Love the Aussies!

We have been truely blessed, lucky and incredibly fortunate to have met the people we have because of the crazy process known as adoption.

For instance, wonderful Jen put me in touch with a woman in Austraila, Sharon, who with her husband, previously adopted their two boys from the same orphanage that Frank is in. Long story short, they visit close to every year and this year they saw Frank!!! This incredible family goes to the orphanage to bring gifts and donations and to love on the children that are still waiting for their time to be adopted. She called from Songkhla to let us know that he is healthy and adorable and has a little sparkle of mischief in his eyes. They took photos of him with their boys so that we could see how big he has gotten...boy has he gotten tall! I wish I could share the photos with everyone in the world right now, he is absolutely gorgeous!!! The most special gift that Sharon gave to him (and us) though was a big hug and a whisper of love from his mommy and daddy.


So the wait continues...but now we wait with new photos and images of our little one running around with Khye and Jaxin and while most likely confused for a few minutes, hopefully knowing deep down how many people from literally around the world, already love him.


I can't even begin to explain how much it means to John and I that your family from the other side of the world that we have yet to have the pleasure to meet in person, did all of this for us. Thank you so incredibly much Sharon, Darren, Khye and Jaxin!

Happy Birthday To Me!

So I am sitting at my desk on Friday afternoon at work, having the most frustrating circular conversation with a customer when I hear the door bell ring. I think nothing of this as we have customers stopping by all the time. Then through the crack between two cubes I see John! What a lovely surprise, he must be coming to have cake with us...and then I hear it, the unmistakable-most-infectious-laugh-ever of one of my oldest and closest friends, Kristi!!! They had conspired for her to fly into Nashville from Los Angeles that afternoon and I had NO idea! We had the most fantastic weekend talking, laughing, crying, dancing and just spending time together. Since we live on complete opposite sides of the country it is difficult to get together frequently but even short weekends with such an incredible friend really reinforce just how lucky I am to have people like her in my life. Thanks Kristi, I had such a great time with you and hopefully it won't be another two years before we get together again!



No news on the adoption front, still going full steam ahead and hopeful we will travel by the end of the year! Promise to keep you updated...


I completely forgot to bring my camera with me all weekend so I am adding one from a few years ago, luckily we have not aged a bit and still look young and fabulous :)

IT'S A BOY!!!!

Hi Everyone! Well here is why we went private with our blog...
We had enquired about a specific waiting child a few months ago and we waited for I think about two months just to hear if it was still possible to adopt him or if someone else had already adopted him. I will save you the boring details but we finally found out about two weeks ago that he had not been adopted yet and that his file was pulled for us! Now the Thai social worker will go through his paperwork and make sure that everything is in order on his end and present us to the board for the official "referral". Once that happens and we send in our letter of intent and acceptance the board is presented with it again and then we wait for our invitation to travel. We could be asked to travel anytime from during the holidays to shortly after the first of the year. I am planning on the holidays - Merry Christmas to all of us!!! The only thing we can't do yet is share his photo with everyone until we receive the "referral". As soon as we can though we will let you know. John and I have been getting the house together and trying to get rid of random things that we don't need anymore to make room for our little guy and trying to get his room ready for him. We were able to find a dresser on Craigslist that is absolutely perfect; it was already painted for a little boys room in light and dark blue. I hope you all are well and we will now be able to update this more regularly as things progress. We both love and miss you guys and hope that everyone is doing well!
Love,
John and Nancy

Going Private

Hi Everyone! Well as John and I move through this whole crazy process we have decided to make our blog private. Since this is our first adoption and we are not sure of every detail of what is acceptable or not and we are learning as we go, we don't want anything we say or do jeopardize bringing our child home. We will keep this open for a few more days so that we can get in touch with everyone that we know checks this regularly. For those that we don't know, please send us an email and we will be more than happy to send you the invite link to continue following along. You can send an email to nanner1998@yahoo.com I love seeing all of the different countries represented of our visitors and really hope that continues; so please all of you get in touch with us so that we can get to know you too! We are sorry that we have to do this but just feel that it is in the best interest of our child and our family, thank you for understanding! Hope all is well with you and your loved ones and we hope to hear from you soon!
Love,
John and Nancy

