Starting again...

We're back! Back on the road of forms galore, working toward that wonderful day we bring home our second child. I had to veer off the road this past Summer in order to maintain sanity. At the beginning of this year I was certain it would be "no big deal" this time around considering "I've been there, done that" but once the packets were 'in hand' it brought back memories of annoying and trying times struggling to get what we needed. Combine that with an overwhelming amount of work and I knew it wouldn't be as easy as I'd expected.

With all the excitement of new design work, a wonderful trip to Martha Stewart headquarters, networking with new friends in the 'biz' and schooling myself on new found interests that led to more work, I had little time for anything else and by May I was physically exhausted. From February through April I had been sick more frequently than all of the last 5 years combined. Work had taken it's toll and though things were busy over the last part of the summer as well I'm happy to say that with a bit of a break I'm finally back where I like to be - excited about the future. Not to mention the 'every so often' little pushes from Jack asking if I'm still working on getting him a little brother or sister. *sigh* *melting heart*

We've filled out most of the forms required for setting up a Home Study visit, though it feels like I'm missing a lot. I've mailed off some of the Florida clearance requests needed and we're hopeful to get a ton more done over the next week including doctors visits, verifications and reports. So many little things. I took a moment to look at the blog we kept for Jack's adoption, back at about this stage and remember the excitement along with the mounds of paperwork!

As I did before, I have to re-train myself to take it one paper at a time. It'll be done before we know it.

Thanks for tagging along and I hope to have another update soon. The next big step would be the Home Study report. With that in hand we'll have a big chunk of our Dossier completed, which is basically the chronicle of our current existence for Russia to approve.

:: Michele

p.s. for those who might be wondering about my fundraising, I haven't been pushing it because I'm a little worried I might step back into overwhelming myself. I will definitely keep you posted though, as any help would be GREATLY appreciated considering the amount of money it takes to fund an international adoption.