Slowly, slowly

Just that - we're slowly working on gathering the paperwork for Sprout(s). Given that the width of an entire continent lies between me and Chris (almost), it's just going to take a while to get everything pulled together. At least, that's what I keep telling myself so that I don't hyperventilate. Our last post-placement visit is scheduled for August 13th, and our social worker was kind enough to schedule our homestudy update visit for the same time. Sweet! She was also kind enough to send our paperwork packet to us in advance so that we can have it ready to go for the visit. Let's hope (fingers crossed) that this helps expedite the write-up time frame! Luckily, things are so hectic that I don't have as much time to sit and dwell on how slowly this process moves as I did when we went through the same thing with D. Still, I'm still hoping for an October 3rd officially waiting day!

Second Part of the Welcome Packet...

has arrived! Chris has promised me he will fax the relevant paperwork to me tomorrow. I can't wait to get going!

Gathering Dossier Stuff

We're going ahead getting things ready for the dossier stage. It's still a bit of a ways off, but we'd like to be ready the minute CHSFS says go. Of course, much of the paperwork has date restrictions, so we're performing a careful balance of "move quickly...but not too quickly." I spoke with two very good friends who are going to write our recommendation letters. There are so many wonderful people we could ask, but we'd like for Sprout(s) and Squirticus to have different recommenders (kind of like you usually give your children different godparents). These two friends are very special in our lives, and we're so thrilled that they are willing to speak on our behalf!

The other aspect of trying to move slowly quickly is that I'm thinking we might already be crunched for time. CHSFS is estimating a two to three week wait for homestudy approval. And the homestudy must be approved prior to receiving the rest of the dossier list. In order to be on the wait list on October 3, we would therefore need to have the homestudy approved by mid-September. This requires the updated homestudy to be written by the beginning of September, and our social worker is sometimes a bit lethargic in getting things done. So we basically need to have her be writing it asap. The plan is therefore to have her combine D's post-placement visit with the homestudy update visit. In that way, she should be able to start working on the update in mid-August. Surely we can have it written in three weeks since it is just an update?! Let's hope so.

Application: Check!

We received word today that our application is officially complete. Woohoo! As usual, I'm ready to get going on all of the paperwork requirements, but I'm trying to internalize that no matter how quickly we jump through the required hoops, we will still not be allowed to get on the official waiting list until October 3rd - at the earliest. So deep breaths, mama. We're in this for the long haul (but hopefully not that long!).

And We're Off!

Well, kiddo(s), you're officially a tiny apple in Mom & Dad's eyes (and maybe even in D's, although he's a little too little to appreciate the concept of "big-brother"hood). We sent off the application to CHSFS today. As usual, we squeaked in at the 5:00 pm mark, so I'm expecting that we won't hear back until Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. But it's great to be "getting the ball rolling," so to speak, and hopefully we'll be officially waiting on October 3rd! Here's how excited we are to start this journey to you: