Gimme a R, Gimmee an E... Gimme a

I bet you thought I was going to say G and that this was just a silly repeat of the whole post about being registered.

Well, it's not and it's MUCH MUCH MUCH better!!

We got a REFERRAL!!!!!

Friday started out like any other day. I emailed our coordinator in the morning and a few minutes later we got the 'nothing new' email that I dread getting. I had put the adoption out of my mind (as if that's possible) and was working hard when the receptionist at work started buzzing my office looking for me. Thank goodness she kept on looking for me because I was in the backroom. When she told me I had a phone call from CHI I just assumed another document was needed. We went through our normal pleasantrys and then she says "I have some news for you," and that was it. I was bouncing in my chair and squeaking and some of the ladies I work with ran in and all I could do was shake my head "YES" and they knew. It was an amazing feeling. I had to call Troy who was driving home from work and he was so excited I was worried he would run off the road. I called my mom and Troy called his and then his mom called me and it was wonderful.

We spent the weekend shopping and cleaning out his bedroom, sorting thorugh all the clothes my sister in law has passed to us (thank you!) and looking at bedding and just anything we could put our hands on we looked at!! We should hear travel dates tomorrow or Wednesday!! I can't go wait to meet our little man.

My hands are still shaking and I can't get anything done and I'm all over the place, but you know what? I think I'm allowed!!

God is so good!

No News = Keeping Busy

Well, it’s been a week and a few days since we have been registered and I gave in and called my coordinator yesterday. No news was the theme of the conversation. She assured me this was good news as since there hasn’t been any news, this means they haven’t requested anything further. She promised to check in with the region to see if they had an update on our file even if it was a ‘nothing is going on’ update. Any news at this point is welcome. Any tidbit of information that means they are looking over our documents and trying to make a match would be worth hearing about.

It’s funny how patient you can be and then when things get close, the waiting becomes suddenly much, much tougher. So I had a little fun today with our blog and changed the colors up. I think I like it. It’ll take some getting used to.

I think Carey once posted this Bible verse:

Isaiah 40:31

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

I printed it that day and taped it to my computer monitor at work and have looked at it every day since. I am trying to remember to wait on the Lord for He is in charge and He is preparing our child for us.

The Dog Did It

Troy and I went to the ever famous Wally World this weekend to pick up a few groceries. While we were there we found the cutest T-shirt for our little guy who we hope to hear about and meet soon.

How appropriate is this shirt in our house!! We bought a 3T which might be too big, but we’ll save it. The shirt was just too cute to pass up.

We also bought this handmade photo holder some time ago that I wanted to share. I found a lady on Ebay who hand stitches the paper together. I was able to request one in the colors we liked and then she made it and listed it for us. Closed it says “A Special Delivery”. You can also display it opened and from the top you’ll see a star pattern. Then each side has either an adoption poem or a spot to slide in a photo. The ribbon you see coming out of the top are tags that you can pull out and write a caption about the photo in the spot. Each spot there is for a photo also has a tag. I thought this was beautiful and a nice keepsake. I love that the paper is hand stitched together. Pictures are below.

In other adoption news, we finally received our re-fingerprinting appointment notices from USICS. We go February 29th at noon! I’ll be glad to get those done and then we’ll wait 30 days for a new I-171H approval with new dates for our fingerprints expiration. We wanted to be sure to have them done as soon as possible so that they wouldn’t hold up a court date, in the case of a referral soon and court soon after.

Since being registered last Tuesday, Troy and I are sitting on pins and needles waiting for “the call”. We hope it is soon!!

Gimme an R, Gimme a E, Gimme a...

G, I, S, T, E, R, E, D. What's that spell?

REGISTERED!!!

Yes - after 9 long months we were finally registered yesterday in Izhevsk!! This means our paperwork is being reviewed for a referral!! We were asked for two additional documents which our coordinator typed up for us as I did not have the templates on my home email. All we had to do was print and sign. We'll take them to be notarized and apostilled and overnight them to CHI right away. The last family who was registered received a referral within 2 weeks and we are hopeful this means the same for us! Of course this is international adoption so you never know what may happen.

We are so excited and so ready to go. Troy answered our home phone when our coordinator called and when she told him the news he got the biggest grin on his face. It just tells me how excited and ready he really is!!

Crop 'til You Drop!

Saturday we had our scrapbooking crop and we had so much fun. It was great to have family and friends come out. We even made some new friends. Troy was a trooper in a room full of women and everyone was so supportive of our adoption. I was able to talk to a lady whose friend had adopted a little girl from Russia a few years back and we talked about the differences between now and then.

We had tons of food and drink and just had a great time in general. I can’t thank Tammy enough, who was mostly (if not completely) responsible for putting the crop together. Below are some photos from the crop.

I290-B Approved!!

We received our approval for our Motion to Reopen today as we changed the age range our child when we switched regions from under 18 months to between 18 months and 3 years old. I was worried we would not receive this in a timely manner as it took way too long to receive our initial I-171H, but we got it today!!

This makes me feel much better as another step is done!!

Hoping for news soon!!