What A Long Week!

Let's start off by saying that International Adoption is not boring. It has been a whirlwind of a week getting all of our paperwork together. We also had to gather pictures of us and our house(both outside and inside). Then halfway through this week they decided that they needed two sets. Thank you to Evan for making THREE trips to Walmart's photo center.

Thursday morning we went to our agency to get our documents notarized by their attorney. For the amount of time it took to get everything together, we weren't there very long. Monday morning Evan will be taking our 17 documents to Columbus to be apostilled.

Now these are just registration documents so we can be registered in a region. Once we are close to receiving a referral then we will have to prepare our dossier. This consists of medical exams, financial statements, employment letters, etc. Most people take a couple months to get everything together.

I may not do a very good job of showing it, but I am very excited about this adoption. It really is an adventure. Sure, there is a lot of stress, but it is going to be so worth it. I think we are going to paint Nicholas' bedroom over Evan's spring break. We painted it two years ago when we started infertility treatments, but we need to start with a clean slate. I think preparing his room will continue to help us feel like our son is on his way.

In closing, I wanted to mention something about the process. On our second trip to Russia we will be going to court. Once the judge makes the adoption decree, he/she has the right to decide whether or not to enforce a ten-day waiting period. If they do not waive the ten days, we could be in Russia for three weeks on our second trip. That is a long time and we will have to contemplate whether to come back home and go back after the waiting period is over (both ways are costly). Our agency does have a couple of regions that almost always waive the 10 days. I would prefer one of these regions, but we don't really have a choice. I know that whatever region we are assigned to is where God has placed Nicholas. But, we are praying that we would be assigned one of the "faster" regions, if it is God's will. Hopefully, in the next month or two we'll find out.

Kristin