Making Progress!

On Monday I drove to the adoption agency with the contents of our formal application. Since it was a chilly 14 degrees outside with almost 6 inches of fresh snow, Terry suggested I Fed-Ex it. Not a chance! I wanted to place it in our coordinator's hands myself, and I did. I also wrote a big, fat check as our first payment. (I know this sounds terrible, but I was really hoping I could use a credit card and get the miles, but no go, and I thought it best not to belabour the point.)

We have a few more documents to get to the agency, then we'll begin the home study process, which will take 3-6 months. (I'm shooting for 3.) At the same time we'll be taking required classes and working on our Dossier for Nepal. I'm now signing off to go figure out how to get a original copy of my birth certificate. Which is ridiculous, because "original copy" is a total oxymoron.
One. Step. At. A. Time.
~Namaste for now.

A bit about Nepal

Nepal (Nepali: नेपाल ) is bordered by China (Tibet) to the north and by India to the south, east and west. The Himalaya mountain range runs across Nepal to the north and west, and eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including the highest, Mount Everest, lie within its borders. The capital, Kathmandhu, is the largest city in the country. The official language is Nepali and the state currency is the Nepalese Rupee (NPR). Hinduism is practiced by a majority of the people, but the country also has a strong Buddhist tradition; the birthplace of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama is in Nepal. (More on the differences/similarities between Hinduism and Buddhism soon.) Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is non-quadrilateral in shape. The red in the flag is the color of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal. Red suggests aggression while the blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the peaceful and calm nature of Nepalese, and the sun represents the aggressiveness of Nepalese warriors. It also indicates that as long as there is sun and moon in the sky, Nepal will exist.

Namaste for now.

Dactyloscopy

Short for fingerprint identification, of course.

We had our fingerprints done today. These tiny portraits of our digits will be sent to the FBI to make sure we're baby-worthy. And it's another check in the long list of paperwork we're going to have complete by Monday morning! (Right honey?) ABC Fingerprinting (303-480-3581) came right to our house with only about an hour's notice. Virginia was awesome. (And very informative. I am confident she has all X-files episodes on DVD or maybe VCR tape). I'm sure we avoided a lot of crap by not going to the Sheriff's office to get them done, and it cost us not a penny more! A small victory.

There are 3 types of prints, all pretty self-explanatory:
1.) Whorl
2.) Arch
3.) Loop
I was all loops. Terry has one whorl and the rest loops. Neither of us is very rare or fascinating, apparently. (And I admit that I was disappointed, I'd hoped for something really rare, like a tented arch or no finger prints at all). According to a well-known hand reader, since I have all loops here ares some words to describe me: flexible, adaptable, easy going. Ummmm...NOTSOMUCH.

OK - on to the autobiography, family tree, financial overview, etc...namaste for now.

What to Expect While We're Expecting...

As we've told people about our plans to adopt, we've gotten some great, heartfelt responses. Here's one of my favorites from a friend who has an adopted daughter and a biological daughter. I think it's really cool - and proving to be true, already:

I am thrilled for you, and can't tell you how excited I am for you as you take the first steps on this journey to your child. In my experience, our "paper pregnancy" was remarkably similar to our biological pregnancy (albeit with a longer gestational period :). Both are filled with excitement, joy, uncertainty, ups, downs, sleepless nights, wonderment, and ultimately a moment when someone places that little being in your hands and the long road to get there is all forgotten in an instant. I wish you all the best of luck for a smooth and speedy process...

I think I am going to suggest to Terry that he be prepared to go out at any hour of the night to get me the strange combinations of food I'm craving during my paper pregnancy. I will likely need some new pregnancy clothes at some point soon. And I've heard that feet grow during pregnancy - so new shoes are a likelihood, as well. Namaste for now!

You come, too.

Here's a poem my dad posted the day we told he and my mom about the adoption, and invited them to join us on the trip to Nepal:
"I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long. --You come too."
~Robert Frost

What, how and when?

I've gotten a lot of questions about the process - and while we're at the very beginning, I'll do my best to explain it relatively simply via a list below. (A year or so from now I'll be able to tell you more, and this shouldn't be considered an exhaustive list because it by no means is!) And of course the second question is "how long until you bring your baby home?" That one, I can't answer at all. I wish I could. So - here it goes, it's fairly dry:

1. Submit the pre application (short questionnaire/form and payment)
2. Meet with agency
3. Submit the formal application (background checks, fingerprints, physical, various questionnaires, proof of job, proof of income, financial statements, personal autobiography, family histories, disclosures, pictures, tax forms, and more...)
4. Complete home assessment (detailed written report of family & home, 3-6 month process)
5. Complete required parent/adoption training
6. Collect dossier materials (about 30 documents, passports, marriage & birth certificates, property details, and much more...)
7. Notarize dossier documents
8. Complete 1-600
9. Send dossier to Nepal
10. Child assigned (woo hoo!)
11. Processing of child in Nepal
12. Passport assigned to child
13. Parents travel to Nepal
14. 1-600 filed, US Visa applied for
15. Family and child travel home!
16. Post adoption court validation/name change
17. Post-placement reports

It takes a village.

One of my favorite friends who was newly-pregnant told me "It's so awesome, you're automatically a member of this great club!" I distinctly remember it because I was excited and happy for her, and at the same time sad for us, since I thought I may never be a member of the "pregnant club". But I gotta tell ya - this club we're in is pretty awesome! We have an amazing network of people from Colorado, Texas, Italy - all over the world - who are experiencing this with us, and helping however they can as they adopt their babies from other countries. Plus I'm much less likely to get stretch marks or morning sickness.

So that's the village; this global community of good, kind and generous people. Our families, our friends, friends of our friends, new online friends, my boss, Terry's boss, my brother's neighbor, the people from whom we bought our house, our current coworkers, our former coworkers, you name it - they have offered to help, have suggested we talk to a friend, or neighbor, or relative who adopted; they have done research, or they just asked that we keep them updated with our progress and have promised to keep us in their thoughts. (A special thank you to Laura, whose twitter let me know Nepal would be officially opening for adoptions again in 2009 and kicked this whole thing off.)

On the logistical side, a few forms down, many to go! We have to finish a big ole stack of paperwork to begin our home study, which is the first step. I think it's best to focus on that for now because I could get easily overwhelmed with this process. Good thing Terry's a "details" person. Namaste until next time.

Baby Steps...

After many months of baby talk (Surrogacy? Gestational carrier? Domestic adpotion? International adoption? What country? And on and on...) we're finally taking baby steps towards getting our child. We've officially started the process to adopt a child from Nepal! We're super excited, and are relieved to have our started our journey although, I guess in reality, we've been on our journey all along.

I'm starting this blog as a way to keep friends and family up-to-date on the process, and share what will surely be an amazing experience. (Plus, it will provide a really cool account of it all!) Up until now, we've only told a very few people, and the first question has been "Why Nepal?". So we might as well answer it for everyone: "We listened until we heard our answer...and then we believed it."

So, Pebble, here we come! All that's between us now is mounds of paperwork, some background checks, lots of tests, more paperwork, a few classes, many approvals, a state government, 2 national governments...and 2 roundtrip tickets to Katmandhu. Namaste for now.