Updates

Ok, first, since I have had a few people ask, "jnj adoption adventure", jnj stands for Jason and Jamaica. The wifey's first name is Jamaica, yes, like the country, :)


We have all our paperwork done again. We submitted the letter of intent(LOI) Monday, and it was translated and sent off to the CCAA Tuesday, so now we get to wait for the ever elusive PA. Could be 5 days, could be 35 days, I love how broad a window all the steps can be. We also confirmed our immigration status, to make sure that it lists that we are approved for a "special needs child", which it does. And lastly, *I* type up the home study addendum and sent it to the social worker. CCAI provides a basic template where you just drop in names and dates and what-not. So HOPEFULLY we will get the home study addendum back this week, all she needs to do is print it and stamp it, but historically our SW has taken lengthy periods of time to get things done. After we get the home study back, thats it, we are back to hurry up and wait status. Only NOW the whole "waiting" process sucks 10x more, because now we have a baby over there, with a name, and a face.

We are fully aware of the "averages" associated with the next few steps. Basically 4-6 months is what we were told from now until we travel. BUT, given the fact that we have greatly blown out most of the previous "average" numbers, we're hoping to get her before she turns 2, August 30th. Thats about 2.5 months away, and fairly unreasonable, but we can still hope! I've seen other people get LOA/TA in 2 months, so I know its a possibilty, :)

Since the referral came about 6 months before we had anticipated it, at the earliest, we are now faced with a few things we need to get done. A bed, DAH! I just took the baby's bed apart last month so he could sleep in his big-boy bed. Now I need to reassemble it and buy another mattress for it. Clothes, I've been batting away all the girl clothes wife looks at when we go out, saying "We don't have any idea how old/big she will be, just wait, we have a few months!" HA! That kind of backfired on me, so now we get to spend twice as long in the clothing sections looking at 2yo boys clothes, and 2yo girls clothes, grrrrrreat! Also we need to get the room arrangements setup. We are still debating on how thats going to go. Since they will be "virtual twins" we are thinking about putting their beds in the same room to let them sleep together. It will def help the bonding process, and may help ease the transition for the two of them. Then we could setup the other room as a pure playroom. We're going to do some research on that though to see what other people have experienced. We will probably need to get another stroller, or a dual stroller now too, and maybe another chest of drawers for clothes. Other than that I think we have everything else, purely because we already have a 2 year old. Now the wife's girl friends, that have been asking, can finally setup a baby shower and dump clothes on us, lol.

Lastly, yes, we have pictures of her, but we aren't supposed to post them publicly until we get PA, so as soon as we get PA, there will be pics!