Wednesday, October 15, 2008

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.