Plane Tickets Purchased!

Plane tickets x 4 purchased.  We are flying into Honolulu a day before our scheduled flight to Majuro as I don't want any flight delays to stymie us catching our flight to Majuro, especially since there are only three flights a week!  We ended up booking the flights from Seattle to Honolulu and Honolulu to Majuro separately as it was much cheaper than buying a combined ticket through United (the only airline that flies to Majuro) and the only way to get direct flights.  United wanted us to have a layover in New Jersey, which if I'm remembering my geography correctly, is not on the way to Hawaii from Seattle!  We bought round trip tickets and will just hope that things go smoothly and we don't have to eat a bunch of change ticket fees.  It was again, much cheaper, than two one way tickets and easier than buying last minute seats for 4 people.  As was, it was hard to find seats together for such last minute ticket purchases!  Next step is to get our court paperwork notarized.  We have a travel notary coming to the house tomorrow morning.  We then need to scan this form and send it in pdf format to Adopt International so that John (the lawyer in Majuro) can submit it to the court first thing on Monday and apply for our court date. 

REALLY PACKING!!!

Oh my goodness, we got the call!  Technically got the call 5 days ago, one day after my last post, but we were out of town so I didn't post.  Had our medical consult today and got two thumbs up for a healthy child!  Sorry, no details about the baby until everything becomes official.  Waiting on our court date and travel details.  I should have started packing weeks ago when I was told to start packing!  For those of you who are on the list, be prepared to leave at any time.  We were still not family #1, #2, or #3, but the birth mom was looking for something specific and so they skipped over everybody to us.  Gotta go pack!  And shop!

Packing!

Well, we have been told TWICE now in the past two weeks that we need to start packing!  No referral yet but we've been told that it could happen any day now.  We were just given a more refined packing list which mentions no swimming suits for women.  Board shorts or swim skirt and swimming shirts over swimsuits only.  Not even a one-piece suit will fly.  Found some cute stuff on Amazon.  My skin will thank me, I'm sure.  Also no tank tops or shorts. Shoulders need to be covered as well as legs past the knees.  Now I need to dig out our baby clothes from the storage closet and start sorting by age and gender.  Since we don't know either of those two things, I'll just have to have labeled piles that I can quickly throw into a suitcase.  I was told that after we receive our referral, we have two weeks to have it reviewed by a physician and to accept or decline it, but that we should really accept within 7 days.  After we accept, they will apply for a court date, which depending on timing, could mean that we need to be in Majuro within 7 days!  So we really should be ready to be in Majuro within 2 weeks of receiving our referral.  It'll be a whirlwind couple of days but I've been assured that after that, everything just slows down to island time.  We were told we'd be updated again in mid-June unless we get a referral before then...

Moving on up!

Yeah, an update!  AI is currently matching about one family per month, which is on par with their numbers from last year.   They matched 12 babies with 12 families.  We are now family #5 on the list, which doesn't really mean a whole lot in the sense of time since there can be movement within the list.  Once we are family #1, #2, or #3, the birth mothers will be shown our photo book and family information.  If they like us, even if we're #3, we'll get a call.  On the other hand, if we are family #1, it doesn't mean that we'll get the next referral.  Out of respect for other families who might be on this list, I won't post our # again after this post.  Would not want anybody's feelings hurt if we leap frogged over them.  I am sure that there are many lovely, deserving families on the list ahead, and behind, us.  So, all that being said, we are most likely looking at an August or September referral.  Now off to plan some summer activities to make the wait go by faster!  On the plus side, we received travel information and a packing list today! It's starting to feel like this may actually happen!

Now, we patiently wait

Well, this will be our last post for a bit as there will be nothing to report for quite awhile.  We were just updated that the current wait for a referral through AI is about 6 months.  Our dossier is in and there is nothing further for us to do.  So, if you were checking back for updates, try again in about 3 months when we were told that we would get another update ourselves.  For all of those who are still on the paper chase, good luck! 

NOW dossier mailed!

The saga continues!  UPS just called to let me know that they somehow "forgot" to put all of our paperwork into our packet yesterday.  One person was trying to fit it all into an envelope, that was obviously too small, and "forgot" to pull it all out before loading it into a box.  They "found" it today, 24 hours later, and have now repackaged it and are sending it to San Francisco, at their expense.  It will now arrive about 5 hours after my other paperwork, which I had paid extra to have delivered in the morning.  Sigh.  I am now giving up on USPS, FedEx, AND UPS to handle anything of any importance. From now on, I will just hand deliver every single thing!

Dossier mailed!

Oh my goodness, it actually happened. Well, it almost didn't.  I had a mini heart attack today.  In a nutshell, this is what happened.  So, we sent everything to the state capital to be aspostilled on Friday.  They got it yesterday.  They apostilled our documents and mailed them out yesterday afternoon. I tracked our package all the way until it was "delivered" to our front porch today.  Imagine my shock, dismay, horror when I realized that FedEx did NOT deposit it on our doorstep at all!  They misdelivered it!  AGH!  No kidding!  They lost all 17 apostilled documents, including those much agonized over child abuse letters.  They had no explanation as to where the package was and no way to get a hold of the driver until his break time.  They told me that they'd call me back in 2 hours.  Nope, not happening.  I packed our 3 year old daughter into the car and we started driving the neighborhood, checking every porch and guess what, miracles do happen as I found it, about 20 minutes later on the next street over!!!  FedEx is officially on my black list!  Quickly photocopied everything, packaged it up courtesy of UPS this time, and mailed it all to California.  It is supposed to get there on Thursday.  Fingers crossed that they can read the label and deliver to the correct address!  Regardless, it is done!  Officially celebrating!