I always feel like I am repeating myself when I write these update posts because it's always about paperwork and waiting and unfortunately you're about to hear more about that. We have been waiting for our Social Worker to send us the last of our documents so that we can get them apsotilled and overnight them to our agency. We are literally waiting for four papers so that we can officially put our claim on our son. To explain what that means, in the U.S. no one can adopt Sergey because we have filled out the appropriate paperwork here. But the paperwork we have desperately been trying to get to his country is the registration part of our dossier which would claim Sergey as our son in his country. Fortunately for our sake we don't have to worry too much about people in his country wanting to adopt a child with Down syndrome, which is also unfortunately very sad:( Today we found out from our Social Worker that his agency director is in Africa and won't be able to sign the documents until he gets back, which will hopefully be by the end of this month. Now I know waiting a few extra weeks doesn't seem like such a big deal in the grand scheme of things, we have had to do a lot of waiting during this process so what does a few weeks matter...right? Well the reason being is I have less than nine weeks to make the two mandatory trips of the three trips that I am required to make. Ash will be going on the third trip by himself to bring Sergey home because I am unable to make the third trip because of this sweet little guy:)
We have had to be pretty tight lipped about our pregnancy until we had talked with the judge in Sergey's country as well as a few other reasons, all in which have turned out well. Back in December when we found out we were pregnant, which was an unexpected surprise, we had to go through a long process of writing letters to the judge as well as providing reference letters from friends and family that we could care for a child with Sergey's needs as well as having the addition of this sweet little one. We waited for about a month until we received a miraculous "yes" from the judge that we could move forward on our adoption but not necessarily was she approving our adoption. So once we send out this paperwork we will be waiting for another confirmation from the judge, which will be very nerve wrecking. But we are trusting God in all of it. That's not to say I don't have my freak out moments occasionally:( I am due in August and the airlines have a rule that you cannot travel after 34 weeks, which really having a baby in another country doesn't sound all that appealing so I am fine with that rule. But the more delays we have regarding paperwork and waiting on others for things shortens my travel time. We are beyond excited for this new baby and happy to finally share the news with you all. And we can't wait to bring Sergey home to complete our family! Prayers are greatly appreciated!
