Adoption Timeline

Below is our adoption timeline so far

December 2006 - First discussions about having a third child vs. international adoption

February 2008 - After a little over a year, we once again started talking about growing our family. This time, however, it was abundantly clear to us both that we would pursue international adoption!

March 1st - My parents keep the boys so that TheDentist and I could go out to eat. We also stopped by Barnes & Nobles and bought our first book on international adoption.

March 3rd - After reading and skimming the entire book over the weekend, TheDentist and I have decided that Baby Emma is in Russia waiting for us to bring her home!

March 4th - TheDentist and I decide to use Carolina Adoption Services (CAS) as our agency since they are based in Greensboro. We downloaded the adoption application online and completed it.

March 6th - Our application arrived at CAS. We also mailed the I-600A application to the USCIS office in Charlotte.

March 10th - Ordered a custom sterling silver necklace from JUNKPOSSE. It is so awesome - see above! It has EMMA across the front, and it says "Born in my heart" on the back.

March 19th - CAS called, and they have approved our application to adopt from Russia! YEAH!

March 27th - All of our homestudy documents were delivered to CAS so that we can be assigned a social worker.

April 18th - First meeting with the social worker in the office to start our homestudy. Afterwards, TheDentist and I had updated passport photos taken! When we arrived home, we had received our "fingerprinting" appointment notifications.

April 19th - TheDentist and I went to a CAS sponsored event to meet the Russian Coordinator from Moscow! Great experience!

April 21st - My father unexpectedly passed away today! How heartbreaking for my family. We were all so devastated and in a state of shock.

April 30th - I had my individual appointment with the social worker.

May 1st - Federal fingerprinting appointment

May 2nd - I had my adoption physical, and TheDentist had his individual appointment with the social worker. Today was also our 10th anniversary!

May 9th - TheDentist's physical and the home visit from the social worker so that she could tour our house and meet the boys.

May 30th - Our final visit with the social worker! YEAH!

June 30th - After preparing dossier paperwork, our good friend came over to notarize all of our documents. We have to have two complete sets for Russia.

July 11th - After meeting with our agency coordinator, we were able to Fed-Ex our dossier packet to the NC Secretary of State's office for apostilling.

July 21st - Our dossier was returned to us and was ready!!!

July 24th - I hand-delivered our dossier to CAS and paid the remaining fee. WOW! We completed our dossier in just under two months.

August 26th - We know that our packet made it to Moscow. CAS has informed us that it had been forwarded for translation!

Now it is completely out of our hands. I plan on calling CAS next week to check on our status!

Our Story

First of all, let me say that I am new to the concept of blogging! What a great opportunity though to journal and tell the story of how our family will be growing from a family of four to a family of FIVE...

Our story truly began May 2, 1998. On this beautiful day, TheDentist and I were married in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – one of the most special places in the world to us. I had just finished pharmacy school, and TheDentist was starting his third year of dental school. Looking back it’s amazing how young we were and how we had the whole world at our fingertips. Two years later, TheDentist graduated and was commissioned into the US Navy as a dental officer, and we moved to Camp LeJeune. We were blessed with our two sons, (seven and five) while we spent those three years in the military. In May 2003, TheDentist separated from the Navy and joined a dental practice closer to my hometown. As the years passed and our children grew from infants to toddlers to young boys, we felt very strongly that our family was complete. What more could we possibly ask for or need? Well, the desire for a baby girl is stronger than one may imagine!!! From my first memories of growing up and having children, I’ve always wanted a daughter. I did not know when or how this was going to happen, but it’s just something that I always felt in my heart. In December 2006, we first began talking about another child. At that time, our oldest was in Kindergarten, and our youngest still had a year and a half in preschool. The timing was just not right so we put these thoughts of a daughter on hold. After Christmas this year, however, the time was right! It was as if our plan had been laid out before our eyes by the Lord. There were no questions or what ifs this time – we just knew what to do…adopt! It didn’t take us long to decide that Russia is the country where our little girl is waiting for us. We chose Carolina Adoption Services as our agency at the beginning of March 2008, and we haven’t slowed down yet!.