the long part: the waiting & the carrying on

in december we applied for a potential adoption situation coming out of florida.  completing the attorney's paperwork, gathering up all of the required documents, and printing out some photographs of our family to include got our hearts re-energized with the possibility that a baby could one day join our family of three.  clearly we didn't get selected to parent that sweet baby girl, but it has opened another door.

it's not that we'd forgotten about the possibility or that we'd lost hope, but we'd honestly become resigned to the fact that this was going to continue to take a very long time.  while online i saw an ad for an adoption agency - quiver full.  the more i read, the more interested i became in what they had to offer.  after some prayerful consideration will and i decided we'd reach out to them for more information.  they set up a call and answered our questions about self-matching and the marketing strategies that they feel best help to connect their adoptive hopefuls and expectant parents.  we really thought this could be a good fit for our continued search.

because we're already working with bethany christian services we needed to be up front with them and let them know that we'd like to work with another agency.  we hated to loose the fees we'd paid up to this point and did not want to damage our strong relationships with them, but we'd seen no interest in the past (almost) two years and felt things growing stale.  to our surprise bethany reached back out to our communication and graciously allowed us to carry on working with them while we also attempt to self match with quiver full.  we were elated at the thought that we'd have some assistance in better marketing ourselves.

as of march 30th we became an active family with quiver full.  their strategy includes a facebook page in which we can provide further details about our lives and how we live on the day to day.  by sharing this page with our friends, and our friends sharing it with their friends, etc. it is hoped that it will create a web of people and that within these shares we'll end up reaching out to an expectant mother who could be considering an adoption plan for her unborn baby.  it really is all in the hands of God, but we know that this networking is part of his divine plan.  everywhere we look we're seeing arrows and they were pointing us right to quiver full!  it just feels right and we know that even while we wait (and it seems like we wait and wait and wait) He is in control and that the right baby will someday join our family.

right now they'd like us to reach 1,000 likes on our facebook page by the end of the month.  that really seems daunting, but if you'd be so kind to give us a like and share, we'd greatly appreciate it.  you never know who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody.

facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/willandadri/ 

the work with quiver full also includes more online marketing in the form of ads, as well as a website, an online profile book, and connections in another state.  we are still in the process of pulling all of our profile book information from a hard copy into the online template, but hope to have that completed soon.  for now we just have a static page, but that site is:
http://www.willandadriadopt.com/

we thank everyone for continuing to pray for our family as we wait.  we're enjoying every second of dax being an only child.  he's the best little fella anyone could ever imagine and he's going to be a fantastic big brother to a little sibling one day.  he still prays for this little one all the time and he even hangs out in their room.  he longs to have a sibling as much as we desire to add another little one but, while it's hard and the wait seems so incredibly long, we wait with a renewed hope and trust in God that He is laying this path exactly as it should be constructed.

searching for bliss

It is with great excitement that we announce the commencement of our second domestic infant transracial adoption process!  We've recently been pre-approved and have now submitted our formal application with Bethany Christian Services.   While the initial paperwork chase will be less time consumptive, the wait for a second child may take longer.  Our family has decided to seek a baby girl, which could again delay the search time.

We will be creating a profile book using photos of our family get togethers and other special memories with Dax to "show off" our family to any expectant parents.  Along with the book we'll also be working on some fundraising opportunities to help fund the process. We would appreciate your help in sharing the word!

 Fund raisers include:

·          Custom Designed T Shirts & Other Merch

·          Etsy Store - Hand Made Goods & Art Work

·          Mommy's Freckles - Children's Book

·          Amazon.com - Affiliate Link

·          Donations

God has entrusted us with a special gift in being adoptive parents and we look forward to seeing how He expands our family through future adoptions. We cannot thank you enough for being a part of our lives, praying for us, and helping us continue our journey to build our family as we search for Bliss.

www.searchingforbliss.org

With Love,

Will, Adri & Dax

meet daxton

meet daxton.  his arrival has been greatly anticipated by multitudes of wonderful people.  he'll surpass your wildest expectations, so just get ready because the journey is just beginning.

we woke up early this morning in preparation to head to the hospital around 10:30.  we wanted to make sure dax's clothes and diaper bag were ready to go.  we'd changed up his clothing arrangements several times since he was too tiny for some of the things we had in his closet.  we were ready early and i just sat with nervous energy waiting for the time to pass.  some how the last 30 minutes of this wait seemed like the longest time period of the entire journey.  finally it was time to go.

