Hot, Hot, Hot

105, that's how hot it was last weekend as I visited with some close friends for the weekend. I don't know what we would do without airconditioning.

I sent my I800-A paperwork in last Tuesday. I know it takes at least a month for that to be processed, but again I am feeling anxious. Have I made the right choice this time. There are so many unknowns in this process. I'm glad that I have other things to keep me busy.
I planted some tomato plants on my back porch this summer. They are just starting to have little flowers and tomatos. Everything looks good. Also, I have green beans that are spreading everywhere. I think that I have been successful this summer in securing the fence around the plants. We'll see in a few weeks, if the deer and groundhogs stay out.

Home study is ready!!!

I received my homestudy in the mail from my agency on Saturday. It looks great. Tomorrow morning I will send in the I800-A application. The wait begins. Things are beginning to fall into place. I finally was able to get an appointment for the psychological evaluation. That was the hardest of all, because no one in Pittsburgh seemed to understand why I needed an evaluation. Every place I called said that they didn't think they could do it.
Also this week I am starting to clean out my last bedroom to redecorate. I hope to get everything done before school starts again. I need to take pictures of every room in the house for the dossier and I want to show all the bedrooms. So much to do.....so little time.

The Beginning

Well, here begins my incredible journey to adopt one or two children from the beautiful country of Costa Rica. It has been a long, frustrating, emotional, devastating ride to get to this point. I'm sure the ride will be just as eventful from this point on. I want to begin by thanking everyone who has stood by me, encouraged me, held me up, even though they may not have known it, while I have struggled with this process. Being single has its perks, as some would say, however, adoption is not an easy task to accomplish.
I began this journey in August 2006 at an information meeting with a nationally known adoption agency. Everything seemed perfect, too good to be true. Let's get started. As many of you know, I was in for a big surprise and a big hole in my pocket.
I have looked at international and domestic and the foster-to-adopt system to the point where I just don't believe at times that this will really happen, ever. However, being more positive, I am where I need to be. I know, God has a plan. He never gives you more than you can handle. I'm ready God, bring it on, please.
After a very disappointing relationship with my first agency, that resulted in my dossier being sent back from Kazakhstan, for whatever reason that seemed strange, I was slow to get going again. I looked into the very expensive and potentially never happen side of domestic adoption. Everybody was nice and all, but kept saying "it takes time, a long time for a birthmother to select a family." Be patient. I also looked into the foster-to-adopt system. I actually had a couple of interviews for sibling groups of children, but never chosen as a family.(Single)
Which brings me to the present. I have chosen, I believe, a wonderful, reputable agency to complete an international adoption. I am still in the gathering of documents phase, but my homestudy has been approved and notarized. I will be sending it to the USCIS as soon as I receive it back from the agency, next week, I hope. From there, I will gather everything else for my dossier and be ready to get things apostiled from my state.
I am trying to not be too anxious, but I want to hurry things along. I have gone through this process before and I know that it takes forever sometimes for paperwork to sort out.
I think that is enough to share for my first post. I am hopeful that I can continue and learn how to manipulate the blog so as to make it interesting. Again, thanks everyone.