Fingerprint date received!!!

We have received a date for our fingerprints..Yay!! In the land of I800A this is huge. Our big day is....

December 12 @ 10am in Durham, NC.

One more step we can check off our list...ALRIGHT!!!

:)

Adoption journey

I did want to talk a little about our upcoming adoption. Scott and I have decided to adopt an infant from the country of Armenia. We are very excited about it for a number of reasons. First, we have always said we would adopt, even before we started trying to conceive naturally.

Additionally, we looked at it as it would be our contribution to the greater good.

We are also excited about the opportunity to travel and really experience another culture (we will be spending quite an amount of time in Armenia).

Currently, we are in the process of waiting to here from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (the USCIS a division of the Department of Homeland Security). They have to approve us for bringing an infant into the US first. It is called the I800A. It is taking them apprx. 81 days right now to process applications. Ours was received by them on November 3.

That application was huge! Before we could apply we had to complete a home study. That was crazy. We had to be interviewed several times by a social worker, had to gather all sorts of fun documents and I cleaned my house like it has never been cleaned before!!!

So now while we wait for our I800A approval we are working on our dossier. So not fun. More gathering and certifying of various legal documents. We will eventually have to send everything to the NC Secretary of State to have it all "apostilled". I had never even heard that word until this all started! Anyways....

We are also completing various education requirments. We are learning all about attachment and adoption...it is actually pretty interesting and I found it to be so counterintuitive!

As the clock ticks by, it becomes a little more real each second. Some days I can actually picture ourselves in Armenia, meeting our child for the first time. Other days it seems so far off I'm sure it will never be reality. It is so hard.

Just in case you are wondering....

The number one thing not to say to someone who really wanted to be pregnant, but can't, and has chosen to pursue adoption:

1. "Just when you start adopting you'll get pregnant..I know such and such and it happened to them right away!"

Why you shouldn't say this: YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE SITUATION!!! This is a myth and most likely, no, we won't get pregnant just because now we are adopting. You hear about these stories because they are the exception...not the rule. Additionally, it implies that adopting is not as good as having a natural child. This is a choice we've made to grow our family...and it is just as good as a birth!!

I can't even tell you how many times I've heard this and how many times I've wanted to scream at the person saying it..however, instead I just smile and say politely, "And I would be delighted!" I'm so sick of it...please pass this on to your friends, tell everyone you know..stop it!!!!