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…