Closer yet

It's four o'clock in the afternoon and my dog is sitting expectantly in front of the door. It's still a little bit early, but soon we will start getting our trick-or-treaters, and then he'll have some fun. Actually, this is his first Halloween, so I don't think he really knows what's coming tonight. He's going to be so excited to see everyone come to the door. Sometimes, I think I sound like a parent when I talk about my dog. He's the only child that I really have at this point in time, although, our paperwork for Caleb is coming along. Last week, we took all of our documents that we have been gathering for the last seven months and went to the office of the Secretary of State at the capitol building. Here's a side note: has anyone been to the capitol building recently, or at least since the 3rd grade? It's amazingly spooky and dark in there. The halls are very dim and everything echoes. All the doors are closed and, from the outside, look like any number of entrances to some other realm beyond. And then, you open a door and it is totally different on the inside: big and bright, cheery, even. Anyway, I went to the office of the Secretary of State and had all of our documents certified. They were then sent to Washington DC to the Chinese consulate to be authenticated. I took them to our local Fedex drop-off point and, let me tell you, it was difficult to see our envelope of all of our work over the past several months, now certified, being placed on a pile of other packages that were being sent, too. I watched the man put it there, and then I had to leave them at the store. All of our work. I was so worried, after everything we'd done! I never imagined I would be so nervous about it. But, it arrived in DC and was supposed to be completed and sent on to our agency today. Hopefully, it will all be mailed out November 9th, and then we can get started waiting for the next thing. Eventually, the next thing will actually be going to China, but unfortunately we are not there just yet. But, we're closer.....

What's happening?

I've had quite a few people approach me with this same question: "so...have you heard anything about your adoption yet?" I know that it is very well meaning, and people are excited, and I truly appreciate that. Most of the time, though, I have to answer, "Nope! Not yet!" with a smile on my face, like it isn't bothering me at all. I tend to tell people that we are still "just waiting" as if absolutely nothing is happening with it. The truth is, there is plenty happening, it just isn't in the form of new video footage, updates, and pictures that everyone expects.
First of all, we bought a crib. We've been looking for cribs and attempting to educate ourselves in this area. You would think that being a pediatric/nursery nurse for almost 8 years might have given me a clue, but it isn't true, so some research has been involved. Also, not knowing exactly how old Caleb will be when he comes home makes things a little more tricky. Will he be sleeping in a crib? Will he be ready to move to a toddler bed within a month of arrival? And who knows...if this whole thing keeps going, he could be a 5 year old by the time he finally gets here. We decided to go with a 3-in-1 crib: it's a crib, or it's a toddler bed, or it's a full size bed, all in one. After all of the looking, pricing, and negotiating, believe me when I tell you that he will have this bed for life. It's not just a crib, it's an investment. I expect Caleb to sleep in this bed the entire time that he lives under our roof, take a short break from it when he goes off to college, and then come back for it to move it into his first apartment. That's how long this bed is going to be around. And, we really do like it, too, so that's a good thing.
I've posted a picture of the model that we bought.


Another major thing that has happened is that we have officially heard back from China about our initial set of paperwork. This is our pre-approval (PA), which came 2 weeks ago. It is the go-ahead for the sending of our dossier. It is a very exciting step for us! As of this writing, we are very much hoping to send our dossier soon. We actually would have sent it already if we could have, but there has been some delays with paperwork. Apparently, some pertinent information had not been turned in when we completed our homestudy in May. So, we have been really trying to work with our agencies about getting all of the necessary stuff completed. At the risk of sounding negative, let me just say that it has been so time consuming/complicated/fist-clenchingly frustrating that it may have been easier to just redo the whole thing. I haven't wanted to go into all of the details in order to try and stay positive about the whole thing, but I can say that it is finally done (I think).

So, I really can say that stuff has been happening. I know it isn't the most exciting information, but it is part of the process. A pregnancy certainly cannot be so exciting every day either, so I don't feel bad at all. And as far as my complaints about the paperwork process go, I still wouldn't trade it for weight gain, morning sickness, backaches, etc., any day.

Happy Anniversary!

Three years ago today, I said "I do" to the man of my dreams. A house, a pending adoption, and a beagle later...we're still around. Russ and I actually got engaged on a trip to Boston, at a restaurant called Five North Square. Our engagement period was six months long, and the last three were some of the most stressful to me ever. Not because of wedding planning or anything. It was more things like: moving, cockroaches, a broken wrist, surgery, another surgery, a car accident, etc. I actually recall breaking down into tears once after a Sunday school class when someone casually asked me how I was. Little did they know!
Our wedding day was wonderful. It was a very happy time for us. We took our honeymoon in Banff, Canada, and it's been happily ever after ever since. Sometimes, when I feel like this whole adoption thing is going to be the end of my sanity, I think back to another time when I was so stressed--a little more than three years ago. But after our wedding day, all of the troubles of the engagement period were forgotten. And so I'm hoping it will be the same with this. Here's to adding on to our family...and forgetting all the stress and junk to get there.
Happy Anniversary!