Christmas Eve 2008

Well it was all going as planed... Imagine received our dossier in the mail Monday before Christmas, Dec 22, 2008. Their office closes for the holdiays on Dec 23 till Jan 5th, 2009. I know that are dossier was witht them, however it would only be processed the week of Jan 5th. Yesterday Dec 23, to my surprise, Elaine from Imagine emails me at work to give me a heads up that we would need our wedding certificate translated in english. She said she rather let me know now than wait till the week of Jan 5th and we would have to wait longer for the process. I almost lost it. This is not a big deal or bad news... its just another paper to be processed and sent to them. I took the phone book and started calling translators in Moncton area and no one could do it from french to english. I decided to let it go and that a micacle could happend on Christmas Eve!!!!! Came home that evening, called my Monique to come over. I prepared a few seafood lasagnias and a cake. We talked all night with Renée and laught all night long. I had seemed to forget about my little stress.

I woke up on Christmas Eve and went to work. That at 8 am, I went upstairs to see Martine Cantin, one of ACOA's translators. I asked her if she could help me find someone in Moncton that could translate our wedding certificate. She went on CTINB site (Corporation of Translators, Terminologiests, and Interpreters of NB) and gave me a few print-outs of certified translators. I picked up the phone and called the first one, no answer. Called second contact and she answered. I explained to her what we needed and she just asked me how soon do you need it. I asked if I could possibly have it by by the next working day, Dec 29. I took my car and drove to her place to bring her our document. While driving, it started snowing. I guess you could call this the magic of Christams. I didn't want any delays on our part for the adoption process and now that we have found a certified translator, I should be able to have it courrier to Imagine for the week of January 5th and have everything still on schedual.

How I've changed...

Slept in a hotel sper of the moment without my luggage, sheets...
Even had to ask front desk for tootbrush.

Relaxed a whole day on a Saturday. Did nothing, just sat in my bed and watch TV. Something I was never able to do.

Started to bake cakes

Photos

I wanted to add a page with photos of us during this journey.

Here is a picture of us on our wedding day, June 26, 2004





After my friends seen this picture, they commented that it would be best for our daughter to get here fast for the dogs to keep their sanity LOL!




This is a picture of our family. My husband and my 2 step daughters, Nicole and Renee.





Picture of beach in winter

Adoption Dossier traveling...

December 1 2008 - Homestudy Approved

December 3 2008 - Met with Genevieve to gatter up all documents for Dossier

December 5 2008 - Met with Lawyer to have documents notarize

December 8 2008 - Picked up documents from lawer and completed dossier with Genevieve.

December 10 2008 - Dossier is in Frederiction (received our copy priority mail today)

December 19 2008 - Dossier arrived at Imagine Adoption

January 30 2009 - Dossier left for Ottawa

February 16 2009 - Dossier has reached Ghana

XXXXXXXX XX 2009 - Received Referral

Dossier is completed - Dec 8, 2008

Dec 4, 2008 - I met with Genevieve to go over our dossier and see what was missing. We neeeded to get 6 passport pictures, write a letter to the Dept. of Social Welfare in Ghana on why we chose this country and have our homestudy and few other documents notarize. That afternoon, I called lawyer that had noatrized our othe documents few months ago and come to find out she went to work in NS. I imediatly called Michel Leger our regular lawyer to see if he could sign the documents. Friday morning I was in his office with all the documents he had to notarize. He said he would have them ready by the end of the day. End of the day came by and papers were not ready. He said he would bring them home over the weekend to review and would give us a call Monday. At that point, I had already made an appointment wiht Genevieve for Monday, Dec 8, 2008 at 3:30pm.

Dec 7, 2008 - Over the weekend, Victor and I went at Costco to get our passport pictures taken for our visa and dossier.

Dec 8, 2008 - Monday morning, still waiting for Michel Leger to call for me to pick up the documents. Got Victor to go check and his assistant said he was in Moncton and had to wait till he was back. In the mean time, I went to Caisse Populaire in Moncton to have both certified cheques ready. $5,500 US funds and $4725 Canadian funds. I then picked up a priority envelop at post office, $25. At 2 pm, Victor called that he was on his way to my work to bring me the documents from Michel's office. I was kinda anxcious that they would not be ready but they were at the end. At 3:15 I walked over the other side of the parking lot to meet Genevieve. I gave her all the documents, cheques and pictures. All done. she said that now we just wait. At the same time she suggested that we start the Immigration process. There is 2 ways to fill four immigration now so I will read up on it and call Imagine Adoption to see what they think.

