Travel Dates - Kind Of!

We got a call today and are scheduled to meet our little girl! Turns out we have to do a first initial trip to meet her and then will have a second trip later to bring her home. So, while we will be traveling soon, it won't be the forever trip just yet.

We are to be in Warsaw on April 19th. Then, we will meet K on April 20th!

I cannot even begin to express how excited we are. We will finally meet her and hold her in less than a month! We are a bit bummed that we have to do this in separate trips, but whatever it takes to bring her home is what we will do.

Then, we understand, that the second trip may be about 2 months after this trip. Here is hoping that it comes sooner than later!

So now we will be busy getting her room together and figuring out what we need to pack, buy, have, etc. We registered at Target and my work is having a shower this Friday! I love that we are doing it now because it will give us some stuff to really get the room underway and some things to bring with us for the first trip. It will also help us figure out what we don't have and what we need.

Thank you for following our journey and for your support and encouragement. Boy, hasn't it been a long and tenuous one? It isn't over yet, but this is the light at the end of the tunnel...and the whole goal of the process. Finally, after all of these years, we will meet our daughter in April 2009.

We Got Some More Info on K and Are Still Waiting for Travel Info

As far as we understand, we can get more information about potential travel dates tomorrow, next month or any time in between. In the past, I think adopting parents got travel dates relatively quickly. I think now with some new international laws (thank you Hague Convention), there are additional steps in place that make this take longer. I know that Poland has instituted some new regulations to be Hague compliant, and that this has extended much of the process at all stages of international adoption. Most of these regulations have the purpose of preventing potential human rights' violations, black market issues, baby stealing, birth mother contracts, and other historically troublesome issues that have plagued international adoptions. I do understand that the regulations are for the protection of the children, and I appreciate that. However, isn't it in the children's interest to be placed in their homes? And, isn't it in the countries' interest to have the children placed in homes and no longer under the care of the state? Ah well.

So, long story short, we are waiting for Central Adoption Authority approval and I think also for a petition to be filed in K's region. Once that happens, we should be getting much closer to travel dates.

OK, other than waiting, we got some new information on K! When we received her initial information and referral last month, we asked some further questions about birth family, medical info and we requested updated physical statistics. We received all of that and it appears she is growing well!

Getting her information was encouraging and it was exciting to learn a bit more about her. Hearing more about her makes it more difficult to wait, but at least we know someone who is taking care of her was writing up answers to send to us! I guess it is some sort of proof that the process is moving in one way or another.

Note on the Blog. I am now leaning towards not making it private. I am thinking I will keep this pretty public, but not put too many personal identifiers and I will create an email list to distribute some pictures and more personal info. Those of you who have sent me your email address or indicated a desire to have access, I will put you on the email distribution list.

Hope all is well with everyone and that you enjoy Spring/March Madness/St. Patrick's Day!

The Next Steps

First of all...we are definately going forward with adopting the girl about which we got the call!! We are so excited and wish we could buy plane tickets immediately!

Now, and before I post more details, I am considering whether to make this Blog private. You would all, of course, be welcome to read it. I am just considering making it password protected so that I feel more comfortable about posting pictures, her name, details about the process and our trip, etc. I guess I feel like I will be putting a lot of personal identifying information out there, so I don't want that to be abused or the procedure to be compromised in any way.

That is why I have been hesistent to post too much on here lately. But, the purpose of the Blog is to keep everyone up to date and informed and journal a lot of the experience. Especially when we travel, we want to be able to post pictures and notes frequently. I know I have loved experiencing other families' blogs especially through the travel. The best part of this all is when the family is finally together!

In the meantime, here is our quick update. We said YES to our little girl (her name starts with a K). Now we wait for some final approval and wait for approximate travel dates. We also have to get our fingerprints done again because they are expiring soon. We sent in a request for re-fingerprinting to Homeland Security last week and hope to get a new appointment very soon!