We have a date !!

I work in a school, our last day was June 1st, so I have been enjoying lazing around at home for a few days now !!   As always happens, it takes me a little time to get out of the habit of waking up early - so last Friday, waking up at around 8:30am was a luxury !!  When I got up, I wandered around, got some breakfast, then glanced - without my reading glasses - at my cell phone, to see if I had missed anything - only to see a blurry text, and a couple more notifications I couldn't read - other than thinking I could see the name "Nancy".

Nancy is one of the most important people in our adoption process !!

Nancy is with Hand of Help inAdoption - she helps us through every single step of the adoption process, and without her I don't think this would have even been possible !!

Oh - and Nancy is the one who calls you to tell you your travel dates.

Yes - the travel dates we have been waiting for.

Yes, she called me  - and I was asleep ! 

Once I'd found my glasses, I saw that she had messaged me, called me, and left a voice mail - to which I immediately responded (once my hands had stopped shaking and my vision had cleared LOL)

WE HAVE A DATE  !!!

Yes - we have an appointment at the adoption office in our boys country on

JULY 3RD AT 10AM  !!!!!

Once I had recovered from the excitement, and let my husband know, I contacted a couple of travel agencies who offer humanitarian rates for adoptive families.  The advantage of this is that the rates are cheaper, they have the ability to get/change flights at short notice, and there is an increased baggage allowance !  I contacted two agencies - Golden Rule and Adoption Airfares.  I had already read a little about them both, and know families who had used both, so I knew they were both reputable and easy to work with.

I told them our dates - I was hoping to travel on my birthday, June 30th, but flights were cheaper by several hundred the following day, so we will fly out on July 1st !

Another issue with adoption flights is that once we are in country, the time line is uncertain - we don't know how long we'll be there, as everything will be out of our hands - so we have to book one way flights. 

 For this trip, our 15 year old son Newt will be traveling with us - so for 3 one way flights it is costing us $2913.  Thankfully, because we have a grant with Reece's Rainbow,  the travel agency was able to bill them directly, which made things easier ! :)  

We will arrive in country on the afternoon of July 2nd, and will have our appointment the following morning - this is when we will, all being well, be able to view Vijay and Athens' files at the adoption office - and tell them that yes, we want to go and meet them !   

There is a possibility that they will give us the OK the same day - if this happens, we will jump on an overnight train to their region (they are quite a long way from the capital city) - and get to meet them the following day - July 4th !!!

We're not sure how long we will be there - different orphanages have different rules as to how often you need to visit before you can say YES - so we'll just have to play it by ear.

Once we do say YES, there will be some paperwork to deal with, then we will fly home, and wait for news of the court date, which will be trip # 2.

I just cannot wait to see our boys !!!!