Still Waiting (edited pics no longer avail - site OOB)

We've been getting some questions about how things are going. We're still waiting. All the paperwork is over in Russia and we're just waiting for the officials to do all the processing. The process does take some time to complete plus there are other waiting families ahead of us. I'm sure once we have some news we'll be posting alot more.

In the meantime, life rolls on. Halloween is almost here which to me means that the "holiday season" is right around the corner. YEAH! My favorite time of year. It's starting to get cold too. Jolynn doesn't like it but I say "bring it on!" I can't wait to get on my skis.

I would also like to encourage our family and friends to download and sign up for SKYPE. It's a free program we'll be using over in Russia to call home. It's a computer to computer phone connection that's free (well, you might have to buy a headset but they're cheap). We tested it and works really well.

Here are some pictures from our lighthouse trip (click the pic):

I 171 H and Our Anniversary

A pic from our Wedding Day.

We arrived home from a trip to Western Lower Michigan to celebrate our Anniversary and in the mailbox was our I 171 H. This is an important document for an international adoption. It comes from the US Government and it allows us to proceed in bringing home a child that is from another country. In order to receive this we had to submit the I 600 A form which sort of started a type of investigation that we passed. They checked out our backgrounds, real personal stuff like can you afford this and it goes along with the fingerprinting we did earlier. We are so excited to have gotten this step completed! Our trip was nice. I have a thing for lighthouses. Usually they are free to visit and they are always on a beach (duh, no kidding hehe). Such beautiful settings. We had a quota to see six and we did. Weather was perfect, fall colors, sun and smiles!

We're in Russia!

Well sort of. Our dossier is in Russia. This is just a quick note to say that our paperwork arrived in Russia on September 9th. It's being translated and will soon be ready to be registered in a region soon. Basically that means once it's translated it gets sent to a region and then we wait for our referral. It's still a waiting game right now but this is another big step. I have to admit that even this small bit of news gave me a little tingle of excitement. I can't imagine what it will be like when we get our referral.

So long for now.....