Paper Trails...

One thing you can do easily with adoption paperwork is to find out when and where and what you were doing on any given day. It leaves quite a paper trail to follow years later.

For example, just over three years ago Wendy and I drove to Birmingham on a Sunday afternoon to attend an adoption seminar presented by Villa Hope International Adoptions (our home study agency). During that meeting Wendy and I were convinced we were called to adopt from Russia.

Just over three years to the day later, we got a call from our placement agency informing us to travel to Moscow for our second adoption. Trip one begins October 27, 2007.

So -- what did we do on October 27, 2004? We completed, signed, and had witnessed, the initial application with Villa Hope that officially launched our journey that led to Jason Alexei's adoption. Exactly three years later we will be on an airplane to meet his soon-to-be sister. Funny how that works.

We are thrilled to be going back to Moscow. The prospect of a Siberian trip with the unfamiliarity, the extra flight legs, and the COLD was something we would have preferred to avoid. It will be great going to a city we sort of know and are comfortable with. Working with our agency's staff in Moscow and the Russian government officials is also a known quantity.

Best of all, I think it will be great that years down the line Jason Alexei and little sister will be able to both point to the same area on the map and share that same place.

The rules of the blog will be the same as Jason's adoption. We will try to balance keeping everyone informed with maintaining privacy. There will be no pictures of our referral until we get custody of her on trip #3. We will share as much as we can when we can. It is truly amazing how easy it is to stay connected with everyone during these trips. We will weigh on you for support as well.

There is so much more to do and say, but we are really looking forward to this! More later!