I am taking the advice of my brilliant friend Jaime Lynne Lea…we are snapping as many pictures of the adoption process as we can think of. She reminded me the other day that this is like our pregnancy phase of the journey. Why shouldn’t I take pictures? If I was pregnant we would take them all the time. Plus our kids will love to see them and hear stories one day.
Tonight, I was puting our adoption binder together. I love that we are documenting all of this. I may be able to circumvent many afflictions of a pregnant mama like swollen feet,? heartburn, and more weight gain (heaven knows I don’t need this). However, no pregnant mom has to order, fill out, and organize so much paperwork. It’s insane. I knew beforehand how much it would entail, but with international adoptions there are so many extra steps.
Anyone know what the term apostille means? How about the difference between the INS, BCIS, and USCIS? Yeah, I thought so. We even know more about notarizing than we ever wanted to.
As the binder gets thicker and thicker, I realize that bringing home our children gets closer and closer. I now have something tactile to show for it. I LOVE MY BINDER! Instead of rubbing my tummy, I can rub my binder. Weird, huh? Not natural, but very cool!