We Have a Secret To Share

So, about a month or so ago, the social worker from WACAP went to Thailand with a few of her colleagues and had the opportunity to meet many little ones that are waiting for their families to find them. They brought back photos and videos and information on all of them. Once they were back in the States and sorted out all of the information, we received some info in the mail. Now this next part may not sound quite right, but I unfortunately have to leave out a lot of info until things are a bit more definite. But...as it stands right now we are patiently (ok that is a total lie!) very impatiently waiting to hear if a specific child is still available for adoption!!! It has been two weeks and one day since we inquired about this child and we were really hoping to have something more concrete to share., instead we need to ask for your help. Please keep us and this little one (I promise to give more details as soon as we can!!!) in your thoughts, prayers, chants, meditations, etc, that we will know in the near future what is in store for all of us and we can introduce all of you to the newest member of our family! Most of you who know me know that I am not the most patient person and I have slight control issues; I said slight...So preparing for the whole waiting portion of this process was something that I came to terms with long ago. However, we were prepared to wait for documents to be translated from English to Thai (not an easy or quick task I am sure) and to wait for said documents to travel around the world. I was not prepared to wait this long for an answer to a yes or no question. On the plus side, a couple that is adopting from Thailand and whose blog we have been following is in Thailand right now preparing to meet their son for the first time and bring him home!!! I am thrilled to pieces for them and love being able to see the path that we will be going down soon as well. Another bonus is the fantastic adoption community as a whole. I have never "met" such a supportive and encouraging group of people in any situation. There is always someone around to explain why things are happening the way they are and to show photos of their families with children from all over the world as proof that there is certainly a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I have to run...it is Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Series after all...what? I am from Detroit and have been on the edge of my seat through this whole first period so far; not as badly as two nights ago for Game 5...Triple overtime?!?!? GO WINGS!!! Anyway, I hope this finds all of you and your loved ones well and hopefully we will have some very exciting news to share soon. One last thing, I have noticed how many people have visited this blog and would love to hear from you either in the comments or feel free to email us! Take care and we will be in touch soon!
Love,
Nancy and John

Moving Along

Hi Everyone! Sorry it has been a while since our last post, we have been very busy with all things adoption and with being home owners. On the home front, we noticed a small water mark on the ceiling after the third of the horrific storms that came through town, but did not think too much of it. A long story short, we have to get a new roof. Add this to the carpet that we had to have replaced because our lovely puppy Ruby decided to rip it up and eat it as a snack one day, and it is starting to feel like we are in a brand new house! On the adoption front we have made great strides this week. Our home study was completed, notarized and sent to WACAP and USCIS. John and I also worked very hard and we collected almost all of our dossier paperwork this week. There are only three forms left and we will get those next week and send them off! Then the hardest part begins, we wait. Now I know some of you know me quite well and others simply know of this adventure, but I am not a patient person...by any means. Every store that we walk through or a children's commercial comes on TV, I want to run out and start buying clothes, toys, books, anything for our child. Unfortunately, we don't know how big they are, what age or even what gender. All of that makes it very difficult to shop properly! Also, on Friday afternoon, we got the final confirmation that we are officially in the Thailand program!!! So that is where we are now. Thank you all for your continued support, we really don't know how we would be getting through this without all of the kind words you pass our way. I hope all of you are doing well and love hearing from you. One last thing, Julie, I would love to see your blog, I am keeping my fingers crossed for you and cannot wait to hear about the trip! Take care everyone, hopefully we will hear from more of you soon!
Love,
John and Nancy

A Little Bit Closer

Hello Everyone!
We want to let everyone know that John's Grandma Angie is feeling much better and is back in her own home again! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, we all really appreciate it.
On the adoption front, we had our fingerprints done this week. It was actually really neat, they did not use ink but instead they wet our fingertips down and then pushed them over a screen that was in fact a scanner! It obviously does not take much to impress me :) !!! On Friday morning, I checked our email and found our home study waiting for us! We read through it and made a few changes and then it was off to our placement agency for review. Also, the director of the Thailand program is back in the States and hopefully I will be able to get in touch with her on Monday and get an update on the program and all of the little kiddos! I have to run, we are trying to paint the baby's room and to say "that home improvement is a new world to us" is a vast understatement...Hope you have a great weekend and we will talk to you soon.
Love,
John and Nancy

One Step Closer...

