Just getting started

We aren't really so sure what we think about this blogging thing- I mean, who wants to read what we have to say? But, we are so excited to share our newest adventure with our friends and family (along with the people we will meet along the way...)- we are officially adopting a little boy from Haiti! After what has been a long, difficult road to making this decision, we feel an enormous sense of peace and excitement in knowing that our son is out there, waiting for us to bring him home. So, here is the story- After coming home without our Blake this spring, Monica began looking on photolistings (for those of you who don't know, there are actual websites with photos of children who are available for adoption) and came across this picture of a special little guy named Eli. He looked so much like Blake as a newborn that we think we convinced ourselves that we were meant to find him. Perhaps we needed to make sense of what had happened. After realizing that we were rushing into a big decision, we decided not to pursue Eli. We did, however, keep in touch with Stephanie, the woman who worked for the agency in charge of his adoption. We knew she was going to Haiti in August and after a particularly difficult week, Monica randomly sent her an email. She said she had new photos of a baby boy at an orphanage in Port au Prince. The minute we opened our inbox, we knew we had to bring him home! Still struggling to make sense of the loss of our Blake, we wondered how we could take another chance- risk heartbreak again (international adoption is not exactly a sure thing either!) but the truth is, we don't really have a choice. How can we not try to bring him home? Take one look at his big brown eyes and you'll see!

Here's what we've done so far- we have taken the steps needed to update our homestudy and convert it to an international one (different requirements). We have started gathering the millions of documents that we need (physical, psych exam, employment verification, etc.). Everything has to be notarized and then we have to take all of the notarized documents to the county in which the notaries are commissioned to authenticate their commision. THEN, all of the documents have to be taken to Annapolis for another level of authorization. We are hoping to get the last of the documents notarized and authenticated by October 9th. Then, we'll send it all to get translated into French (the official language of Haiti, even though most of the residents speak Creole). We'll explain more about the process later.

The other GREAT news is that we are planning to travel to meet our little guy in December! We'll travel to Haiti and spend four days with him while filing one set of paperwork in Port au Prince. Details later...