we did the conference call orientation today! feeling really nervous and excited. We are meeting next week with some people that just adopted from china. Hopefully they will give us a little insight into the process. Starting all the paperwork...........

Today I feel a little better about things. I did my research and it turns out the fees are normal. Its also normal to pay this portion (agency fees) and what not up front. I guess it was just a little shocking because I wastn prepared for that. We have an appt on tuesday for our conference call orientaion. I will keep you posted on how that goes.......

well today we got the orientation packet.... yikes!!!! We got a bit of a shock at the upfront cost. We have been preparing for the cost involved but wow. So after some deep breaths and alot of figuring I think we can take the next step. I think we were under the impression that we would be paying just a few thousand to get the homestudy. We just didn't realize there were agency fees and homestudy and program fees and and and and......... I mean we did just know it would be so much due so fast. But we will figure it out and keep on going. We will be tackling the stack of paperwork tomorrow cant wait!!!!!!

Today I decided to start our blog because our application was excepted!!!!!! yay!!!!!
So starting from the beginning. November 28 was the day we made it official we were going to adopt. We told our families and were pleasently suprised at how supportive everyone was. We almost instantly became so excited we couldnt go an hour without googling adoption from here or there and everywhere inbetween. So pretty quicklywe were drawn to Ethiopia because of the overwhelming need there, and lets be honest the children there are apsolutely beutiful. So then we had to pick an agency. Google!!!!! hours and hours of Googling. I have an awesome husband by the way who is one of those get it done kinda guys. Much to my suprise we found our agency rather quickly thanks to my husbands never ending research. So on 12/02/09 we submitted our pre-application and on 12/3/09 we got the go ahead to do the official application. woohoo!!! So then it started We gatherd all the information and paperwork needed to submit and 12/14/09 we sent it off. and then we waited .......... okay we only had to wait 2 days but it seemed like 20! but today at 2:29 exactly we got the phone call and the email that we were aprooved :)!!!!!!!!!! So needless to say I am now so excited I cant think of anything else. (hense the starting of the blog) So thats it for now hopefully I will have my giant packet of paper work to get started on soon to keep me busy. until then..............