Moving on to phase two....hopefully...

So, apparently, I'm not a very dilligent blogger. In my defense, not a whole lot of action has taken place on the adoption front. Unless you count hindrance and frustration. There are times when I feel like there is just no end in sight.  How many papers will I have to fill out, get notarized, scan and copy?  I don't actually want an answer to that because I might just stop dead in my tracks. And to add to the endless heap of paper work, that all must get notarized, (if you can't tell, the whole notarize thing has me feeling and bit hot under the collar) we both had to get complete physicals. I thought the days of getting my blood drawn and tested were behind me. The best part was paying a notary to travel to both our doctors' offices, which luckily are in the same building, to notarize our doctor's signiture on our physical. I'll save you the details but this was absolute chaos. The good news, however, is that Connor and I do not have AIDS. Everyone can breath a little easier cause I'm sure you were worried.

Having said all that, there does appear to be light at the end of the tunnel. Upon completion of some online video courses and assuming our finger prints check out with the FBI, we will be FINISHED with our home study!!! This is big news considering the home study is what takes the longest. Oh there are still plenty of forms to be notarized in our future, but I feel better knowing there's progress being made. On to phase two! Registration. What we're registering for, I don't know. And to be honest, I don't care. I just like that we're moving on. This will be a pretty simple process. It's mostly just making copies of some things we've already done and sending them into our agency. To be clear, the company conducting our home study and our adoption agency are two seperate entities. Our relationship with the home study service will end when our home study is complete. However, our agency will be with us all the way through the entire process including when we travel to Russia. Our hope is to complete the home study and registration before Christmas leavng us the post holiday recovery month, also known as January, to dedicate ourselves whole heartily to finishing the next steps and getting our child!! If all goes according to plan (yeah, right) we'll be making our first trip to Russia in the spring.

Although I did some ranting earlier, I have to say that I do feel incredibly blessed at the moment. Connor and I just spent a wonderful week in Utah with my family for Thanksgiving. I was reminded of just how fortunate we really are. I feel so grateful to have a family, both Connor's and mine, who are so unquestionably willing to accept this new little person into their lives. I have zero doubt that this child will be loved more than any child could ever hope to be loved.

Halloween Extravaganza

The first thing I thought of when we bought our house last February was how excited I was to host a Halloween party. So, a couple months ago, Sharon, Lauren and I began planning the festivities. The result was far more excellent than I could've hoped for. Delicious food, wicked awesome costumes, a kickin dance party complete with strobe and laser lights, fog machine and most importantly, good friends. For someone like me who has a tendency to get homesick for my fam on a regular basis, I feel very lucky to have met such fantastic people here in Renton. Props to you May Creek ward. You rock.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing Tra La La.

I wish there was something exciting to report but unfortunately there is absolutely nothing. Unless you think filling out questionnaires that are 14 pages long, printing them, scanning them all back in to the computer and then emailing them is interesting. Cause that's my life these days. Oh there's also ordering a bazillion copies of my marriage certificate. That's been fun. Basically, until this mundane paperwork is finished nothing terribly exciting is going to happen. Connor keeps telling me in order to have a good blog I need to post something twice a week. And I keep telling him that he doesn't know what he's talking about because that would be one seriously boring blog. So, it's my hope that we can cruise through all the boring crap and get to the good stuff before everyone gives up on reading this thing.

On a more exciting note, but not at all adoption related, we road tripped it down to Corvallis, Oregon this last weekend to see BYU take on Oregon St. We went with some friends of ours from church. Also die hard cougar fans. It was a blast. Connor got to meet football legend LaVell Edwards which was pretty amazing. Not to mention also getting to meet half the football team. We even made it on tv. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Paperwork, Fingerprints and Crab!

So, thanks to some friends from church, I'm sitting in a beautiful house/cabin/mansion in the San Juan islands taking in a spectacular view. I thought I'd take this moment to share some photos and update y'all on our progress with our adoption.

At the beginning of this week we met with our social worker who will be working on our home study. He came to our home and discussed with us what we'll be expected to do during this process. I'd love to fill you in on what that is but it's sort of turned to mush in my brain. But I'll do my best. So, in order to adopt, whether it's domestic or international, you have to complete what's called a home study. A home study consists of two in home visits from a social worker, fingerprints sent to the FBI (which takes forever!), all sorts of paperwork, financial reviews, references and blah blah blah... This process will most likely take 8-12 weeks. So, I'm just taking it one form at a time so my head doesn't explode.

