The boy's room!

The artist that painted the mural in A's room came back to paint a mural in the boy's room. It's not finished, but you can kind of get an idea.I will post more pictures tomorrow when it's finished. Here is a link to the bedding that I ordered.

http://www.olivekids.com/dr-ride.html

We got the paperwork done!

I actually had everything done and apostilled by 11:00 a.m. yesterday. I overnighted it to the agency and it'll be traveling with a family this weekend. Thank you to the family that's bringing it for us :). When we traveled in December, we had to bring another couples documents and we guarded it with our lives. I was so afraid of something happening to it. Now, we just sit back and wait for the next paperwork request. I've been finding myself obsessed with checking my emails and sitting by the phone, but i'm NOT going to do that anymore. I bought Sesame Street live tickets for Alex ( 2 year old ) and I to go to on February 15th. I'm trying to just go about my normal business so that I don't drive myself crazy. It's so hard not to think about your child being so far away. I just want to get her home!

Paperwork problems!

Yep, there's a problem with the boy's birth certificates. Apparently, the issue date on Alex's was January 2007, and Nicholas' was issued in September of 2004. Not good. It expires after a year. I dont get it. How does a birth certificate expire???? There are a few other misc. documents that we need to do. I double checked all of our paperwork and noticed that one of the notaries expired in November, and our cpa's license expires on February 28th, so i'm not waiting to be asked for these, i'm going to get it all done, and apostilled tomorrow. Sooo, the wait continues. I can almost bet that there will be many more updates and documents needed before we can get a court date. This seems to be the trend with people that have/are adopting from this region.

IT'S FINISHED!!!!

It's done, and she did such and awesome job!!! She's coming back next week to do the boys room.

Mural

Here it is! It's not quite finished yet, but I couldn't wait to share it! The artist did a great job matching the paint with the bedding and curtains.

It's there!!!

My paperwork should be in Russia right now, so I can get a court date now!!!! I could hear something this week, or it may take months, but at least I know that I have done everything on my part. I'm going to pay really close attention to my paperwork, and update my documents before they expire, instead of waiting to be asked to do it. I think about A every second of the day, and I hope that she is doing well, and growing. She has no idea how much her life is about to change :). Her big brothers are so excited to have her as a sister. We've been working on getting her room done and it looks SO cute! I'll post pictures as soon as it's done. I have an artist coming here next week to paint a mural and we're just waiting for her crib to come in. I realized that I didn't post any pictures from xmas, so yeah, here they are ( a month late :) ).

Another update!

Here's what's been going on since my last post. After coming back from trip 1, we had additional paperwork that had to be completed before we could get a court date. Because of the holidays, and doctors being on vacation, and all that, it took a little while to get everything done. We finally got all of our paperwork apostilled last Friday, and off it went. I just found out that it will be hand delivered to Russia this weekend WOOHOO!!!! Hopefully we will hear something soon. I've been working like crazy to get everything done and ready, and it's been a lot of fun. I have an artist coming next week to paint a small mural in A's room. I will post pictures of the completed room next Friday.

The wait for a court date.

The wait to bring our baby girl home has been much harder then I thought it would be. Knowing that she's ours, and knowing that she's in need of so much right now, it's KILLING me to not have her here. We were told by our translator that it would be about a month after our paperwork ( additional paperwork ) was submitted before we get a court date. We're still waiting patiently for our doctors to complete the forms ( almost 2 weeks now ). I'm thinking that we should have everything done by next week. This would bring us into February for a court date. My social worker ( from the agency ) told me that there have been two other couples that are adopting from this particular region, and have now been waiting 4 months for a court date, so who knows. We may be traveling to Russia for trip two as early as February, or we may be waiting for months :(. In the meantime, we've been busy preparing A's room. Jared , my oldest son , painted it a pretty lilac color. I ordered the bedding and curtains from Pottery Barn, and we're just waiting to get the crib. Here are a few photos of the room. It's not complete yet, but you get the idea :).