Tonight, Nicole and Amanda came to help out Renee and I to decorate the XMAS tree. Nicole did a fantastic job. The tree is perfect. I was kinda thinking that maybe next year at this time, we'll be able to celebrate with a new member of the family.

Home Study Approved - Dec 1, 2008

After 5 months and 1 day, the day has finaly arrived that I don't have to feel that I am being judge... I havent been myself for the pass several months since I know that I had to go through the home study. The day started pretty weird today. I wanted to call Genevieve so bad today to see if they had started reading our home study. I looked at the calendar and see that Dec 10th, 2008 it would have been one month since Cindy completed our home study. She had advised us to wait at leat 1 month before calling Genevieve for an update. I decided to just keep on working and I would call next week. When I arrived at the gym, I bumped into Cindy. Coincidence but we just did small talk and not talked about my adoption process. After a long day at work, I came home and Victor and Renée were already home. for some reason I did not bother to check the messages on the phone. I watch a Christmas movie with Renée and Amanda tonight and still had the whole adoption process in my mind during the movie. I just cannot stop thinking about it. When I was getting ready for bed, like every nigh, I called my parents. I seen after that I had 1 voice mail. I though it might of been Renée trying to call while I was on the phone because she had just left for Shediac. While I was listening to the message, to my surprise it was from 10:30 am this morning... Message from Genevieve calling us to say our home study had been approved for Ghana. I am jumping for joy!!! I had been waiting for this so bad. Now I can go on and not feel that somthing can stop me. I am confident that the rest of the journey will be less stressful.

Good night.

Home Study begins

1st Home Study Visit - On September 30, 2008 our first meeting with SW for our home study was meeting us at 6pm. I went to work that morning because If I would of stayed home I would of had a heartattack. I even went to the gym on my lunch our to get all relaxed. Aroud 2 pm, I left work and headed home. I stopped to get buddy on my way home so he can come and play with Sam and Zoe. I didn't want the dogs to be all hyper when she got to our place and they would not leave us alone. When I got home with buddy, my 2 babies (dogs) were not impressed that mommy was coming back with another dog. I let them outside for half an hour and they didn't want to play. They wanted to be with mommy. So I had to go bring buddy home. My plan had back fired. Oh well.

Renee and Amanda came over and kept me company. Instead of cleaning everything else again I was able to sit down and talk with them to get my mine off our meeting. Victor came home from work early and had time to relax as well.

6 O'clock sharp, she was coming in the driveway. She came in and as soon as I saw her, I know I was able to relax. She seemed like a sweet girl. We sat down in the living room and started our meeting. She made us feel comfortable and relaxed. We were laughing and everything. Even half way in the meeting, both Sam and Zoe came in the living room and sat on the couch right beside her. She laughed. Towards the end, I asked her if she was going to inspect our home and she said that's not what she was here for. She said the last visit, she will go in all the rooms to describe our home for her report , but nothing to inspect. I just took a deep breath at that moment and say AMEN!!!! We then explaine to her that Victor was finishing up the baby room and it was not quite ready. She said if it's not ready by the end of the last visit, she'll just put a note in the file that it will be his winter project. Not more than that. We both giggled and I said, so I can give him a weekend off? She found it very amusing on how hard we were both working to get this home study done. ( 2 1/2 hours long)

October 8, 2008 - today we went to lawyer, Melanie Marquis in Blue Cross Building to get our letters notorize and true copies of our passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate and Victor's divorce certificate. Isabelle had reffered me to her. Once were were all done, she said she wasn't going to charge us for the visit. That was a bonus. We thanked her and told her we would come see her again for our will. We will be making a will when we get the referral. One thing that we had to talk about was find a legual gardian for our daughter. We decided that we wanted Nicole to be the legal gardian and she accepted.

Since the home study started, I started getting the urge to start baking. I want to be able to show my daughter how to bake cookies, cakes... and unfortunalty at this time in my life, I don't have a clue how to do it. I started by calling Noella for some receipies and she even came and helped me out with my first attempt to do a "peanut butter roll". It was so yummy. Renee attempted to bake a chocolate cake with me and it was a success.

