Friday, October 26, 2007

August 28, 2007

The last four weeks have been filled with the “paper chase”. Brit and I have multiple copies of our birth certificates, marriage license, criminal history clearance, child abuse clearance, health letter, and name affidavit. We applied for our passports on August 3, 2007. I hope to have them in 3-4 months. I feel like an expectant mother! Every chance I get I tell people we are adopting! This weekend (Labor Day Weekend) we will travel to Pittsburgh to spend time with the Lewis Family. This will be the first time they get to hear the news. I am so excited, I can barely keep from blurting it out when we are talking to any family member on the phone. I will keep my lips sealed and give Brit the honor of telling his family.

I met with Lorrie last week and spoke with her again on the phone last night. She has completed our home study and was getting it notarized last night. Yesterday was her first day of school and she came home exhausted.

I have been trying to reach Carol in California to get assistance completing our I600-A form. I want to get that in the mail to USCIS this week now that our home study is complete. There are some questions I cannot answer without her guidance.

The week of July 30, 2007 Brit began the nursery transformation. We wanted to rip out the old carpet and redo the hardwood floor underneath. We just happened to pick the most humid days of the summer (because Mamma, Mom and Mike were in Maine), so we had difficulty with the stain drying. Now the floor is complete, but Brit needs to finish putting up the trim around the base boards. I hope to have the room put back together this week. Then, we can finally show off the hard work!

On August 21, 2007 we made our first trip to Babies’ R Us. We did not but anything, but just wanted to start looking. Of course we had to have fun and that happened when we were looking at the strollers. I love the feel of the jogger strollers, but there is not much room for diaper bag, etc. We left the store and then went to Borders’ Book Store. We bought two great books on adoption. I have read one of them already and it will continue to serve as a great resource through the entire process.

I can’t wait to start buying baby books and toys for the nursery. I want to make a book for the baby so when we get the referral, we can send it to the Foster Mom to read on our behalf. It should be in both Spanish and English. I am wanting to purchase some type of educational tool to help me learn Spanish again. I want to be able to keep the language alive for our little one. Being bi-lingual will be valuable in society.

On August 26, 2007 I became a registered user on Carol’s adoption list serve. Some of the articles are freaking me out. I am becoming scared to travel due to some political unrest, but will stop at nothing to bring my baby home. I just hope we can complete the process before anything happens that might stop all adoptions to America.