I know why they call it a journey....

I've been spending lots of time reading adoption info and family blogs to read about other families experiences and they always refer to it as their "adoption journey".  I totally get it now.  Sam and I had our orientation meeting at CCAI, our adoption agency, this week. A 2-1/2 hour meeting that was complete information overload. We had a bunch of paperwork to collect before going to this meeting and I thought that was a lot of work but that was hardly nothing compared to what is to come. They reviewed all the paperwork we would have to complete, the home study process, visiting the immigration office, getting our physical exams, and so much more. They also talked to us a lot about our trip to China which was both very exciting and a little bit scary.

Describing it as a journey is the perfect word for what we will be going through.  Not only a physical journey of collecting paperwork, meetings, and training but an emotional journey as well as we struggle with knowing our little guy is out there and we can't bring him home yet. They told us if everything moves along smoothly we would be traveling in about 9 months to get our son.

It's making me a little sad to think there is a boy who will be our son very soon living on the other side of the world and we are having to spend Christmas away from him. I just hope wherever he is they are taking good care of him and he is getting loved on.

For now we are setting up our first meetings with our social worker for our home study and gathering paperwork and waiting for our agency to call us with a match.  Merry Christmas!