And the paper chase begins...

I have decided to send my application to my chosen adoption agency, Little Miracles, this week. It's a good week to do so, as I hit the $5,000 fundraising milestoe this week. Also, my boss will be on vacation this week so it will be quiet around the office and I will have time to fill in the paperwork.

In this first round of information gathering, the paperwork is pretty basic. Basic information and personal facts history including (but not limited to) work info, income, social security and passport numbers, pictures of adoptive family, education, preliminary questions about criminal history (there will be a conprehensive FBI chck and fingerprinting at a later date), preliminary health statement, child preferences (here you check if you would consider specific developmental issues, handicaps, health challenges and even things like whether you would consider a multi-racial child), statement on how you plan to pay for the adoption, as well as a financial breakdown of assests and debts.

So, this is an exciting week. I chose Little Miracles International (LMI) because they have a very successful track record with Kazakhstan adoptions and the are extremely well-regarded aong the single adoptive mothers I have found through networking in various yahoo groups. Through one of these groups I even found a woman aroudn my age who is also adopting from Kaz and she only lives 20 minutes away! So that is very exciting. She is much further along in the process than I am, but it is nice to have someone to bounce questions off of. It will also be great for our kids to know one another.

Another amazing thing I found out this week is that there is a week-long camp every summer for children adopted from Kazakhstan and their parents in Moultonborough, NH which is just a couple of miles from here! During this camp, everyone has the chance to learn about Kazakhstani culture, language and history. It's very exciting to have such a rich culture experience right at my doorstep. As a cultural trainer, I personally find it of utmost importance to understand the country and culture my children is coming to me from. Hopefully she will be interested in knowing about her birth culture as well. If you want to learn more about this camp or about Kazakh-Aul, the organization that runs it, visit http://www.kazakh-aul-us.org/Activities.htm

With that, it's time to go. I have 21 (!!!) amazon orders to send and my dog treats should arrive today or tomorrow so I need to set up the materials to deal with those sales too. I hope this blog entry finds you happy and well.