Our names are officially on the list!

As of Tuesday, April 21st our names officially went on the waiting list! I spoke with our case worker the other day and she said even though we may have a few paperwork changes/additions to make, she placed our name on the list Tuesday. Now we just wait and see what happens. They told us it would be a 6-9 month waiting period, so we would be expecting a referral anytime between October '09 and January '10. Once we get the referral it will still be several more months before we actually bring our baby home. 2 trips to Russia, some more paperwork, etc...

Jason & I were finally able to get away for a few days. We are down in Singer Island, FL right now. I'm sitting on a lazy boy listening to the ocean as I type this. So relaxing! I've attached a picture of the view from Grandma & Grandpa's balcony. No place better on Earth! Maybe next year we can come down and bring Baby Peterson with us!

The dossier is in the mail!

Our dossier was sent to Adoption Ark today! It should arrive tomorrow morning by 10:30am. I'm not sure exactly when our names go on the list. Our caseworker said as soon as it was on her desk. I hope that is true! Jason took the paperwork downtown to be apostilled on Friday. He was a little crabby because he had to work in St. Charles in the morning and the evening. He had to get downtown, get everything apostilled and get back out in 3 hours. After a bunch of grumbling everything was done. For those of you who are interested, an apostille is a piece of paper with a big golden seal that verifies the notary is actually a notary. They had to attach a piece of paper to each and every page that was notarized. At $2/paper it cost about $70 to get everything done.

Once that part is done you have to make 5 exact copies of the original dossier. If the page is in color, the copy needs to be in color. I started to do it myself but holy moly that takes a LONG time. After 2 copies I wised up and dropped the packet off at Office Max. 2 hours and $35 later we had our copies! Much smarter. I'm waiting to hear back now from our caseworker to find out what region we will be adopting from. That will at least give me something else to research while we wait. Along with learning Russian via Rosetta Stone!

Another cute moment, courtesy of Rylan...

I am 100% aware of the fact that Rylan has nothing to do with my adoption journey. But he was just so darned cute at Easter, I figured everyone would like to see his picture...

Ya gotta love the US Postal Service

Our homestudy was finally finished and signed off on by the director of our agency. They sent it via US Mail though. Bad plan. Jason called today to find out where it was and they had delivered it the other day when no one was home. They said they left a notice. Either they didn't leave one, or some of our crazy juvenile-delinquent neighbor kids stole it. Why would kids want to steal a postal notice though? So Jason is off to downtown Aurora tomorrow morning to pick it up. Leslie was kind enough to notarize all of our stuff last Sunday while Rylan was screaming in the background. So Jason will be able to take everything downtown Chicago tomorrow to be apostilled. This has been his one and only job assignment, so even though he is pretty busy tomorrow, he is committed to getting it done! I have no clue in America where to send him to do this and the internet really doesnt have a lot of info on apostilles in Chicago. So keep your fingers crossed that he doesn't spend all of tomorrow wandering aimlessly around Chicago with a binder full of confusing paperwork. I just hope we have everything filled out the right way and aren't missing anything. I know I've been saying this for the past month, but hopefully our names will finally go on the list next week!!!

Paperwork Update

I spoke with our caseworker the other day and they tell me that by next Friday all of the paperwork should be reviewed and ready to be notarized. Including the home study! That means by the following week our paperwork should all be notarized, apostilled and on her desk. Then our name goes on The List! That is great news! I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

I'm not very good at this.

I'm getting crabby. Our home study was supposed to be done two weeks ago. We're still waiting for a copy to be sent. Until that comes, we can't send our paperwork for review to our caseworker. Until she reviews our paperwork we can't get it apostilled. Who has ever heard of an apostille? Until we get it apostilled we can't send it in for translation. I'm sure you get where I'm going with this. I know this is every day business for these people, but don't they understand I'm really anxious to at least get the papers to Russia? I guess not. We met a couple in our classroom training a few weeks ago. They just got their court date for Trip #2. They travel on April 5th to pick up their son. Its so nice to hear of other couples stories and how they are working out. The adoption forum that Adoption Ark set up is really helpful. It keeps me in touch with a lot of other people and has helped us already understand a little bit more every day of what to expect, what international doctor to use, what hotel to stay in, where to eat, russian phrases, the issues we'll face when we finally bring our child home... It's like your own support group. Well hopefully the next time I post our papers will at least be on their way to Adoption Ark! Keep your fingers crossed!!!

My Nephew

Last weekend I went out to Sandwich and went to a craft fair with my Mom, sisters and nephew Rylan. He loved the craft fair! My sister Leslie put him in one of those baby carrier things and he was so happy. I had to add a picture of him to my blog b/c he is so darn cute! Of course we love you too Les.