2nd Home Study visit - Oct 8, 2008 2pm

Victor had his meeting alone with her at his office in Shediac. I think I was more nerveous than him. I'm use to making sure everyting is alright and this time, I had absolutly no part in this. I guess I just had to let go and let him have his meeting alone. When we got home that evening, I was really excitted to hear abou this meeting. He said it was good and nothing for me to be nervious about. I felt a releif.

3rd Home Study visit - Oct 21, 2008 2pm

Cindy met me at my work. I had taken an empty office in HR to have my meeting. It didn't start too good because on our way in the hall I met a guy that I work with and said hello, and didn't have his name right. He corrected me and I felt like an idiot. She just laught and said it happens. Ah well not worth trying to explain my stupidnest. We talked for more than 1 1/2. I was ok but I really felt interrigated. I was not comfortable at all doing this alone. I was really glad when I was done. I knew it went ok but she kept on pushing on my attitude on tring to make everything perfect and not letting my emotions flow. I was trying to stay calm and saying that I am perfectly normal but she wanted to make sure that I was not causing myself any allusions and that it was ok not to have everything prepared in advance for upcoming events or moments. I really felt that I was seeing a pschrinc LOL! At this time, Cindy didn't want to schedual our last session with her now becaue I was leaving for Ottawa last week of October and she was not sure when she would have the home study report ready. She said she would call me the Monday after Halloween. The weekend before my trip to GTEC in Ottawa, Victor and I drove to Halifax Saturday, Oct 25, 2008 to go look at cars for sale. We left late and sort of talked about staying the night. I was going to say we absolutly have to go home becaue we didn't bring any change of cloths... I then stoped and said that's it! I have to do something spontanious for once and not have everyting planned out and gooled or checked reviews on trip advisor before actioning something. I said to myself that I have never heard of anyone dying after having stayed at a hotel with no change of cloths LOL! We stayed at the New Marriott downtown Halifax. I was so imbarase when the valet parking guy asked us if we wanted help with our luggage and we had to say we didn't have any... On top of that, I even asked for toothbrushes and tootpast at the front desk. I could not believe I had just done that. I felt like a real rebble. hahaha. After that night, I was able to tell myself that I am now ready for my trip to Ghana. I am prepared for the unknown... so I think. We'll see on my blog when I returne.

I guess that I am seeing a trend in my life now. I am changing a bit of my attitude and my way of thinking. I'm not sure if I was affraid or just didn't want to try new things, but I feel that I am now more open minded and am willing to try new things to be a better person.

4th Home Study visit - Nov 10, 2008 6pm

Cindy came by our home for the last time to do the tour and meet the girls. For some reason I was not as nerveous as I thought I would be. She came in and did the tour at first. Then we sat down and she asked us a few questions that she needed for the report and then met with Nicole and Renee. She said that now that I twas over she was going to send the report to Genevieve and it would probably talke a 4 to 6 weeks before they approve it. The only thing she was questioning is that we live right on the ocean and wanted to know if it was a cliff and if it would be any danger to a child. She wanted to make sure that she could answer the question if it was asked by Genevieve. So now we wait a month to hear from Genevieve. I hope we can get everyting approved by the province and have our dossier sent to Imagine Adoption before Christmas. I think that would be one of my best gifts and who knows, we might have our baby girl home for Christmas for the following Chritmas (2009). That would be a blessing.

As of Nov 12, 2008 we have 188,963 aeroplans points for our trip to Ghana.

Mommy Group - get together

Sept 24 - My first Mommy Group get together.

For the first time, I was not scared to meet new people. I felt that I was already part of the group. I was soo excitted that day thinking that I was about the meet other woman that were going through the same emotions and stories as me. The night went by soo quickly. Everyone there re-assured me that our homestudy was going to be fine and I should not stress. I know they are right but I just have to get it over it to be able to relax. Some of them already had their child and some of them were in the early stage like me and others were waiting for their referral. It was amazing to see how much of our stories can relate.

Days are passing, i've been listeneing to my vm's at home almost every hour to make sure she hasn't left us a message. Finally Friday came and still no call. I luckily had her email because a collegue of mine from work knows her and had given me her email to get in touch with her at the begining when I wasn't sure if the SW was assigning us someone or we had to do our own work. I send her an email stating that our SW had advised us that she had accepted our dossier and she was suppose to contact us for an appointment. The reason why I was writting to her was because I was planning a trip to Ottawa for work and I wanted to make sure that my trip was not going to interfer with our homestudy dates. Not even a half hour passed and I get a call at work from her that she wanted to schedule our first meeting. That day was going to be Sept 30, 2008 at 6pm. Oh my god, this is the one thing that I had been waiting anxiously for. I know I have to get it over with and the sooner the better. Let me tell you, I was not making any life that weekend. I cleaned every part of our house even after our cleaning lady was here on the Firday. I even cleaned all the light bulbs in the house. I know I went over board but if I hadn't done that, It would of not been normal for me.

