On A Whim...

Yesterday Jamie and I decided to take a quick trip to the baby store (and felt a bit unprepared) to look at a crib we found online, and thus the questions began. Lifestyle crib, or crib that converts to a toddler bed only? Drop sides or fixed sides? Modern or Traditional? And the list could go on and on and on. These questions only gave way to other questions....such as what to buy before we go (nursery furniture excluded)? What type of stroller - travel system or not? If not, what kind of car seat? Do we buy a travel tent (found at Land of Nod) for the little guy to use in Kaz? Do we get a highchair now or wait? Play gym? Clothes? Bath stuff? Etc., etc., etc.

So many questions have entered my mind in the last 24 hours that I think I need to make a list:) If anyone has any advice on the above, on what we really need before we travel, while we travel, etc., or would like to share a short list with us, that would be fantastic!!

Here are the three things we did buy which I believe are sound investments: a diaper bag (very cool one btw that Jamie can use), an inflatable tub, and stacking toys to play with in the bath. Beyond that...well, we need help from the more experienced:)

We hope everyone has a fabulous New Year!! Here is to bringing home Baby Michel in 2008!! Whoo hoo!!!!

Happy Holidays!!

I know it has been a long time since we have posted. It has been very hectic between switching agencies, getting paperwork done for the new one, and of course the holidays!!! To top all that off, we have had major computer issues, which we have almost figured out:)

So, to recap, we have switched agencies and are now with Adoption Ark (thank you Muriel, Debbie, & Suzanne!!). We are very happy, and the switch over has been seamless thus far. The home study will be ready to go after the first of the year, and then we just wait for CIS approval. With that being said, it is more likely that our dossier will go over to Kaz in February. What can you do? With any luck (and lots of prayers) we can get CIS approval quickly! We are well on our way with the dossier docs. We have our first round ready for the apostilling process and are hoping to send the next round to Maeven (our caseworker) to review and approve. Kinkos, here we come for copying!!! Exciting stuff, I know:)

So, Jamie and I were wrapping presents on Friday night, and we looked at each other and realized that this would be the last one by ourselves. It was kind of a WOW moment. Of course, we both smiled about it and cannot wait to spoil our little Vaughn next year! Also, last night my sister, brother in law, and nieces came downtown to visit and we had so much fun. We went to Macy's to see the windows, went to FAO Schwartz inside Macy's, went to the German Christmas Village at the Daley Plaza, and last but not least, we went to see the zoo lights at Lincoln Park Zoo. I just kept smiling all night because next year we get to do all of those things with Vaughn included. My nieces are going to be so adorable with him. We cannot wait for them to meet their cousin!!!

Jamie and I are looking forward to the holidays with our families and celebrating the last one as DINKS:) We are looking forward to an exciting new year as we bring home our long awaited son and become a family! I already know 2008 is going to be a fantastic year!

Best wishes to those who have brought home their children this year, to those who are currently in country waiting to come home, to those who are in country meeting their children, to those who are waiting to travel, and to those who are just starting this amazing journey.

Many thanks again to our family, friends, and the adoptive community for their unending support and encouragement as Jamie and I continue on our journey. We are forever grateful and hope to continue the friendships we have made in the adoptive community.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to our family, friends, and fellow bloggers!!

PS - really we will post pictures of the baby's room and our other "babies" when the computer issues are resolved!!!

What to do is done....

So, with no further ado, after much soul searching, we have decided to switch agencies. We spoke with our social worker today (who by the way is amazing and I wish we could take her with us!!) and she was very gracious & understanding as to why we were switching. Jamie and I know in our hearts that this is the right decision for us and our future family. It is a bit daunting, but if others can do it (if you are reading this you know who you are!) so can we. We are hoping to be signed with a new agency by the end of the week, and then keep moving forward to the land of Kaz and our little guy!!

Thank you to everyone who offered us great support and words of encouragement during this frustrating time! We are forever grateful to you. And thank you to those who were gracious enough to talk to us about their agency experiences with total honesty. We are forever grateful to you as well. And a big thanks as usual, to our family, friends, and the adoptive community - you are all amazing!

If anyone would like to hear more about why we are changing, feel free to email me directly.

What to do, what to do?

So, we are at a point of crisis in this process (probably the first of many). We are in a major holding pattern with regards to our home study and our agency. There is an internal issue with our agency and DCFS here in IL, which is putting our home study in its holding pattern. It is very frustrating right now. We have a home study that is ready to be reviewed and sent for approval, dossier docs ready to be reviewed and apostilled, and we cannot do any of it or move foraward!!

So, the crisis? Do we switch agencies or stay with our current one? That is the big question that we are facing right now, and the big decision we have to make. I feel like we are at the make it or break it point in the process for switching (or at least the ideal time to do it). We have been doing a lot of research, talking to a lot of people, and are working on sorting it all out. We knew and expected there would be bumps in the road, but switching agencies was definitely not one of them!!! All in all, we think that switching might set us back a month or so, but considering the uncertainty of when the issue with our agency will be cleared, a month doesn't seem so bad.

Once we decide what we are doing, we will update the blog. I am so completely frustrated right now, and for the first time since we started this whole process, I broke down in tears (probably not the last time, right?!) Anyway, enough negative vibes for the night!

