Preparing to prepare

It's been a bit since I last posted. That's because we have been working away at getting our final pieces of our Dossier together. This coming week we will be taking a big step in completing this process. On Monday, we go and get fingerprinted (again) for our 600A form which is a form that processes our request to bring an orphan into the country and make them a US citizen.

On Tuesday, we take at trip to Topeka to get the state of KS to certify and authenticate our Dossier. After that, we will send our paperwork to Washington DC, where the US government and then Ethiopia Embassy in DC will approve it and then send it on it's way to Ethiopia!

Is it possible we could get on the waiting list in September?! I can only hope!

We have been able to enjoy some time away from work this past week and realize that neither one of us has traveled enough. So, in these next few months of "freedom" we've got some places to visit, but knowing at the same time that we can't get it all in before we become parents. Can we be the ultra cool parents that globe trot with our child? We'll see, as that's going to have to be our option in order to visit the places we have yet seen. Anybody want to come along as our "travel nanny" ?? :)

It does feel like the clock is ticking before we lose the lifestyle of doing what we want when we want, but at the same time, as business owners, that hasn't always been the easy option one would think.

As we're looking at the next several months of baby preparation and waiting, we're starting to wonder all of the changes we are going to face. How are we going to give up a spare bedroom for a baby room? I'm really going to have share my "me" girly, creative space room with Josh so he has some space to work from home sometimes too? This makes me laugh because so much is going to change and I know soon that 10 minutes of "me" time will be a blessing in a few months, as opposed to now, when I have an entire room in my house for "me." Okay, okay...yes, I'm definitely spoiled!

My ears are open and my questions are flowing to my friends & family that are parents. Advice, suggestions, stories...I want to hear it all!

We have a new agency

Just got word that we have been accepted by a new international agency, Hope Adoption Agency out of Missouri. Whew! Let's get this process rolling faster. Our Dossier is almost complete and we hope to be able to get on the waiting list for a referral much faster now. Very happy about this!!

We could be starting all over...

We are 90% sure we are switching agencies. This means we would be starting all over with a new international agency. We think the waiting list of families is going to get longer with our current one and if we go with a smaller agency we can hopefully expect our baby home within 1 year. That would include travel. Is this a risky decision? Yes. But, we are also so just anxious to begin this journey and I am the most impatient person in the world. I am sure of it. :) Luckily, we have a good idea of what it would entail to make this switch and we're doing the proper research this time. There is nothing wrong with our current agency other than our concerns that there are just a lot of families working with them right now.
We have a lot of our paperwork together already though so this move would go pretty smooth, I hope. But really, it's an adoption, so the word "smooth" changes meaning in this situation. We are determined to keep our chins up and keep moving forward...