The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Tom Petty had it right…waiting is hard!
Our dossier…all 106 pages…made it to Ukraine earlier this week and was submitted to the Ukrainian government yesterday! So exciting!

So now literally there is nothing we can do but wait on our travel dates. Based on what our agency has told us and posts I’ve seen on a Ukraine adoption group, we’re thinking/hoping we’ll get to go sometime in July and meet the next Bailey!

I’m trying to soak up these weeks of summer with Tanner and Hadley…knowing that soon our family dynamic will change! At the same time I can’t help but wonder when we’ll get to travel and meet the little boy on the other side of the world that’s soon going to become a Bailey! Tanner and Hadley ask almost daily when we’re going to get their new brother. We have lots of conversations about what they think he’s going to like (Hadley is convinced he’s going to like Paw Patrol and Star Wars) and they argue over who he’s going to have a slumber party with (they both want him to sleep in their room!). Tanner’s pulled out one of his children’s Bibles to send with us when we go.

It’s definitely getting real and we’re just praying that little guy’s heart is being prepared to join our family. It’s so exciting, but heartbreaking at the same time to think that we’ll be taking him from everything familiar to him and all he’s ever really known. I’m so anxious to get to know him and I sure hope he’s ready for a very excited brother and sister! I’m so ready to know for sure who the little guy will be joining our family…hopefully next month!!!

T-shirts and Homeland Security

Last week ended up being a HUGE week! We had our homeland security fingerprints last Tuesday and launched our t-shirt fundraiser. It was so encouraging getting texts, Facebook messages and emails with people wanting to help bring Bailey kiddo #3 home! We’re still taking orders through this weekend for sure, so let us know if you want one! :-) 

Adult tshirts and tanks are $20, kid tshirts are $15...and $5 shipping if you need it. These are the nicer, soft tshirts so will be great for summer! If you want one, just text or email me (kalibailey28 @ yahoo.com).

After the emotional up and down of the previous few weeks, I was ok going back into “work” mode to get the last few steps done for our dossier. Then on Wednesday afternoon, I got a text from our agency’s director. That’s all I can say because of the way the system in Ukraine works (ie you can't share pictures) but it ended up being a really good weekend and I’m ready to get on an airplane soon! :-) 

God reminded me that His thoughts are not my thoughts and His ways are not my ways! We’re trusting that and have such a peace! Much of the weekend was spent thinking about future kiddo…what he’s doing, what his story is, what he likes to play with… and how long until we get to actually meet him! We spent dinner Sunday talking about different names with the kids…Tanner is quite excited about “helping” pick out a name and Hadley insists she already knows his name. I can’t wait to see all 3 of them playing together!

We went to the lake house this weekend and came home Monday morning. I had planned to email USCIS on Tuesday to check in and ask if we’d been assigned a case worker…at the earliest, absolute best case scenario, I thought we still had at least 2 weeks before we got our 171H (the last form needed for our dossier to go to Ukraine). The thought of the 171H already being done never even crossed my mind-it hadn’t even been a week since our fingerprint appointment. But when I went to get the mail, there was a Homeland Security envelope on top. I was in denial-no way this was IT! I opened it up and had to read through it twice (and email it to our agency to confirm) to believe it. But YES-we were approved 2 days after our fingerprints and got the letter 2 days after that! That’s 3.5 weeks from submission to done…record time! Go God!

So it’s headed to Austin for an apostille and then to our agency so that the ENTIRE dossier can go to Ukraine! It looks like we might get to take our first trip in July!!! Wahoo!