Hello Everyone!

Well - I don't know what happened to my first blog... it's dissappeared! But, I'll start anew...

The news of the Our Family at the moment is that we are in the process of waiting to travel to Kazakhstan to adopt a baby! The process has been a smooth one thus far... now we await travel! The estimated time frame for travel is December at this point. My dossier finished at the Consulate and went to country on August 29, what a special day that has turned out to be! Neat! Now it is a waiting game to get the invitation to travel. They say I should get 2-3 weeks notice before it's time to actually go. the estimate is December, but they say it could still be November - January!!

my timeline has been: sent initial paperwork on Feb. 2. My home study was complete and I got agency approval on May 3rd. I got my I171-H approval on Tuesday June 12th. This was 2 days shy of 6 weeks at NIS. I had knee surgery on June 13th. I sent my completed dossier to my agency on July 5th. They sent it for translation and review on July 11. After that it went to the consulate, but I do not have that date. It left the consulate, as I mentioned above on Aug. 29. I believe it is at the Minitry of Education. It will next go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or perhaps I have them backwards.) from there it will go to a region and then I will get an invitation to travel!! Since I am single, my mom will travel with me and my dad will stay home with my son, Matthew while we are away. Matthew will also continue to see his dad during that time as well.

The other big event of the month is that Matthew has started Junior High School which has gone so well!! Praise God! He really seems to like it and no real transition took place. The hardest part is remembering to bring home all of our homework!!

I am trying to get some of the things together for travel, like gifts for the workers in the country, etc. Stuff I don't need but that I also don't want to be worried about when I get 2 weeks notice to get there! I am loading my iPod so it is ready, etc. I know those two weeks will be insane anyway, but I'm trying to eleviate the panic of having nothing ready or thought of ahead of time.

Matthew, Mom and Dad are on their way home from the Ravens game today. We won in a last second field goal as the final seconds ticked off the clock. Phew!

I'm going to try to keep practicing with the posting so I know what I'm doing when I travel and can keep you all up to date! can't wait until that time comes! :)