The first post...

So Ben & I decided we needed to start a blog to keep our family & friends up-to-date on the adoption. After our 10 yr. anniversary cruise, we thought we were set on adopting from Guatemala. We visited a couple of countries in Central America, and I just felt like it was the place for us...until yesterday, when that was pulled out from underneath us. Guatemala has decided to halt ALL International Adoptions. UGH. Now back to square one...we'd ruled out every other country for some reason, so we sat down & talked about it. Narrowed it down almost immediately to Russia & China. We talked it out, voicing our concerns and the benefits of each and FINALLY came up with a decision..."little sister" will be coming to us from Russia! We are all very excited and overwhelmed. We went from HOPEFULLY Guatemala opening up late next year to probably bringing her home by the end of next summer! :) There is lots of paperwork, but we can't do anything but sit and wait until our Social Worker finishes up our home study. Our first step is our INS (Immigration & Naturalization) paperwork. Once that is turned in, we can start our dossier preparation. Since we're going to Russia, we have two dossiers to do. One is to be turned in before we make the first trip (to meet little sister), and the second one need to be done shortly after we get back from the first trip, so we can prepare to go on the second trip to pick her up! More to come...