Teeny Tiny Baby Steps

Well, the adoption is moving along, but very slowly. We were so excited to see the e-mail message from our agency on Friday that we could AT LAST download our new dossier guide. There are several documentational requirements that have changed since our last go 'round. We've been waiting for weeks for the agency to give us a copy of the newest guide so we could get moving on some things. However, when I went to print it out, I found the website was down. It is STILL down 2 days later. Oh well! I keep saying to myself, "all in God's time," but sometimes it is hard to wait!

Yesterday we had a great time at the family cabin with the Collins family. Nikki had asked Lisa if she would be willing to try her hand at senior pictures so that she could have them done in this specialized setting. Lisa was game, so we all went up for a photo shoot and picnic. Lisa had the great idea that along with Nikki's pictures, we might as well get a few photos for our respective dossiers at the same time. So we got a start on a difficult-for-me job. Lisa takes great photos, so I'm excited to see how they turn out. AND we had a good time of fellowship at the same time. Thanks guys!

This morning we had a combination post-placement/homestudy-update visit with Myra, our social worker. This was the last part of the 6-month post for Mara that China requires and after checking in to see that Mara seems to be adjusting well she asked us questions about our next adoption. We have to do 4 of these visits for the update, one down--three to go.

So, an almost but not quite access to the dossier guide, a few dossier photographs and a homestudy update visit. Doesn't seem like much but every little bit is one step closer, even if they are tiny baby steps. We're still waiting for our CBI background report that should be coming any day now and for Jeff's birth certificate to return from Washington D.C., so that I can send it right back to Washington D.C., a different office this time, of course.

Well, there won't be much time for adoption activity this week because we're off for Disneyland in one of our crazy, Stoll, spur-of-the-moment, worst-possible-timing vacations. (Last year at this time we headed out for the Black Hills, just in time to join every biker in the country that has ever even looked fondly at a Harley.) Maybe we should work a little harder at planning ahead for these trips. But, hey, then who would you all have to make fun of and what about the value of spontaneity? Yep, we're taking a two-year-old to the Happiest Place on Earth--something we've sworn we'd never do. But we decided the desire of big people in the family to enjoy the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland outweighed the fact that we'd be doing it with a toddler in tow. We're looking forward to lots of fun, just scaled back a bit to a speed that Mara can keep up with. Hopefully, she will prove to be a wonderful traveller and good sport just like her big sisters all were.