Thank you, thank you, thank you, for ALL of your sweet emails and comments!!! We are just SO fortunate to have such a wonderful support network!! So if I forget to tell you sometimes, please know that we are so blessed by - and more than you know, we appreciate - all of you!

I have nothing interesting to report for today, except that I should be receiving home study info very soon -- hopefully tomorrow (fingers crossed) -- in the mail! The girl I spoke w/ on the phone from "Lifeline" (the agency doing our homestudy) in B'ham said that once we get the paperwork squared away (shouldn't take more than a few days), we'll be on our way to doing our home study! Hooray!!

And just so you know, We are absolutely, officially classified by CHI as "Adopting Family" and that is so awesome!

The marriage certificate is still the only doc that we have...I had planned to go by the Health Dept. today & pick up copies of my birth certificate, but they close at 4:00, and I didn't get off till 4:15 (had I known they would close so early, I would've gone by at lunch! oh well...). Nathan ordered his birth certificate a few days ago - he was born in Washington, D.C., so it's not as simple for him to get his as it is for me to get mine.

Nathan is going to get me...I never ate lunch today, b/c I was on the phone my entire lunch break! Maybe he won't get me, b/c I was doing something worthwhile...!!! :)

I also spoke with a lady from CHI - she answered a ton of questions, which helped calm some of my fears! Bless her, I apologized for asking so many questions, and she told me it's just much better to ask questions & get it right in the beginning than have to do something over b/c I didn't ask questions! (so that made me feel a ton better) To anyone that may be reading this, who might be even *thinking* of adopting, write down all your questions...it will make it all easier! (someday, I think I might just write a 'how-to' book on this subject - ha ha)

Also today, I called the AL Secretary of State's office to find out specifics on getting docs apostilled (pronounced: "Ah-pos-TILL" -- NOT "a-POS-till") and I'm feeling better about that too.

And the last thing I did right after work (since I didn't go to the Health Dept.) is run down to the UA Children's Program and put us on the waiting list! I am actually shaking as I type this, b/c that seems to be the FIRST, real "parent-ish" thing we've done yet!! Who knows if we will actually get in, but it's still really exciting!

Okay, I must've lied in the beginning....I did WAY more today than I realized. We have no true papers to show for it all, but I got lots of info & boy, are we on the road!

There's still SO MUCH left to do, but WE CAN DO THIS! At times, it's just difficult really convincing my impatient-natured self!! :)

Happy Friday everyone! :)

Labels: International Adoption, Paperwork