Last few weeks are still a waiting game. I am having a hard time with this. SW finally emailed me September 19, 2008 to let me know that she was meeting the SW that was going to do our home study next Monday. I was so excited to hear those words. That weekend, Victor passed his time working on the baby's room. If I knew what I was doing I would help him out, but I decided that I would just be in the way so I spent my weekend working on other chores. I started thinking and decided that instead of just waiting and doing nothing, I was going to start doing things that I like. I join the gym and stated working out on my lunch hour. I really love it. It's a great way to not think of anything and be happy. I guess If I need to stay motivated for the next year or so, It was time for me to get back in shape. When I don't do any excersise, I am aching all over.

I started reading a lot on Ghana groups the last few weeks and have learned lots. I am really excited to go now. I will be attending my first mommy group this coming Wednesday. I will be meeting some new people.

September 22, 2008, came home from work, played outside with the dogs not paying any attention to the computer. Right before I went to bed I checked my Blackberry and I had an email from Genevieve. It was at 4:41pm. I could not believe it. I was a bit scared to read it. I went to get my glasses and sat on a chair… she said that she had met with the other SW and she had excepted our dossier and was going to call us this week to setup an appointment for next week. My god! Now I can start panicking… I actually don't know why I should be panicking but I am. That's my nature. If I would stay calm, it would not be right LOL! Now I have something to get ready for… Another step closer for our baby to come home.

Waiting...

2 weeks went by since we dropped off all the documents that Adoption Services wanted from us and it seems nothing is moving. Genevieve called me last week to let me know that she had received the documents and now she is waiting for our references to mail her back the questionnaires. I guess the hard part about this waiting period is that I cannot make this go faster. It’s not in my control.

Other than that, Victor is progressing on the baby room/my walking closet. It’s not moving as fast as I would like, once again. Reason being, Victor is always working. He basically has Sunday to work on this project. My concern is that once we get the appointment for the homestudy, we’ll have to put a rush on the job!!!

I have the ticker on my facebook and I looked at it this morning. It says: 2 months, 1 week, 1 day since we started the adoption process/planning. It seems like a life time ago. Sitting down right now on the sofa with my laptop, sitting between my 2 lovely boxers, Sam & Zoé I just realized that I have to enjoy every moment of the planning phase as much as when she will be home with us. Once she’s home, I’ll be able to look back and cherish all these moments. I might laugh and think that I was going insane and getting all stressed out for nothing. I guess it’s my nature to try and make everything perfect before it happens.

As I’m writing, I’m always referencing our baby girl as, She, Her, our daughter, our baby girl… Since I’m waiting for others to finish their part, it might be a good time for me to start thinking of a name for our girl. I might have a few names for next blog…

Moving on...

Before, I was preoccupied in all the paper work as I said before, now I’m concern about the travel to Ghana. We don’t have a strong character when it comes poverty and things that make us sad. I guess we are both alike and that’s why we love children and animals so much. We don’t like to see anyone suffer so for us, it’s going to be a big impact to be in a 3rd word country. We’ve traveled to the Caribbean and we can’t even go visit the villages, we usually stay on the resorts, not because we are snobs, but because we could not bear seeing the reality. Well this is it, it’s not really a choice anymore, it’s a decision we maid and we have to come prepare. I’ve been googling a lot lately, found some interesting video’s on Ghana on UTUBE. I guess I want to be exposed as much as I can and when we are there, it won’t be as much as a shock. I’m pretty sure that when the time comes that we are going to get our phone call for our referral, this will be the least of my worries. I won’t have time to think or worry. I will be all set to leave to get our daughter.

This week I send Genevieve our financial report and Victor’s medical report and test results. The only thing missing was his divorce certificate and when I got home from work tonight it was in the mail. So Tuesday morning I will be walking over to the Assumption building and dropping off the certificate to Genevieve and that will be it for our part for the documents she wanted. We still have some from Imagine Adoption, but that will be later. Genevieve said that once she has all our documents, we only have to wait for our reference letters to get back to her and then the home study will begin.