On a more fun note. We're having one of those great weekends you can only have in the pacific northwest. We're in this absolutely beautiful home on an island in the San Juans only accessible by boat or plane. And once you've arrived at the island you have to take a four wheeler/mule thingy to the house. Totally amazing. Its one of those rare moments when I'm so grateful I live in this part of the world and not southern california. So here's to great friends, great food, a BYU victory, adoption moving forward and wireless Internet!

For your viewing pleasure

Since I began doing all of my research on agencies, countries and results, I've found so many wonderful people who have been incredibly eager to share their stories with me in an effort to help me along. Here's a little youtube video made by a couple who were particularly helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWa2TsPLqnI

Enjoy!

K

Who's K you ask? Well, she's our adoption consultant assigned to us by our agency. It's the first thing to happen since we signed the contract so it feels like a big deal. Looking back I'm sure this will seem like a somewhat insignificant event. But, as I promised, I'm going to keep you up to date. Even if it's a boring, minute detail. So, K's job is pretty much to walk us through this whole process, step by crazy step. She'll tell us what to do when we're totally confused. She'll tell us what forms we need and what we've forgotten. Dotting the i's and crossing the t's, if you will. Today, to kick things off, we spoke on the phone. She got some basic info about us and asked some questions. Heres a basic summary of the conversation.

K: How many kids are we looking to adopt?
Me: One. (There are sibling groups available which would take half the amount of time but cost double the amount of money. Also, they'd be older. So, just one for us.)

K: Boy or girl?
Me: Boy (for every one girl in a Russian orphanage there are 14 boys. Besides, we just want a boy)

K: Preferences regarding what the child looks like?
Me: As close to us as possible.
K: Blue eyes or brown?
Me: Don't care.
K: Brown or blonde hair
Me: Don't care.

It's crazy to me that we have that much control. But seriously, I want there to be at least some element of surprise here.

K: Are you ok with flying to another region in Russia once you arrive in Moscow?
Me: Uhhhh....is there a reason why we wouldn't want to do that?
K: Are you afraid of flying?
Me: Most definitely yes.
K: Well, if you're afraid of flying in the states you'll be terrified of flying in Russia. They have different planes in Russia. And they don't follow the same regulations.
Me: Say no more. No flying in Russia for me.
K: No problem. There are plenty of regions accessible via car or train.
Me: Hallelujah.

And that about sums up my convo with K. The next step is starting our homestudy, which can take 2-4 months depending on how diligent we are. I'm anxiously awaiting a packet to arrive in the mail which will get us started. In fact, I can't do anything until I get it. So, until then there's not much left to report.

Its official. I blog. Oh ya, and we're adopting a kid from Russia.

   
I said it would never happen. I said I'd never be a "blogger". Who wants to hear about my life in any great detail anyway? Facebook gives you all the quick bits you'd ever want to know. We watch a lot of tv, love our pets way more than most people and do a bit of traveling from time to time (which is documented primarily on facebook). I maintained that I would only blog if my life somehow became interesting. If I had something worthy of blogging about. Well, its possible that I just might.

So, for most of you this is old news. But it probably deserves a bit of explaining anyway (in the event that anyone else ever reads this blog). For about three going on four years Connor and I have been hoping to start a family. And to make a make a long, detailed story short, it ain't happenin. So, on to the purpose of this blog. Connor and I have decided to adopt......from Russia. Ya, that's right. Russia. I could list all the events, conversations and research that led us to this decision but they're just details. What matters is we're doing it. It's the one thing since this whole crazy mess began that has us really, truly excited. So it's on. Like donkey kong. The agency is chosen, the application is completed and accepted, the contract signed and most importantly, the check is in the mail. In about a year from now, after two trips to Russia,(and apparently a mountain of paperwork) we'll have a little boy. Finally. I've read so many blogs as of late dealing specifically with Russian adoption. They've been so informative and encouraging that I figured I better start one too. I'll document everything here and keep all those who care to know in the loop. So keep checking in to see the latest. Wish us luck!

Here we go.....