we packed up the car and pulled out of our drive way for the last time as a family of two.  will drove us to the hospital and i cried off and on until we arrived.  since we were early we decided we'd make some public announcements as to today's plan via email/facebook.  when it was close to time to be there we headed inside.  we waited anxiously in the lobby of the hospital for the social worker to arrive.  we've been working with an alternate social worker this week as our assigned social worker had to be away for a family emergency.  when she arrived we found a spot in the lobby area to sit and complete our portion of the paperwork that remained.  she went over everything with us and made sure we did not have any questions.  before too long it was time to head upstairs.

tears were welling up as we walked the long corridor to our birth mother's hospital room.  there was a heaviness that surrounded the situation and made me feel so overwhelmingly upset.  we felt (and continue to feel) extreme sadness for her loss in knowing that the happiest day of our lives is one of the most difficult in hers.  we wish there was something we could do to comfort her and help her heal as she works through this loss and grief.  it's hard for me to feel the happiness i've longed for today when all i can think about is the sadness that consumes her.

however despite the gravity of the situation and the complexity of everything that envelopes us we know more than ever that God is just quite simply amazing.  we don't really know how we got here, but today we brought home our son.  daxton is the most amazingly perfect little fellow you've ever laid your eyes on.  we praise God every minute that passes for this blessing and cannot wait to share how his little life will unfold.  today - our sweet baby darling deer found his way to us.  thank you daxton for finding us and calling us your family.

exciting times - we're a waiting family!

lots of amazing things have happened this week! 

yesterday we got a nice little box from blurb.com with our profile books inside!  we decided to go with blurb to create our books because of the ease of using their downloaded program.  we really enjoyed using the software and think the books turned out really well!

we went ahead and requested second day air so we could get everything wrapped up.

we were pleased with the way that the dust jacket turned out. 

we ordered 5 copies of our book.  we wanted one book for our child's library and then had to have four other books for the various offices around the state.

we also got the great news that our web profile was complete! 

it took some major back and forth with the agency because there was some controversy about the original soundtrack music we had picked for our video slide show.  it was thought that we might have to have a copyright release form to use the music and we were unsuccessful at getting the artist's record labels to respond to our requests.  however, after we ended up redoing our video with new music, we found out after the fact that we actually could have kept the first set of music we'd utilized.  in the end, we are happier with the music we have included as the soundtrack for the slide show because it is less distracting and allows the viewer to more easily focus on the content of the video. 

 it's just further proof that:

• everything happens for a reason
• everything happens in God's time
• you may not know why you go through trials, but it always works out in the end

to view us online you can check out our profile by going to:

Will & Adri - Bethany Christian Services Web Profile

we're so excited that we've completed everything that we needed to do to get on the official waiting list!

lucky

i found this heads up penny today and it reminded me how lucky i am.

a few reasons i am lucky:

i just returned home from a week in va where i had to go work at my office's headquarters.  i'm lucky to be able work from home and NEVER ever take that for granted.  working from home is a peaceful environment that i have a ton of control over. 

my sweet husband circled the airport multiple times with my darling doggies waiting happily inside until i could get my suitcase off the baggage claim and then waited in the car for another half an hour while i got us some thai food (my favorite) for a quiet dinner at home.

our pastor and his family met us for an afternoon of bowling which helped me settle back into the calmness of life in nc and a focus on something other than work and adoption processes.

our adoption paperwork, video slide show, web profile, and profile book have been turned in for approval.  fingers crossed they will be approved as is and we will officially be done with everything we have to do before being on the waiting list.

home study part I

(snapshot of us at my cousin's wedding last weekend.)

friday we headed to the local Bethany office for part one of our three part home study.  like i can somtimes do, i had worked myself up into nervousness (knowing a lot is riding on these interviews).  i could not sleep the night before, gave myself a stomach ache, and overreacted when the check engine light came on AGAIN on the way to the meeting.  thankfully will was driving ahead of me, and for once in our lives he was the calm one - the voice of reason - the one to talk me down.  we arrived to the parking lot early, and by then i was fine.  just being in the car with him, instead of following him gave me the confidence boost i needed to "settle down".

