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.