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