we entered the office and were seated in our social worker's office.  she got us cups of water and we all made small talk before we began the actual interview.  other wise friends who've previously adopted told us that these interviews were just like talking to old friends.  we wanted to believe them - really we did - but we were nervous for some reason that our situation would be the odd ball.  however, they were completely right.  after talking with our social worker for only a little over an hour and a half, we were done.  we'd chatted about our infertility, how we grieved, will's surgery and its impact, how we decided to adopt transracially, how our extended families felt about that, and how we were prepared to integrate the child back into their culture.  all of the conversation - was just that - conversation.  we chatted freely and poured our hearts out, knowing that this path is the right one. 

the second segment of the meeting was the discussion of the "service contract" which is what i had been fearing.  i feel called by God to adopt as many children into my home as we possibly can, but i do not feel led to handle every single possible situation.  we had intense conversations over what we felt we could handle physically, emotionally, and financially.  we tried to be logical in saying "no" now to a situation that we could be unprepared for, rather than having to say "no" to a living breathing baby, a birthmother, and our social worker after a baby was born.  i still have some reservation and feelings of guilt over some of the boxes i marked "no" to, but i felt it was the right thing to do for our first adoption experience - praying that there will be more to come after this chapter is complete.

so dready mcdreaderton has packed up her suitcase and is putting it away for now.  right now i am going to focus on wrapping up a few documents that have been placed in our portal, cleaning our our closets to be better organized, locating the perfect glider rocker, and filtering through thousands of photos for just the right ones to create our profile book.

4/27

a year ago today marks the day that will had his decompression surgery.  this day is a day that forever changed our lives.  the night before will's surgery we were both nervous and anxious about where our lives were headed.  we had faith that God would protect us through will's surgery, but we did not know how long the road would be, or where it would lead.  we could never imagine we'd be where we are now.

yesterday we attended the second (final) portion of our informational seminar with Bethany.  this segment of the required classroom time focused on awareness of openness, birthmother medical conditions, birthmother drug exposure, and transracial placements.  we were glad to have the information on some of the possibilities that could be presented to us, so we can be prepared for what to expect.  every meeting with Bethany reconfirms our knowing that we are on God's path to build our family through adoption.  we feel overwhelmingly assured that God will build our family with a transracial placement.  i feel emotionally overwhelmed when i think about how perfect, how wonderful, how right this all feels.

about a half an hour of the seminar was focused on creating a profile book.  everyone was curious about what they should and should not do.  while there are some general guidelines, it really is up to the adoptive parents to choose the print company, how many pages they will include, and what the pages will contain.  creating the profile book has always been something i've been excited for, but something that has generated a great deal of anxiousness.  anyone who knows me knows that i love to take pictures (too many pictures to select from), love to have something to work on (just ask my daddy), and love a creative project.  however, feeling the importance of this task, and having the loose parameters can sometimes seem a little daunting.  however, seeing the books that the agency felt were good representations of the past adoptive families helped to ease some of my worries in knowing that my gut instincts on creating our book were on target.

friday morning we have the first of three home study meetings with our social worker.  we are eager to begin the process and excited to start this chapter of our journey.  the main focus of this meeting is completing our "service plan".  the service plan requires us to confirm our search parameters.  will and i have made copies of the plan so that we can each check off what we feel comfortable saying "yes", "no", or "will consider" to.  after we're done filling out the worksheets on our own, we can then discuss the answers we have, so that we are not swaying each other's heart - so we will know exactly what page each one of us is on.  we've struggled with this throughout the journey, feeling that God is leading us down this path and that he will bring the RIGHT baby to our family - and knowing that we are not controlling this process - which makes it hard for us to fill out this type of worksheet.  however, we know it has to happen and we've prayed to God for his guidance and strength in completing this segment of the journey.

so it is with joyful hearts that we celebrate this one year anniversary after will's surgery.  we know that God's plan for our family included us finding out about will's chiari malformation before children were part of our lives.  we know that God's plan four our family included us experiencing many medical challenges which brought us closer than we've ever been.  we know that God's plan for our family included us growing spiritually, emotionally, and together in our plans for openness throughout this adoption journey.  we know that we are more ready than ever before to become parents.

paperwork - the final chapter

with the paperwork finally done, i've just got to unload this.

