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.