Year End Thoughts

International News

First, I wanted to update those that don't know yet that the law banning Americans from adopting Russian children has passed. President Putin signed it late last week. This is horribly devastating to many people. We are so sorry for your loss, and this seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

For us, we are moving forward. Currently there have been no restrictions put in place with Canada, and we hope, with all our hearts, that it stays that way.

Progress and Updates

So a few updates for us and our process.

We're getting things ready to courier off to the agency on the 2nd. We have a few things we need to send, including hand-written reference letters, many photographs, and copies of legal paperwork.

Next week we have our final home study interview and home inspection! Today was been a day full of cleaning, organizing and purging. We're managed to get our spare room aka gym aka future child's room squared away a bit and now I want to fill it with a little person!

As for our immigration paperwork, we got the letter saying our application is being worked on and we should have our approval in the next 2 weeks! This is great!! This is normally one of the items that can delay the dossier being ready for translation, so I'm thrilled to know we'll have the decision in the first 2 weeks of January. Yay!

We'll soon be coming into the part of the process that is out of our hands. And that's going to be hard for me! If you know me, you know I like to handle things so having it in someone else's control. Especially something so very important to us, our hearts, our family and our future.

So once our home study interviews are done, our social worker needs to write a report. The report will be to either recommend us for adoption or not. This report will go the province and they, in turn, will decide if we are provincially approved or not. And that's what will cue the agency to have our file translated and sent to Russia.

We're hoping to have our report by the end of January, and hear from the province in February. I'm not sure how long it'll take but I'm going to be as optimistic as possible!

I have it in my head and heart that we will be registered in Russia by the first week of April. I really hope so!

Matters of The Fragile Heart

If you only knew how hard it was to not be able to realize the dream of parenthood. We see so many people land in it accidentally. We see people want it and have it happen with almost no effort. We also see people deal with infertility and succeed.

Adam and I have cried. We have stayed home when we couldn't handle being around kids. We have cuddled children and left crying silently trying not to show our tears. We have held our tongues when people take what they have for granted. We have put up with asinine comments from people who have no clue how hard it is. We struggle every holiday. We struggle when we see the adorable clothes at the Superstore. We struggle when we see someone doing something that we dream of one day doing. We struggle with our ages. We struggle not knowing what will come of things, because you never know.

I tell you this so you know and understand that adoption is something to be taken very seriously. I tell you this so you understand that it's not trendy to adopt - it's a way to parent.

Most importantly I tell you this so you know, more than anything, that we do this for us. This is for our family - so we can build one. This is to make our dreams come true. This is to give us a child to raise, educate, teach and learn from. This is so we can be surprised by the amazing person our child grows into. This is so we can go to soccer games, dance recitals and school plays. This is so we can hide Christmas presents and Easter Eggs. This is so we can hold and soothe them when they hurt.

Adoption is for us. We are not saving anyone. We are not rescuing a child from a down-trodden life. We are bringing them into our home to grow with us, so we can cherish one another and wrap each other in love, cuddles and hugs.

We are not heroes.

We just want to be a Mommy and Daddy.