Possibilities

As we moved closer to closing out 2008 it seemed as if time was slowing down and taking us in for a rest. Well at least it did for about 10 minutes.

Our current family journey began in November of 2007 when we decided, all three of us, that expanding our family would include a new family member through Adoption. Who knew at that time what actually lay ahead. Deciding to adopt was an easy decision for us. When I try and explain it to others we simply say "We have room in our hearts and our home."

We explored all the alternatives, well most. Africa is too new and we did not want to go into this without a degree of certainty. China has long waits that looked like 3 years when we enquired a year ago but now are about 5 years. So we settled on Russia. This was not without the typically Tom and Amanda discussions to and throwing, debate and finally acceptance on both parts. I keep telling Amanda that 2 years from now we can look to Africa. One thing at a time.

After many seminars, poking and proding by our social worker and countless hours of decisioning we made our way into December believing that there would be no news until January with the possibility of travel in February. Well fate took its turn and we were offered a referral on December 8 2008. A wonderful little girl in Birobidjan, Russia. Yes that is in Siberia! 

For months I have been chuckling about taking Amanda to Siberia in winter. Average daily temperatures of -23 Celsius.

While for the two of us this is still not done, we have been very humbled by the joy that has been shown to us by many of our friends. The offers of helping with Kaelan while we are away on trip 1 and just the fellowship, care and love thrown our way. Blessings that we are fortunate to receive and added proof that adding a blessing to our family will only multiply as the days go by.

We leave on January 18, 2009.

We decided on a blog so that we can keep you all up to date on our possibilities as we venture out and as well have a journal that can be added to the life book once we begin to put it together.

So beyond the travel date where are we? Well, once we arrive in Birobidjan we will have 3 days with our referral. This time is used to make a final decision on moving forward. Neither of us can fathom what could get in the way however we have read enough to still maintain caution and be open to all the possibilities that present themselves to us while we are there. We will keep you all up to date. There is an Internet cafe that we can use to update the blog and will be taking our laptop with us to hopefully include pictures of our adventure. We will not be including any pictures of our referral until she becomes officially part of our family.

So next, a name has to be chosen. Not an easy task for us. Heck, it took us 2 days to name Kaelan after she was born and we had much more time to figure that one out! Suffice it to say that we have pretty much settled on 2 things. 1. Keep her Russian name for a middle name and 2. Give her an Irish first name. Thus connecting her to her roots and to her new family's heritage too.

Also I am trying my best to learn basic Russian words that we can say while there and hopefully grow our vocabulary too.

So on the first day of 2009, we have started our blog to capture our adventure and to share our new possibilities.