Biometrics Appointment

Thursday we received notification of our biometrics (digital fingerprinting) appointment-- which is the end of January.  It's great timing because it allows us enough time to secure a babysitter for that morning, it does not  interfere with some major things happening at Dave's work over the next few weeks, and yet is close enough to not make it seem like we're waiting forever.

In actuality, things are rolling along quite quickly.  Our documents are in-country, may already be translated, and are scheduled to be delivered to the MOES this coming Monday.  If all goes as planned, we may be making our first trip sometime in February, which would be amazing on so many levels.  We may get to be there for our little guy's 4th birthday.  While what we'd be able to do to celebrate within the orphanage walls would not parallel what we do to celebrate our sons' birthdays at home, I'm pretty sure it will be the first time his birthday is acknowledged and his life is celebrated.

I've started a notebook of "the essentials" of our day-to-day life... doctors' names and phone numbers, Medical Power of Attorney, etc. for family members who will be caring for our boys while we travel.  As our departure draws near, I'm not sure I'll be thinking straight and hope this aleviates some of the last minute rush.

I'm also rallying our Army of Knitters to create hats to donate to our Little Dude's orphanage.  It hasn't taken much arm-twisting... we had a GREAT time doing it for my friend Robyn's trip and many have already responded to the plea I sent out this morning.  I'm not sure if it's their love of knitting or me saying I'll make Buffalo Chicken Dip again that caused a few of them to commit so quickly  :o)

Finally, we have also started the process of gathering our court documents.  Because many of these are time-sensitive (ie. have to be valid within 3 months of our court date), we can only gather 6 of them now.  The other 21 will have to wait until after our first trip.  The process is much the same... gather the documents, have them notarized then apostilled before sending them to our little guy's country for translation and delivery.  The main difference with court documents is that they will be scrutinized to the Nth degree.  Every detail and figure must agree.

So that's where we are in our Journey to EE... With a toddler and pre-schooler underfoot, our wait is anything but dull.  I am truly blessed.