Touch Down!

Our dossier arrived in Kigali, Rwanda this afternoon after spending the last week touring Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee, and Great Britain. At last, it is in the hands of those who will decide if and when we will be united with our child.

Please pray for our patience as we begin the longest waiting period of the adoption process. We're looking at about 3-6 months before we hear anything from Rwanda, followed by approximately 2 more months of waiting to receive information about the child they have chosen for us.

I'm trying to view these months as an opportunity to rest from paperwork and enjoy this unique time as a family of 4, before we add another treasure to our brood!

This is also the time to turn our focus to fundraising. We're in the process of putting together a fundraising dinner/concert, which will probably take place in mid-late March. As soon as we have a date locked in, we'll post more details for those who are close enough to join us.

Thanks for tracking our journey!

Go go go, Jet Plane!

We just heard the news we've been waiting for - our dossier is officially on its way to Rwanda! Apparently not all of the documents were ready to be picked up from the Rwandan embassy until today. But now we have a tracking number, so I'll be stalking FedEx.com until the package arrives.

Excuse me while I breathe a sigh of relief...

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

Okay. Now on to our 3-6 month wait for approval.

Tick...tock...tick...tock...tick...

Still waiting.

Still.

Grr.

"Should" be Friday

Just heard from my wonderful family coordinator that she should be able to pick up our dossier at the Rwandan Embassy on Friday (at LAST)! I'll hear from her again when it's in the mail and on its way over the ocean.

Apparently it takes about 5-7 days for the dossier to get to Rwanda, which will definitely put our medical reports over their 3-month expiration deadline. However, I was told this probably won't be a problem since we're only talking about a few days. Who knows? Only time will tell.

So...Friday. I can do Friday. I think.

Actually, Friday is Tim's birthday, and our first solo date night in a shameful number of months. Maybe we'll be celebrating for two reasons!

The obnoxious ticking clock

That would be me.

It's been just over 4 weeks since we sent our dossier to Washington, D.C. to be reviewed by our agency, the State Department, and the Rwandan Embassy. We're waiting on a non-objection letter from the embassy, and then everything goes overseas to the Rwandan Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion.

I knew this process would take about a month. Well, it's been a month. Plus three days. And I'm getting impatient.

Ridiculous, I know. What am I going to be like during the next phase, while we're waiting for our approval?! Let's not go there.

I'm sure part of my eagerness comes from the amazing news pouring in from so many other adopting families. This week has been incredible for Rwandan adoption! Not only are four families in Rwanda right now meeting their children, but several others just received their approvals AND referrals over the weekend! There's been so much exciting activity in our friends' journeys that it's hard to sit on the sidelines knowing our paperwork isn't even in the lineup yet.

At times like this it seems like our time will never come. Then again, as a child I never thought Christmas morning would come either, even after I'd been tucked into bed on Christmas Eve. Every year my Dad always told me, "The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner it will be morning." So true. Unfortunately, I can't sleep my way through the next few months of waiting, so instead I'll have to work on distracting myself.

Maybe I should take up knitting.