Funny thing happened today at lunch. Victor got a fortune cookie that said “Something special will happen at home soon.”

August 25, 2008 - 2nd Imagine Adoption package

Well today started off as a typical Monday morning. Late for work because of road construction and not really looking forward to start the day. All I have on my mind these days is the adoption and I have a hard time to concentrate on work. One of my dear friends, Angele emailed me back with more information regarding lawyers. She is so sweet to have gotten all this information for us. I contacted Isabelle to see who they took to notarize their documents. She said we only needed a lawyer to notarize our documents and all other legal stuff is taken care by Imagine Adoption.

Victor called me to let me know he went to pick up the window for the baby room. I guess the room is in progress. Yoopi! When I got home from work, to my surprise I had 2 packages in the mail from Imagine Adoption. Like every time that I come home from work, I got the dogs out and played with them for a few minutes. I then opened the packages and found a book on Ghana. This is great! I’ll be able to read tonight and learn about my child’s birth Country. I can’t wait. In the other package, we got a welcome letter and the next documents we have to prepare for the adoption, Immigration, visa…

I guess this means that we are progressing through this journey and we are getting closer and closer every day J

Police check and fingerprints - July 30, 2008

Right after work, Victor and I met at the Shediac Police Station. We got our criminal check and Fingerprints done. This was really weird, but all part of the process. It didn’t’ take long to do.

I had tried to get an appointement early with them, but they were always busy and we could only go when there was an officer there because of the fingerprints.

August 11, 2008, we got our results in the mail. I guess we are clear.

Passport - July 16, 2008

Sent out my passport application on July 16, 2008 and received it at the Post Office August 11, 2008. I now have my passport with my married name stamped on it. It was a hassle traveling with my marriage certificate all the time. I am now truly a Cormier :)

Adventure of finding a doctor...July 15, 2008

During this week of waiting… (July 15, 2008)I decided to start calling for our medical appointments. Who knew how complicated this 1 piece of the puzzle would be. Because my doctor was on sick leave for 1 year, she is only starting part time and only taking emergencies. The new secretary did not want to book me for an appointment. She said I had to call back in the beginning of October to schedule an appointment. Not too happy…

I called Shediac Medical Clinique to see if they could take us and they did not say they were not able to fill out medical forms, however they doctor’s didn’t want to do them for adoption. I flipped on the phone with the poor receptionist. I know it’s not her fault but I guess she had to take my crap. One of our problems, is that Victor doesn’t have a family doctor and who would we get to fill out our medical forms. He doesn’t have a doctor and my doctor can’t do mine. What a mess!!! I called practically all the doctors I could find in the phone book and no one would accept new patients. I really got discourage and didn’t think we would be able to find someone to fill out our medical forms. I thought to myself that If this is the worst thing that could happened, it wasn’t the end of the word and I would find a way to overcome this obstacle. A f

After a few days, I was talking to Margo and she said that she could ask Serge if he could do them for us. We went with that idea for awhile until I realized that we might have to get more test done and more forms before it was all done. I then called my doctor’s office and demanded that she sees me. I said that it was an emergency and she had to schedule me. I could tell she was not impressed but booked me for the next morning. Now how’s that! Not able to schedule an appointment before October and I got in the next day. This to me means that If you believe in something and you want it bad, don’t give up. Do what it takes to make it happen!!!
The next day (August 7, 2008) I went to get my forms filled out by my doctor. When I was done, I had a brilliant idea to go see every receptionist and see if they would take a new patient. After being refused several time I seen a new door to the left of the building that I had not seen before. I seen a bunch on new names that I had not seen before. Got to the first one and said the usual Sorry , Dr. ??? doesn’t take new patients. I got to the next one and this sweet girl, was smiling and seemed like she actually wanted to help me. I explained to her why we needed a doctor for my husband. You could tell that she didn’t want to say no but unfortunatly Dr. O. Was not talking new patients at the moment, however in October she was probably going to start again. She asked me to sit down and she would ask the Dr if she would at least sign the medical forms to help us with the adoption process. A few minutes went by and she came back with a smile and said Dr. O. would do his medical. I was so relieved!!! When we were setting up the appointment for the following day, Dr. O. came by and we taked. She was really happy to hear that we were adoptin from Ghana. This Dr is an African Women. She was going on and on, about the adoption and how exciting this was going to be. I asked her politely if she was take my husband as a patient. She just smiled and ask me why I was making my husband decisions. We just laught and she took out an application form and told me that she would see him tomorrow. This was the best news ever. We just couldn’t find a doctor for Victor and now we have an African Dr that will be able to help us care for our baby girl when we bring her home. I already feel that this is all going to work out. I guess there was a reason why Victor didn’t have a Dr. and I couldn’t find one until today. When Victor met with her the next day, she asked if she could be our child’s doctor.

