Our EXCITING news!!

I've been so eager to share our news with everyone, but wanted to wait until we had some of the process started. We also wanted to tell family and a few close friends before posting it here. So, here it is:

We have officially started the process to adopt from Eastern Europe! It has been a long journey to this decision - one I will share later, but we feel that this is where we are supposed to be. Out of respect for the country's confidentiality guidelines related to their children, we will not be sharing any child specific information while this blog is public. Haven't decided whether or not we will make the blog private at some point so that we can share more. For now, we think we will keep it public and perhaps in the future create an private email distribution list where we can keep people more updated.

We are able to share our movement throughout the process and I will continue to blog about the journey itself as we move ahead. As of right now, our service agreement for the agency we will be working with has been signed and is on it's way to them. Because we already have an approved domestic home study, it will just need to be updated. Unfortunately, our awesome social worker Becky will not be able to assist us with this so we are working with another home study agency (our adoption agency is out of state and is not able to update our home study) to get this accomplished.

From what I have heard from others, international adoption is a huge paper chase. The perception is that it is an easy process. I don't think that is the case. I'm sure it will be a learning experience for Mark and me. For everything that is in our control, we will move as quickly as possible. For things that are out of our control, please pray for expediency and leniency on the part of the foreign government.

I will post more soon, but that's all I have time for right now. We are so excited to be on this journey to bring our little one home - please join us and follow along!!