every time someone asked us how the paperwork was going we gave them a bit of a sigh and explained how lengthy the paperwork was, how open ended the questions were, and how much thinking was required before you could just jot something down.  because of our relaying the magnitude of pressure we were feeling in sort of griping about the quantity of work we had in front of us, i think we negatively impacted people's thoughts and judgements about the paperwork requirements.

we're sorry if we've done this.

let us go on record as saying this - we are blessed to have been given the opportunity to have had the experience of answering all of the questions we had to answer on the paperwork.  husband and i feel like we grew so much, just by getting to share our answers with each other when we were done, and that even though it was long, it was difficult, and it was time consuming - that we are in a better place now for having thought about these questions and really found out where our hearts are.

it was sometimes hysterically amusing to listen to each other's answers when our own sides of the paperwork were done.  some of our answers were so similar i am afraid they will think we copied each other, and then some answers are on the same path - but they got there in such a different manner that it's hard to see how we've ended up in the same place on the map.

completing this paperwork, and adoption in general is something that we are honored and blessed to be a part of.  please do not ever look upon us with pity because we "have to do all of this paperwork, jump through all of these hoops, read all of these books, or go to all of these classes".  we are more prepared to be parents now than we've ever been in our lives, and if it was not for this exact path, we would not be so ready as we are right now.

cheers

we worked diligently and finally got all of the family pre-assessment paperwork completed and into the mail at the fed ex office.  we'd decided that we'd head to our favorite mexican restaurant to celebrate, but when we got there we found it was closed on sundays.  a look up of our favorite sushi restaurant nearby told us that they did not open for another hour and a half.  drat!  with limited options available at 4pm on a sunday we elected to head to the cheesecake factory for some sure fire delicious celebratory drinks and good food.  nothing was going to ruin this moment!

cheers!

confirmed - "you can type your answers"

we got such great news today!

the adoption profile paperwork can all be printed out from the computer! 

i know, this is not what you all were thinking would be such great and wonderful news - but to the light at the end of the tunnel - this was a critical piece of news.  i am now officially done with my personal paperwork and just have to fill out one last joint form while husband finishes his personal profile data.

i am not quite sure how people say they've finished all of this in a weekend.  we've agonized over these questions to the point of possibly overthinking them.  i just feel such responsibility to properly communicate the history of my life, the gifts of my parents, the love and strength of my husband, and the hopes for our child that i feel like i have to analzye every word.  hopefully all of the thinking, even if it was excessive, will help our social worker get to know us better.

husband is fastidiously working on his questions and i think he's in the home stretch!  i cannot wait until we get this packet in the mail.  the countdown to the post office is on!

ode to computers

this is a happy husband working on paperwork.  (he does not know how many hours of transcribing are in his future!) 

there are about 100 open ended questions in this final set of paperwork in the profile.  the information gathered here goes into your personal profile and is used by the social worker to prepare for your interview.   i typed up all of the questions from the printed forms we were given so that we could each work on answering our questions and be able to run spell check etc.  mine are done (in word), but i've been working for 11 hours total to get them from typed text into hand written format, and i am only 1/3 of the way through.  you never really realize how much we rely on computers and word processing programs to communicate until you have to hand write something of this magnitude!  (i will not whine about it too much longer, but man oh man, my hand is aching!)

c'est la vie!  pressing on!

baby care gurus

tonight was our required infant care class.  so we're gurus on baby care now - right?  we learned how to swaddle, how to comfort a baby when crying, how to burp a baby, change a diaper, how and when to feed a baby, what to feed a baby, how much to feed a baby, what to do when a baby gets sick, how to suction out yuckies, how to take a baby's temperature, what to expect with the umbilical cord, the heat lamps at the hospital, jaundice, circumcision, information on newborn's skin, the difference between choking and just gurgling, and saw some slides of "normal" things you don't have to panic about.

entering the building i was excited that we were there, but nervous about the reactions we'd get when we entered the room visibly not pregnant.  the presenter was boisterous and called across the room to ask us our names, when our baby was due, and what hospital we'd be delivering at.  we called back with our names and the fact that we were adopting so we just did not know the rest of the answers.  we were smiling when we said it.  she came over and told us how great she thought that was and that she knew someone who adopted, but their kids were in their twenties now.  funny how people try to connect.

she admitted early on that she was a lactation consultant and that she could get off on a breast feeding tangent, and she was not kidding.  we learned way more than we need to know about breast feeding - but we do feel like we learned lots of other things that will be helpful.  while we're definitely not experts on baby care at this point, we do feel like we're less anxious now about some general baby care and are eager to read the suggested reading materials to learn even more.