Got package from Imagine Adoption - July 13, 2008

Saturday Morning, got up and went to the mail and I had received my first package from Imagine Adoption. I got all excited. I drove home to quickly open the package. They had included information for all the programs they have. I read each and every one of them. At this time, Victor and I talked and decided that it was Ghana that we wanted to go with and we were ready to start the process. I was so happy to have gotten the package. It made me feel like things are progressing and it’s no longer just an idea. This is really happening. Monday morning arrived and I called Geneviève right away and to my big surprise she had her out of office on that said she is on vacation till Aug 11, 2008. I was not too happy. That meant that I had to wait 3 weeks before we could start the process. I was not ready to just sit and wait for her return. I started making calls to her supervisor (found on GNB.ca site). Her supervisor assured me that Genevieve was coming in on the next Monday for a few hours and she would get her to send us the package. Now that’s not so bad, having to wait 1 week.

Frist visit with Adoption Services - July 7, 2008

Like I said, there will be good and bad experiences . For some reason, I didn’t get a warm fussy felling going there. It was like being at a service counter and asking for some directions and you don’t understand a word they are saying. This actually happens to me quite often as I don’t have any sense of directions LOL! Anyways, back to my point, I felt that I had to make a decision based on no information and no way of getting any information. When I left, I had given her a few Countries that were of interest for us. The next day, she called me back with some answers. They weren’t answers that I wanted to hear, however it made me realize that if we were going to go through this process it’s certainly
not based on the information that is provided by the province.

This is the feedback from the places we asked for:

Ghana – Have to live in the country for 6 months
St. Vincent – Not up to Canadian Law
Dominica – No specifications and no agency (orphanage)available
Thailand – Long process
China – Not open
Philippines – Double the paper work and no time frame
South Korea – 4 years
Guyna – Have to live in the country for 1 year
Jamaica – Cannot bring child back
Cambodia – Closed
Haiti – On hold and long process

After talking to Isabelle and André, we knew we wanted to adopt, however we didn’t feel right about Ethiopia. It seemed like a nice program, well established, however it wasn’t right for us. I wasn’t sure why we weren’t connecting until I did more research on Ghana. Isabelle told me all about the agency they adopted from. The agency is called Imagine Adoption, located in Cambridge, Ontario. We went through their site and did some researched on Google ( my truly best friend). We immediately connected with Ghana. Reason… they are located on the North West Coast of Africa on the Atlantic ocean. The ocean, beach, made our connection to the place. My husband and I are what you call typical beach bums. We rarely leave our house during the summer because we live right on the beach. If we go on vacation and there is no ocean, lake, river… we feel lost. After looking at the map and seeing were Ethiopia was, I don’t think we could of lasted a week or 2 there. I already feel more comfortable to go to Africa, now that I know that we’ll be able to see the ocean. Basically we’ll see the other end of our beach :)

Picture of sunset from our balcony

First adoptive parent contact - July 3, 2008

After only a few days that we had spread the news, everyone was excited for us. My niece, Julie called me at work to give me the name of a couple (André et Isabelle)that had just arrived the week before with a baby girl (Lexis)from Ethiopia. She said to give her a call because she was really nice and she would talk to me. I didn’t even wait 5 minutes to give her a call or even think about what I was going to ask her. I just picked up the receiver and dialed her number. Just as Julie explained, she was really nice on the phone. I asked her right away if she would meet us to talk about their journey to Africa.

… 2 days later… We were knocking on their door step. To our surprise they had the movie camera all setup with the video clips and pictures they took while in Ethiopia. We spend a few hours with them, talking, laughing and crying. When I saw the video when they first met their daughter and when they arrived at the airport in Moncton, I felt this weird feeling that just made me cry. I was feeling so emotional. At that moment I knew that one day, it would be us walking through those doors.

