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.