Good Evening Everyone!
First off, John's Grandma Angie is ill and while she is on the mend, I would like to ask everyone to keep this very special woman in your thoughts and prayers.
This week John and I had our home visit with the home study social worker. We scrubbed the house for 10 straight days, you could literally eat off of any surface in our house! Even Ruby's crate is spotless. Did the visit last long enough to warrant the amount of detergent and cleanser that we used? Probably not, but the meeting was nice and quick and now we are one step closer. The next step is to wait for our completed home study which hopefully should be early next week and then we continue to work on collecting our paperwork for the dossier. The program director at the placing agency is in Thailand right now meeting the children and collecting information on any new children. How crazy is it that it is somewhat feasible that she has met our child?!?! When I think about it in those terms, I just want to stay up all night painting the baby's room and buying every toy and book I can find online!
Speaking of books, my mom found a life book for us that is hands down the cutest thing ever. As I learned more about life books vs. traditional baby books and I could not find one that really seemed right. I started to panic thinking that we would have to make one ourselves and then I really thought about our lack of artistic...well, anything! So thankfully my mom found exactly what I had in my head!
We are off to fill out more paperwork (can't wait until that is not an everyday sentence!) and hope that everyone is doing well.
Love,
John and Nancy

Fingerprinting!!!

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone had a Happy Easter and a relaxing weekend. We received some good news in the mail this weekend...we received our fingerprinting dates!!! In two weeks John and I will go down and have our fingerprints taken and send them off to USCIS! One more step closer...We have our home visit tonight so I will update again later. Have a good day everyone!
Love,
Nancy

Happy Birthday Uncle Chuck!

Just wanted to tell you to have a wonderful day Uncle Chuck. We will be starting on the "Deep Clean of 2008" in our house this weekend in preparation of the home visit. You would think that since we have been living in our house for a year and a half we would not still have things in boxes...Hope you all have a great weekend and if we receive news on anything, we will be sure to pass it along!
Love,
Nancy and John

March 13, 2008

Hi Everyone! I hope that everyone received the email with this link OK. Thank you Mr. B for passing it on for us! We have made some progress. According to the Hague regulations we have to take 10 hours of adoptive parenting classes before our home study is considered complete. We were unable to attend the classes in person through our home study agency so we opted for online classes. Last Saturday, we sat in front of our computer and moved fairly quickly through the first class. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and decided we could do one more. Well, needless to say, 6 hours later we were rubbing our eyes but completely done with all of the classes! On Tuesday of this week, we received our certificates of completion and we passed them on to the placement agency. One more thing we can cross off our list. So that is where we stand right now. I am so happy to hear from all of you again, it is lovely to catch up properly and hear how all of your lives are going! Talk to you soon.
Love,
Nancy and John

The Begining

Hello everyone! So I guess I should start with a little background info. John and I have always planned on adopting one of our children; we thought after a biological one. But life had a different plan for us and we are just running with it. So, after months of research and scouring the Internet and calling agencies across the country we finally made a few decisions. Yes I know that our parents have heard that many times in the last 6 months (!) but we really have this time. We feel that our child is in Thailand!!! Every time we would look through all of the country options we just kept coming back to Thailand. One of the requirements is a minimum two year marriage though, and at the time we started this, that seemed to be a VERY long time away. So we kept researching and calling and requesting info and what do you know, our anniversary is right around the corner now. We are having our home study done by an agency here in Nashville and our placement agency is in Washington. So far we have filled out a TON of papers, forms and questionnaires. Our home visit is in two weeks, so basically we need to start cleaning now! After that, our social worker will put everything together and it will become our "Home Study". That will be shipped off to Washington and we begin to work on our dossier. The dossier is a collection of our home study, background checks, more forms, photos, reference letters, etc...We have also recently sent in a form to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to petition to adopt and it was preliminarily approved! Now we wait a few weeks until we receive our invitation to get fingerprinted. Whew...So that is where we are. We know this is not the most personal way to communicate with everyone, but we know how busy everyone (ourselves included) is these days and we just wanted to make sure that both of our families and all of our friends are included in this. Also, this will be a great way to update everyone once we are in Thailand. It really does take a village to raise a child, and all of you are our village. We look forward to hearing from you, please feel free to call, email or post a comment whenever you feel. We love and miss you all very much and hope that everything is going well with you and your loved ones. Talk to you soon!
Love,
John and Nancy