When I first told my dad that we were going to adopt, I told him not to get too excited in case something happened that it would not work out. He couldn’t not understand what I meant with “if it doesn’t work out’. He told me that we would make it work. Until that moment, watching the video, I didn’t’ felt 100% that we would go through this journey, but that changed my mind. Like my dad said, I’ll make this adoption happen.

That afternoon, we were celebrating my dad’s 70th Birthday. We announced the news to all the Landry family. Let me tell you, it was quite the emotional thing. I just couldn’t believe that we would get this great support from everyone. I used to live my life always worrying what others would say if… and I always thought that if we ever went with this adoption journey, people would say we’re not thinking strait… But this has been the most wonderful experience so fare announcing the news. We have family on all sides that loves us and supports us. This is truly the best feeling!

Here is a picture of future grandma, and all of little’s cousins that our daughter will be have be able to play with.

Canda Day 2008

This year, Canada Day was pretty special for me. My dad came to spend the day with me since Victor was working. When he arrived, I told him the big news. He was in shock. He did not believe me at first. He kept on repeating what I just said to make sure he had it right. It was actually funny to see his reaction. He just couldn’t believe that he was finally going to be a grandpa! xoxo

My family

Here is a picture of who I call my family. For all of you who don't know my family, starting at the left, we have Sam (dog), Renée (my step daughter), Nicole ( my step dauther), Victor ( my husband and Nicole and Renée's dad), Amanda (Nicole and Renée's sister) and Ricky ( Amanda's dad and Nicole and Renée's step dad).

This is it! - June 30, 2008

After all these years of talking about adopting a little girl, we finally made the decision to go ahead with our dream. After my cousin's wedding (Lisanne&Gerlad), I just coudn't keep this out of my mind. We talked about it and finaly, on June 30th, we went to see the girls (Nicole and Renée) to give them the news. We will soon have a new addition to our family.

Retainer agreement and questionnaires - All done!

August 14, 2008

Today was a big day. I had all our questionnaires completed and dropped them of at Adoption Services in Moncton. I then drove to the Post Office to mail our certified check and Retainer Agreement to Imagine Adoption. I was such a nervous wreck today. I was just not functioning properly. It was 2 simple things that I had to do and yet I felt so unorganized and I just couldn’t get all the right papers in the right envelop. Wow!!! I just can’t wait till I have to send the papers for immigration and stuff like that LOL!

I felt such a relieve when I dropped off the Retainer Agreement. I just wanted to scream out loud and reach the sky!

When all of this is happening, we are in the process of buying our new dream spot. Next door to our home. I know this sounds silly but we will be building our dream home next door to our current house. This is all exciting because we’ll have a new home for our new baby girl.

On Monday, August 17, 2008, I got an email from Imagine Adoption that they received our cheque and Retainer Agreement. We are now officially on board with them. She said they will be sending us a 2nd package with more details and forms to fill out

Already planning my trip to Ghana - July 10, 2008

Now that we’ve connected with Ghana, I’m starting to plan. The most fun of all for me. I just love to plan trips. I honestly think that I should have been a travel agent.

With the help of my friend, Google, I searched for airports in Ghana. To my surprise there is only one airport in the whole Country that has a paved landing strip. It’s Ghana’s capital “Accra”. I sort of got scared. I just cannot imagine Victor and I arriving in a foreign Country on a graveled airstrip. Victor would just not make it. I immediately called Aeroplan to see how far I can get… to my surprise, I already have enough for one ticket.


I tell ya, shopping will get you places LOL! The more you spend, the more you accumulate miles…

Our areroplan miles will get us exactly where we need to go and even better, it’s the airport with the paved strip. Hahaha!

Itinerary:
130,000 miles needed


Frankfurt, Germany – Accra, Ghana
Moncton – Montreal
Montreal – Frankfurt, Germany

I also did some searched on Trip Advisor to find a hotel in Accra.

Here are a few hotels that I found:


Golden Tulip
Labadi Beach Hotel ( rich and nice looking hotel)
Sangri –La
Afia African Village
Akwaaba Guest House Beach Resort ( Very nice and cosy)


After reading lots from trip advisor, I was going with the Akwaaba Guest House. It was really a nice, quiet place. I think we could experience the true culture of Ghana and eat some home cook meals, however I read on the site that all the beds are equipped with mosquito nets. I’m not too sure anymore if I could go with that. We’ll see. We have a long journey ahead of us.


Labadi Beach Hotel





Akwaaba Guest House Beach Resort