each other first. Keep in mind, 9 months is a short time to know someone especially before marrying them! We waited until we had been married about 5 years before we decided it was time to have children. Of course, the best laid plans don't seem to work. It took over a year and medical intervention (thanks Clomid) before Katelyn was conceived. We started to try again when Katelyn was around a year old and after 2 losses, we were blessed with Meredith. They are truly the greatest gift and I appreciate them every day. I appreciate the crayons on my walls, the ripped People Magazine I just received, the tantrum in Kroger, the poopy diapers and the early morning risers. I wouldn't trade any of it and I'm ready for more.

This brings us to our latest adventure. David and I decided years ago we would adopt a child and now that dream is going to come true. We have started the process to adopt a baby boy from Russia. Yes, everyone (almost everyone) thinks we're nuts! Sometimes I wonder if we're nuts! However, I know this is something I must do. Have you ever had such a strong feeling that you just had to go with it? Yes, it's similar to the feeling I had after meeting David, getting engaged 2 months later and married 6 months after that. I just had to go with it. I wish everyone had the feeling they should bring a baby into their home that otherwise would have very little to wake up to every day. Imagine if we all took in one baby that had nothing. This is the world I want to live in and therefore, this is something we must do. We have to save a baby and give him a life he so deserves. Katelyn and Meredith lucked out. They have parents who love each other and who love them with all their hearts. They have all the material needs and most of the wants (we try not to buy them everything!). Our family (extended included) have so much to give and we're going to be able to share all of this with a little boy who has nothing. He's already born and probably living in unthinkable conditions. He doesn't know the loving touch of a Mommy and Daddy. He doesn't know how it feels to be in a comfortable bed every night. He hasn't experienced the feeling of a tummy so full it hurts to laugh. He doesn't know it yet but we love him already. This journey is going to be tough. Yes, the paperwork sucks! However, pregnancy is no picnic either. Yes, it's very expensive! However, it still costs less than the big old SUV I drive all over town. Yes, we're already pretty busy with our 2 little ones. However, one more will only make life that much fuller. I know most of our family and friends probably think we're crazy for wanting to change our lives so drastically. Trust me, we've thought about everything and we know this is what we need to do.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for your willingness to go on this journey. I hope you keep coming back for updates as I plan to give them regularly. We need everyone in our corner because it's a long road ahead. I hope this experience and everything we can share with you will change your life forever as well.