Light at the end of the tunnel...?

What a week! Annabell and Liam started preschool on Monday. Tuesday morning they both had pediatrician visits to fill out medical reports for our home study. Today I spent the morning filling out adoption paperwork and the afternoon on the telephone, first finding out how to order our 2nd round of criminal history clearances and then tracking down answers to a long list of questions regarding paperwork we've already received. Tomorrow we'll be back at the pediatrician's office for tuberculosis checks, and Friday I'm hoping to get some documents notarized while Annabell is at preschool (Liam only attends Monday and Wednesday).

It sounds like a lot, but as I looked through our dossier checklist this afternoon it struck me how close we are to the end of this paper chase! The first draft of our home study is expected to be finished early next week, and once that is finalized we'll just be waiting for approval from USCIS before sending our dossier to the adoption agency. Once that's done, barring any errors in the paperwork, it's out of our hands!

I've been telling myself to plan on traveling to Rwanda no earlier than late summer 2010. In general I'm trying not to think about the timeline at all, apart from moving forward with paperwork as quickly and efficiently as possible. I have a feeling that once our dossier is on its way to Rwanda, the weeks will begin to seem a little longer!

Since it'll be a few months yet before we have pictures to share of our adopted child, here are a few shots of Annabell and Liam on the first day of school. :)