Progress is good...no matter how small

There are countless reasons I am thankful we are working with West Sands Adoptions to bring our little guy home. Today I am thankful for Angela, our Dossier Coordinator at West Sands. Our Dossier was complete except for the home study. All the paper chasing and notarizing was done. Just that last, rather huge, piece to get put in and call it D-O-N-E! So I emailed Angela to give her a heads up on my progress. She told me to go ahead and send in everything I have for her to review. That way if anything needs tweaking, we won't lose anytime when the home study meets up with the Dossier. YESSSSSS! So off it went in UPS and is headed there as we speak. She knows how anxious I am for our paperwork to get registered in country and will bend over backwards to make that happen for us. Bless her heart. I'm lucky she came into our lives. Every day.

Africa Tee!

I think I've jumped on the bandwagon. Yes, I'm a blog stalker. There has to be a program for this :)

Not going to lie, I take comfort in reading about other families that have been through or are going through this process. I marvel at the creativity that these families have in designing/creating things that are meaningful to their unique journey. Tees, stickers, beads... you name it, someone has done it... and I must say, BEAUTIFULLY. 

I bought an AMAZING Africa tee for Joe off of Etsy for Christmas. A family was selling these tees to support their adoption efforts. It really inspired me. So it was determined right then and there that the girls and I needed a tee too! So I took a crack at designing my own. Hope you like. 

So starts it all!

Well, it's official. We're adopting from Ethiopia. It's been a LONG road to get to this point. Much the same as any other adoptive parent that was once in our spot. 

We decided to start a blog. We didn't want to forget any step of the journey. Things you would swear you will always remember, somehow get muddied along the way. We want to document every part of this, just as I did when I was pregnant with my two daughters. Every day. Every milestone. 

So I thought it only fitting to start the blog with a picture of one of the "firsts". This picture is of the official mailing of forms to our home study agency, Catholic Charities of Green Bay. 

We have excitedly signed on to work with West Sands Adoptions out of Utah as our placing agency. We feel blessed twice over with both of our agencies. Both our home study and dossier are underway. I never thought I would hear myself say this, but it feels good to be busy with the paperwork chase. Every form done and notary signed feels like we are that much closer to our son. It seems to resonate very soberingly with me that the quiet wait for the referral is the hardest part. One day at a time. And this marks day 1.