this is the hundred year old building where the class was held.

processing the processing

the paperwork process for adoption is so time consumptive, so physically and mentally draining, and such a personal investment.  we received our final set of paperwork this past week and have taken time to read through every question being asked of us, and are attempting to both individually think about how we will best answer each question we've been presented with.  it's hard for me to feel comfortable answering so many questions that are open ended and "what if" based.  i am a straight shooter and i try not to think about the "what if" part of life very often.  i used to do it when i was younger, but i just found myself getting worked up for nothing, or regardless not feeling anymore prepared.

i know these worksheets are designed to help you think about situations so that you won't be surprised by anything and so that you will be able to protect your family in the best way possible.  it's just hard for me to know what i really would do "if" something happened.  i will be thinking, and thinking, and thinking about this some more until i can commit to something on paper.

the other thing that plagues me is a brief paragrpaphical description of myself.  maybe i am too complex, or i think i am more complex than i actually am, but i think its hard to sum adri up in a paragraph.  i am going to have to think on this to really communicate what i best think generates a picture of the person i am. 

my mom asked me 48 hours after we'd gotten the final paperwork if we were done.  i got really defensive and fired back at her that "we'd just received it" and it's "so complex" that there is no possible way we could be done yet!  seriously, how could she even ask such a thing?  maybe we're over thinking all of this, and we just need to sit down and write the first thing that comes to mind.  i just think that would be making too light of something that is so powerfully important.  so, we read, we reread, we sit, we ponder, we get up from the table, we have mini conversations, we think some more, we go somewhere, we chat about it in the car, before we fall asleep, we think about it while we dream, and process it all day long until we get just the right things we want down on the paper.

God was speaking

when you know - you just know.  God was speaking to me today telling me that we were going to get good news.  I thought for sure we would be getting an email that would tell us that our formal application had been approved.  so throughout the day today (probably 50 times) i refreshed my gmail to see if we'd gotten anything from our bethany portal.  i talked to my little sister after work and expressed my sadness when the day had come and gone and no email came.  i stopped myself and got into calm down mode since they'd only had our additional information for a few days now, but still i had hope.

husband had to go to a meeting at job numero dos this afternoon and got home a little bit early.  he always checks the mail before coming inside.  he came inside with a HUGE packet from bethany that informed us that our formal application was approved!  we jumped up and down, hugged, cried, and carried on.  i told him i just knew that something was coming today.  i could just feel it.  i think it's true, that when you know - you just know - and when God speaks - hopefully you hear what he's saying.

so now that we have that hurdle behind us, this is what lies ahead of us:

• completing this packet of paperwork below
• attending an infants class
• attending the adoption seminar on april 1st
• reading the book "Raising Adopted Children"
• having an approved home study

we've downloaded the book on will's kindle and are going to start reading it aloud tonight and cannot wait to get through this next set of paperwork.

add additional info - repeat

we're getting pretty good at submitting additional information.  we got another request today for further details.  this time it was for our formal application submission from last friday.  we're very excited that they've already viewed what we turned in just a few days ago, and hope that this additional information will satisfy their requirements now. 

we feel like we've been answering the questions we were given, but apparently we have not been doing a very good job at it.  i got a little bummed when i got the message earlier today, but when husband got home we sat down and knocked it out, scanned it in, and sent it off.  hopefully we're getting pretty good at the follow-up part.

press submit!

we've struggled to get past all of the illness this week, and husband just had his first fever free day today, but we've gotten two great bits of information this week. 

the first notification from the agency was that the informational meeting we need to attend is being held april 1st.  that was a great piece of news to have because we've been wondering how to plan around a mandatory out of town meeting that we did not know the date of.  now that we know the date of the meeting we can request time off from work, make other plans for other out of town events this spring, and have the date on the calendar to look forward to. 

the second thing that came along with this was a prompting for us to finish filling out our formal application.  we were given a nudge to go ahead and submit the application  (if we were done) so that we would not miss out on the class.  we'd finished it last week, but just wanted some more time to mull things over and see if we needed to re-word anything etc.  so, after i got the nudge today we mustered up the courage to press the "Send to Bethany" button.  we definitely wanted to get the paperwork out the door, but were feeling nervous with large text fields and what they should/should not contain.  the longer we thought about it, the more we thought we had not said enough, or we'd said too much.  we told our story and feel good about the final product.  we hope to have some confirmation of acceptance past this next stage soon and will keep you posted as soon as we hear anything!