Best wishes to all our blogging friends who are travelling right now and meeting their children and awaiting court dates! We are so happy for you and can't wait to read more about your little ones!! And congratulations to those families who had successful court dates and are now proud parents!!! Safe journeys to Kaz and home:)

Also, one of these days (when our normal computer is working), we will post the pics of our other "kids" and baby Vaughn's room like we have been promising!!!

Thanksgiving

This is a short post just to wish all of our family and friends (old and new) a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! We love you all!!! We are so thankful to have all of you in our lives and supporting us during one of the most exciting times in our lives!!!

We are also thankful to all of the adoptive families we have met during this process, and through blogging. You are all wonderful, amazing individuals and we are lucky to have you as support and sounding boards!! Best wishes to those who are completing paperwork, those who are waiting, those who are travelling, and those who are home with their children - we are thinking about you all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hanging in there!

Well, we didn't receive that great of news from the adoption agency. Looks like we're going to have to wait until Illinois DCFS gets their act together and allows the agency to keep preparing home studies. Typical government, especially Illinois. I guess that's why they call it the big political machine. We're thinking about raising a ruckus and contacting our local congressman, not that they would do anything either...you know...big political machine.

In the meantime, Kim and I are going to keep on trucking and get all our papers in order, so that the dossier is ready to hit the Kazakhstan ground at a moments notice. Thanks to all who provided us pictures in order for us to complete the dossier. Never thought gathering pictures would be such a project. Actually, it gave us the opportunity to reminisce as well.

Stay tuned for pictures of our animal kingdom, which includes our dog, Ryno (and yes, he is named after the best second baseman of all time, Ryne Sandberg), and our cats Maji and Piper (a little Ali Baba/Mummy/Charmed theme going on there - don't know why, my wife named them). And, we will also attempt to post pictures of the recently completed (minus the furniture) baby's room.

Anyway, thanks again to all who have been there for us and have a great Thanksgiving. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, this is Jamie blogging and this is my first ever blog. Got one under the belt.

J-

Great Book

I now have baby shopping on the brain since the last post:) We are really excited to stop dreaming about our baby's room, and start making it a reality! But patience is key, right? We are going try and wait until after the holidays to start shopping, but I am sure I will break down before then. LOL:)

With all the baby "stuff" on the brain, I just wanted to give a shout to a great book given to me by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Jess. Jess & Bry have have a beautiful little girl, who we are proud to call our Goddaughter:)

When we began our journey, Jess gave me the book "Baby Bargains" by Denise and Alan Fields in order to help us sift through things we might buy for the baby. This book has been a godsend, and a wealth of information about everything related to babydom. It has information on what are good buys, bad buys, things not to even think about buying, etc. So, I just wanted to share the wealth about this book. I highly recommended it, and both Jamie and I enjoyed reading it, and it helped make some of our decisions very easy!

Getting There!

I have figured out that the problem with blogging is that sometimes, you just do not have time to update your blog! Work has been crazy the past couple of weeks for both me and Jamie! In fact last night I didn't get home from work until 12:30am! I love working 16+ hour days;)

This one was especially tough because we had the bulk of our homestudy today! Trying to come up with intelligent (and rational) responses was a bit tough. All that being said, Jamie and I feel really good about how it went, and are really happy with the experience. Our social worker, Pam, is really great and very easy to work with. Jamie has to finish his individual interview next week, and hopefully it won't take too long to have the home study completed!

We are now hoping that we can send our dossier to St. Louis for translation after Thanksgiving and then hopefully onto the consulate in NY by the end of the year! Wish us luck! Of course with this whole process, nothing happens as planned and you just have to roll with the punches:)

We finally put the finishing paint touches on the baby's room, and it looks fantastic! We are so happy with how it is turning out:) We are looking forward to shopping for furniture, and putting the rest of the room together! Today we were in Target, and we walked through the baby section (I wanted to check out something in the bathing aisle). Jamie got a bit overwhelmed by everything, and how much "stuff" we are going to have to get for the baby:) It was actually really sweet. He did however find a diaper bag that he thought was really cool and manly. It was so cute to see him excited about a diaper bag!

It is now time for me to go - we need to catch up on some sleep! Thanks to all the well wishers and to all the people we have met so far through blogging! Everyone has been fantastic and so supportive!

First post ever!

Okay, well here is our first blog post ever! Jamie and I are more than half-way to having our dossier completed! We just have to finish our home study, and get fingerprinted for CIS, which is happening at the end of the month. Hopefully everything we have collected is in good order, and we can send our dossier for translation before Thanksgiving!

We are so excited to be finally starting our family, and thank all of our friends and family for their support! It has meant the world to us, and of course has made the process all the much easier.

Since we are still in the process of paperwork, there is not much to report yet. But, we have started getting the little guy's room together, and it looks great! We have chosen a vintage babseball theme (very appropriate for us!) and the room is blue and chocolate brown. Once I figure out how to post pictures, I will post one. We are excited to start furniture shopping and completing his room!

This whole process has moved rather quickly (we just started gathering everything after Labor Day) and at the moment is surreal! The next few months of waiting will be hard, but we will have lots to keep us busy, we hope! With any luck, we will be travelling to Kaz anywhere from April on to meet the little guy.