How many times can I sign my name and not make a mistake?

Turns out...a bunch! :) So, today we finished our agency contract and got it all notarized (and yes, we are buying our notary dinner for all her hard work!). Half way through the 80 some odd pages, I began to wonder whether I would mess up signing my name. Why you ask? I mean, of course I know how to spell it, but writing it over and over repetitively felt like I was setting myself up for a major gaff on these important papers. And, well, the concerns were valid since about 4 months ago I signed my maiden name on a check out of the blue (and we have been married 12 years!)! Why? I have no idea! At least I spelled it right- lol! Happily, none of us made spelling mistakes and we got it completed and ready to mail. At this point, and a bit of money later, we become officially on the agency's grid and one step closer to our waiting child. I'm excited to finish yet another step in the journey and move on to finishing the home study etc. Here we come!

A Sign?

So this weekend we went to Philadelphia for two reasons: 1) because I was graduating with my master's degree in nursing; and 2) to see the cool historical stuff. . Ok, so anyway, while we were waiting in line for our tour of Independence Hall (awesome!) this gi-normous foreign tour group of about 60 people comes up and literally surrounds us. We were basically encircled! They were speaking a foreign language and it was rather chaotic and confusing (with them all talking on top of each other in the group). It was also very hard to tell where they were from UNTIL..... a woman said "excuse me" in POLISH! That's right: Przepraszam! Right when she said it and stepped behind me, I looked immediately at my husband and said with wide eyes "Oh my goodness, they're Polish." He said "No way, seriously?" I was, and realized I knew this from the one and only Polish lesson I have taken so far! Weird, huh?! Then another woman behind us said "Do you know Polish?" and I told her no but we were learning. They totally loved that! They were the nicest people (a Polish tour group from Toronto of all places) and so very interested in our country's history, I was really touched. But when the tour was over, I looked at my husband and he looked at me and we both realized we had just had a Bill Engvall moment- Here's your sign! Isn't life funny? lol

Passports, away!

Today we are getting our passport renewals together and also filling out a new one for our son, who will be traveling with us. It is something we have needed to take care of anyway, but this new decision has pushed us to actually do it (we tend to procrastinate on some things...lol). The sad thing is that as I look at the passport forms, I just know that the upcoming adoption forms in the near future will be even more intricate, complicated, and...well... you know. Still, I feel like we are taking a step in the right direction and that in itself is exciting! Passports, away!

Its happening!

Well, we've made our decision and we are definitely going ahead full steam. Today we officially filled out our agency application and have gathered all the documents they require. It didn't take too long since we still had alot of them in a folder. We also have contacted our fantastic friends who have agreed to serve as our references. We are so blessed to have all these people in our lives! They are such wonderful parents and we love raising our children together. Tomorrow, we get the documents notarized (easy, since work has a notary on site), write the check (ok- I'll do that tonight actuallly, lol), and then put it all in the mail!

Are we really doing this?

Welcome to our blog!

I keep asking myself "Are we really doing this?" "Is this the real time?" "Is it right?" and so many others. However, the answer this time, unlike other times, seems to be coming back "yes". We are so blessed to have the most wonderful son already that we weren't sure we even needed to expand our family; however something kept pulling at our hearts. Although I gave birth to our son, other pregnancies didn't follow- not because I couldn't, but it just didn't happen. So as life progressed on, we simply concentrated on raising the most amazing child. But we felt the pull, the gentle tug at our hearts to again become parents.

We have been on the adoption journey in a way for a few years now. Adoption has always been something we were interested in but for different reasons we just had not pursued it vigorously. We have investigated various strategies- should we try domestic or international, single child vs siblings, etc- and have generally waited to be shown the way by God. The light however may have finally been turned on as we may make a decision to adopt from Poland in the next couple of days.

So, the adventure of a lifetime appears to be starting but as Confucius said "The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step". I guess that applies to those of over 5000 miles too. Wish us luck and thank you for joining us on our journey!

Laura and Brian