this photo was just one of our favorites from our pre-adoption photo shoot with kaitlin roten this past fall.  we thought it was perfect to say happy valentine's day, and here's to one more adoption landmark under our belts!

chapters

we got the stage 1 approval we wanted, so now where have we been?

i had to go to the headquarters for my job for a few days last week and am just getting back into the swing of things.  we started on the formal application the night we got it and will completed about 40% of the general information questions.  we left the longer more essay style questions for a time when we could mull them over and figure out exactly how to communicate what's in our hearts.  last night i sat down to answer those questions to the best of my ability and then emailed all of that to will so he could work on the formatting and making sure everything comes across as we'd hoped.

today we're putting the signed acknowledgment paper for the privacy act and the next phase of the required deposit into the mail.  we hope to continue to work on the formal application online and get it submitted by week's end.  the office confirmed that the next informational seminar (which is technically the next step) is not until spring, so we will just hang tight and wait for the next step once we get this online application completed.

in other news - i had to get rid of my beloved 2000 vw jetta last night.  the car was due for its state inspection and 16 codes appeared when the mechanic ran the diagnostics to figure out why the check engine light was on.  i'd always loved the car (since before i even owned it) and purchased it for myself as a graduation present from college.  i took it to the local vw dealership to be sure that it's fate was decided, and they confirmed the worst.

my parents told me it was a lemon after all of the trouble i had with it.  i ended up having to get an additional warranty to cover about $8000 worth of repairs that were done from 2001 - 2004.  but - it was my car - my first car.  i was so happy when i paid it off and i figured i would have it until i ran it into the ground.  i just never knew that would happen so soon.  when the repairs to get the car to pass the inspection totaled over $1600 we knew we had better cut our losses. 

admittedly i cried on the way to carmax last night, but then the more i thought about it i knew it was an end to an era.  the next car i drive will be one designed around children - child safety - ease of getting strollers into/out of the car - and places to put all of a child's things.  we decided to not take on an additional car payment until after our placement has occurred and will's parents are being so kind as to loan us one of their cars until that happens.  then, when we're financially able we will go out and get the perfect family car.  (i just hope it has blue dashboard lights, a moon roof, and leather seats.)

some happies

this photo was taken in june of 2008. 

it was the second time we found out that we were pregnant.  we took a million tests, all of which confirmed the same thing, and we were so giddy happy we could not hardly contain ourselves.

we feel this exact same way right now.

we just got word from Bethany today that our initial application was processed!  with this approval into the portal came a list of what is next - YAHOO!  and we can now begin gathering data to fill out our formal application.  we could not be happier!

the latest email says that "our" social worker will be reaching out to us to discuss our next steps.  (don't you just like the sound of that?)  we're so excited to be in this phase of the process!  we are floating on air!

hallelujah

we've officially begun the adoption process! 

after a year of seeking, researching, chatting, reading blogs, friending "strangers" on the internet, and submerging ourselves in God's plan - we've finally reached a milestone.  today was the day when we took or initial application to the post office.

we requested the paperwork back in july, but felt we were just not ready to decide which agency we were going with.  after further research and connections with fellow adopters who were working with Bethany Christian Services, we decided they were the agency we'd like to go with.  we're very happy with their work with the expectant parent(s) and feel like their mission is aligned with ours - to find the baby that God wants us to parent.  we know now that we needed the additional four months to get to the right spot on our journey and we can both tell you that we are SO READY to be PARENTS!

it did not take us very log to get this stage of the paperwork completed.  however, i tried to be extra diligent in requesting doctor's letters etc. for any questions that we answered affirmatively on the initial paperwork regarding our medical conditions etc.  we are hoping that the more diligent that we are initially, the faster this process will go.  only time shall tell!

we'll keep you posted with each step, but at this point we're just stoked to have gotten the first set of paperwork into the mail, and to really be in the works!

this is our packet of papers for the initial application.

this is the special padded mailer we purchased to ensure our photo and papers would arrive safely.

here we are!  right before going in the post office to get this paperwork into the hands of the mail carrier!

here we go!