Christmas came and kind of took over for a bit, moving happened and then I was without internet for over three weeks! All just excuses, but it's what I've got. My inernet is live and working now, so I'm working to try to catch you all up on the very busy last 30 days.
The best part of the last month was this exciting piece of mail...
I checked the mail Christmas morning while walking my dog before heading to my family's to celebrate. As soon as I opened the box and saw the return address on the envelope, my heart started to race. It wasn't pink...that's good. And it was thin...also good. I couldn't wait to walk back to the condo so I stood at the mailboxes and opened it up to see the words 'APPROVAL'. I then cried the entire walk back. I'm sure my neighbors thought I'd lost it. (if they hadn't thought that already!!) What a great present to get on Christmas morning. One step closer baby girl!
Getting that piece of paper made Christmas much easier. I'll admit, even though I love Christmas (it IS my favorite holiday!) this year I'd had some mixed emotions. The anniversary of the Russian adoption ban was just days away. Last year, I celebrated Christmas with the anticipation of Lizzy being home this year, and she's not. But this little sign of approval, this reminder that my Josie bunny WILL be home next Christmas, made the happiest of the emotions rise back to the surface. I enjoyed Christmas, yes missing my Little Bear, but enjoying the new path that I'm on in this adoption world and
anxiously waiting to celebrate next Christmas.
Immediately after Christmas, I moved. As in immediately after the celebrating was done! I was out of the old place by the weekend and into the new place starting January 1!! It was a busy few days, moving load after load, getting the old place cleaned out and settling in to the new place. I now have a fenced in back yard!! HOORAY!! It will be so great for Josie to play in (and for the dog!) I was slightly dreading the idea of having to walk the dog when J got home. Lugging the dog and the kid up and down the stairs in the rain did not sound fun. And no more outside stairs! Another Hooray! Again, the idea of lugging the kid and all of our stuff up and down the stairs in the rain (or even not in the rain!) was not making me happy. And my new landlord repainted and recarpeted for me before moving in. When talking about paint, they made the comment. "And if you want, we can paint Josie's room pink?" Uhm, YES!!! So the bunny girl has a perfect shade of pink on her bedroom walls. All done before I even moved in! I was at first concerned that a move in the middle of the adoption process would cause lots of problems. But, I checked it all out first and nope. It was PERFECT timing. Had I wanted to move three months ago, yes...delay. Had I wanted to move in the next three months, yes...delay. But this was the perfect time to add a simple update to the dossier paperwork, while waiting for the approval form, and it's good to go. We actually did the update at the beginning of Dec, before I'd even moved and timing was great! Whew, who would have thought that moving in the middle of an adoption would actually be the easiest thing to get accomplished!!!
The USCIS approval was the last piece needed to complete my dossier. So Hooray. We've moved one more step! A big stack of paperwork that I've spent the past months completing, is now being translated and will then be sent to the ICBF (Instituo Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar - which is the Colombian Family Welfare). They might possibly ask for something else, more information, more details on any forms or hopefully they will just approve it all and forward we will move again!!
It really is, Hurry up and wait, Hurry up and wait!!!
So, here's to more waiting...
In the mean time, I will be holding another fundraiser. (You can read more about that in a different post)
And am working to put the bunny's room together.
Her adorable new pink room!
I'll be sure to post pictures once it's not stacked full of boxes!
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