Travel Dates :)

Two years and one week....
That is how long ago we will have waited to get to Kaz.
We got the wonderful news today. I was actually closing down my computer at work to officially end the school year when I decided to check e-mail before I left. There is was, our e-mail from our agency with the wonderful news. And...since we were rushing out of town the very next hour to attend a youth retreat with our youngest, I did not even have time to respond. So here I am, 11 p.m. at night, writing this post.
After reading the e-mail, I could barely breath or speak. I was actually in shock, literally. I don't know if I could have responded to the e-mail if I would have had the time. I guess since school is out, I will be able to focus on it when we get home Monday.
In the meantime...we are enjoying our trip to Gatlinburg with Lilliana. This is her first Kidsfest and so far she has left the first service only about 20 minutes into it crying her eyes out! To loud Mom!!!!!! Yes, sweetie...I agree! However, things did eventually calm down when the International Children's Choir came on the scene. They are a group of orphans from around the world that travel around to such events sharing their faith and passion to help raise funds to dig wells in countries that need water. They were beautiful. They sang and danced beautifully, and the place in my heart that is drawn to this adoption process was stirred even more.
I know the process will have been a piece of cake to actually raising the child, however, I know that I would have regretted not adopting - for the rest of my life - had we not been willing to try. And I really hate regret!
I saw a woman hold her child in her arms tonight and it dawned on me...that will be me and Dean in about 3 weeks. It still has not sunk in.

Agency Update

We are officially at the MOE. Here's hoping for a quick return trip to MFA and travel dates! :)

Going Private

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Dossier On It's Way To Kaz :)

Dossier To Kaz....I guess this is the "Second Trimester" :)

We're moving again:)

My, this adoption is like riding bumper cars except that you get further with bumper cars on a much shorter ride!
Seriously, we received word today to update our medicals closer to the end of the month due to the NY consulate once again accepting dossiers! Yeh! So, depending on how quickly NY processes the dossiers, it should be sometime in Feb when ours goes out, but hopefully sooner.

Dossier Translation Complete :) !

Now just awaiting for the consulate to reopen from the holidays and for our turn to submit. Should be sometime in Janurary/February. I can't believe it's been 18 months since we began this journey.

Happy new Year to all!

A Completed Dossier!

This past Thursday I took my whole dossier to the state capitol in Nashville, TN to have it apostilled. It is finished! Thank goodness. From start to finish it has been 17 months and 5 days. Now we will send it off to our agency for translation and consulate submission.
We have had such a difficult time with hold ups of various reasons that I decided to get both my main dossier apostilled and my back up dossier apostilled and probably obtained way more seals (of every sort) than I needed. :) Since the trip to Nashville is 6 hours round trip., I wasn't taking any chances!
The timing was good, however, as my apostilling fell at the same time as my National Teachers of Mathematics Convention that happened to be in Nashville this year. It was refreshing and enlightening! I loved learning all about where the teaching of math seems to be "going" these days.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Hollands