And then there were 6!

(Part of this was written and then life got busy and now I am catching everyone up. The timeline of the past 3 weeks are getting squished into 1 update.)

We would like to let everyone know that Christopher Monuma will be #6 to join Team Hires!

This week (August 23rd), we filed our CHILD MATCH PAPERWORK! Although we are not through with our home study & dossier, they do not anticipate any issues with our family and so we were matched really early in the process. We were slightly shell-shocked to be making such a monumental decision 2 shorts months into the process. It does not speed up our process since the incredible wait actually starts after our paperwork is officially filed in Haiti, but now we are able to travel to Haiti with a match. There is a "bonding trip" (as our agency calls them) in December and I so desperately want to go, but the adoption agency felt I may be pushing the process a little too quickly since I have to have some initial paperwork filed with USCIS to travel as an adoptive parent. If it all didn't go exactly as planned, we'd have to pay to move my ticket. I'd like to risk it but I have responsibilities with church (Women to Women's Christmas brunch) during the trip as well so (sigh) I'll wait. Tracy and I know that we will make it for the trip in Feb/March. We don't have to make a court appearance like we originally thought since Christopher's orphanage is outside Port-au-Prince. We will have an embassy meeting but apparently they can be scheduled instead of assigned. This process is certainly "learn as you go". I read and reread the process but some paperwork and terms don't make sense until trial and error get you to a place where it's acceptable.

2 months and counting!