Best Christmas Present Ever…Travel Dates!

We received wonderful Christmas news…... Travel dates! The frenzy pace prior to travel will begin tomorrow consumed with long To-Do lists and crazy rushes after work to complete tasks.   I am up for the challenge and looking forward to moving this journey again.  I am always at my best when I have more than enough to do.    For the rest of this beautiful Christmas Night, however, I am going to relax, sip my last glass of wine (children are asleep) and accept the quiet as a gift. For tommorrow……the tree comes down, the decorations get put away, we check airfare, call the pediatrician, work on FMLA paperwork, make arrangements for the dog and cat etc. etc.….and the list goes on!   Merry Christmas Everyone!

USCIS Approved!

From original call at the end of May to Mid September for USCIS Approval..3.months, numerous trips to Fed Ex, mounds of copies, and 4 vacation days from work to accomplish it all. Not bad, however, in the grand scheme of things I know we all believe this process could benefit from a major reform. In such an electronic world, WHY are we still dealing with so much original paper? I will admit the second time around everything was easier (except for our small homestudy snafu and oh, yeah, when we left our appostilled documents on the porch overnight and it rained LOL) becuase we knew what to do, but….. there is a still a child Waiting for governments to say You are Approved! There are days when I am motivated to "take on the system" and build better efficiencies in this process and then there are days when it's just overwhelming. But above all else, I truly believe the best resources we have are with each other. Together we can "take on the system" by sharing best practices and secrets with each other! It's a joy to read each of our stories, to help celebrate our triumphs and offer support in our defeats. Hang in there everyone in Adoption Blog World! In my opinion we are ALL already approved becuase a child awaits and our hearts and home are wide open.

Traveling with Toddlers

Lee and I plan to bring Adam and Aggie along on the big trip and have been trying to discover as many "best practices" for Traveling with Toddlers. On our last trip we Walked everywhere and I mean Everywhere, so We recently purchased a Toddler Carrier Backpack that we will use for our newest addition:

We purchased a KSUV "Kid SUV" at a neighbors garage sale a couple of years ago and will use this for Adam and Aggie:

I welcome any other ideas to make life a little easier while traveling with toddlers. Ideas to keep them busy? happy? I have been secretly stashing new movies, coloring books and puzzles to pack with us. We will have Lesson plans from Adam's teachers, and I suppose we will again find every playground within a 5 mile raddius of where ever we are. Additional suggestions? On the paperwork front, Our I-800A was re-submitted with little trouble and we have finger print appointments this Wednesday so we are moving right along! Hope everyone has a nice Labor Day Weekend!

The Infamous Pink Slip

Oh, bother. We got a pink slip. It's such a pretty color, but you know it is never good news. Always means a ripple erupted in the processing of your I-800A. Our home study needs a correction, however I am pretty sure it will be handled with a quick addendum and then turned around and sent back to Lee's Summit, MO pronto. Good 'ol Fed Ex profits again! LOL! Also, we are learning that two trips may not be as hard of a rule as we thought. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to get good news regarding only having to make one trip. There is consideration being discussed to bring us in 3 days prior to the start of our bonding period inorder to meet the director. Which of course we have already met, but sure! Two trips for us with someone in Kindergarten and another in pre-school along with OT appointments, etc. etc. just gets alittle complicated to schedule. Pray for one Trip! Over Christmas would be cool!!! :) …and let me tell you the hike to the top of this sand dune was very hard, but the view was incredible. Running down the sand dune was much better!! Attached is a picture from our recent vacation to the Oregon Coast. It was wonderful!

Paper Work Complete

A quick note to document that we sent all our dossier paper work into our NY Agency, mailed the I-800A and filed the paper work for Adam & Aggie's US passports. Whew! It took two months and it wasn't all that bad the second time becuase I had made copies of everything from the first go around and didn't have to spend a week trying to figure out how to Apostille documents. Our one hick up was our apostilled documents from the state of Wisconsin sat over night on our porch after the Fed Ex man delivered them while we were at work and well…..it rained. Re-Do! Clearly, that would have NEVER happened the first time around because I would have been watching like a hawk, but it is what it is. There were no short cuts to take that we discovered and I laugh becuase we will even have to get our finger prints taken again. As far as I know they are still the same……..except they expired! LOL! We have requested (although we haven't received confirmation) one trip vs. two and plan to take Adam and Aggie with us. The challenges will be great, but the rewards will be too so we decided to go for it and plan accordingly. Everynight we include our baby sister in our bedtime prayers and ask God to watch over her and ensure she knows we are ALL coming soon!

On Our Way to Poland ~ Again

Yes, it's true. We are On Our Way to Poland ~ Again. We may be crazy and out of our minds to some, but for us God is sending us to Poland to complete a family. Months ago my heart was really speaking and tugging with the thought…"what would Lee and I do if Adam and Aggie had a sibling". I ignored it multiple times because I was sure others would think I was crazy. When I finally spoke with Lee, I was surprised he was open to having a heartfelt conversation about it. I think our discussion may have lasted about a week, but we finally decided that we would not adopt again. However, if we were presented with a referral for a sibling we would proceed immediately to keep the family together. Meanwhile, fast forward to the end of May when a call came in from our previous agency. "There is another child, a sibling, are you interested?" A burst of tears proceeded an overwhelming and enthusiastic Yes! I have never been so sure of an answer as I was at that moment. In retrospect, I am sure God was whispering months ago… "Be Ready, Be Prepared I am taking you on another journey". I don't have all the answers as to how we are going to manage this; traveling with 2 toddlers, financially affording this outrageous process, and mentally entering the "waiting" game again. But we have already seen Him working in our lives and bringing us all together. So, today we officially announce we are back in the game!