A bit more information....

Wow! I was so happy and excited to hear from so many of you regarding our news! Many of you have asked for more information on where we go from here. So here goes. We sent in our initial application the end of May and had our first meeting with our agency to start paperwork June 2. We have LOTS of things to do in order to get a new homestudy done in Arizona and we have to get a lot of things together for our Dossier. (A big fancy word for the file of papers needed for an adoption. Just so you know, Travis' dossier is about 6 inches thick!) We just submitted our paperwork for our INS approval (that is government permission to adopt a foreign born orphan) and we will wait for a letter in the mail inviting us to get our fingerprints done. We also have to complete 30-35 hours of parent training so we can be approved to be adoptive parents....yeah....go figure. We get NO brownie points for already being adoptive parents according to the wonderful state of Arizona!! Oh well, I just hope to learn something worthwhile in those classes! Many of you are curious about if we are requesting a boy or a girl...we have decided not to specify and leave it up to chance. As you all know, we originally were going to Guatemala before we were diverted to Russia where we found Travis... he was obviously hand picked to be part of our family...so we decided that it is not in our control and we will see how this puzzle all comes together. There is a greater chance it will be a boy but there is always a chance it could be a girl too. So, stay tuned for that surprise at a later time! And as far as a time frame goes...our agency says it is taking 12-18 months....in case you forgot, it took almost 2 years for us to get Travis home (that included a change in countries ). So....we are being patient, we are taking this whole thing in one day at a time and we know in our hearts that our child will be home with us in God's time. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes...we need them!!