It's amazing!!

We just found out that Deborah's daughters are also at the same orphanage as Rafael!!! This just keeps getting better and better. She is hoping to travel in February or March to pick them up which is around the same time we are hoping to travel. She is from Canada as well. You gotta love it!!

A gift for us!!

Today we received the precious gift of some new photos of Rafael!!! Jenifer, a lady in the Philippine adoption Yahoo group, told me that she had just picked up her daughter at the same orphanage as Rafael just 7 weeks ago. This is so amazing!!! She had taken a few photos of Rafael and she sent them to me today. She said that she stood next to him for a few minutes and he waved and smiled at her and her husband!! What a sweet little boy!! It is also great because Jenifer can pass on all the information about his orphanage as well as hotel information. What a wonderful connection we have made!!

gifts for Rafael

Today would have been 30 months since ICAB approval. Thank goodness we didn't reach that mark!!!! Today we sent Rafael a care package with several little summer outfits, toys, books and a disposable camera for the orphanage staff to take some pictures of him. I hope that he likes all of his little gifts and I hope that he receives his package before Christmas.

We were told by our social worker that we should have a travel date in 2 - 3 months. I really hope that this is the case. It is hard to imagine that we could possibly travel by mid January. This would be the best case scenario however so most likely we won't travel until February or March. I then get almost 9 months off which will allow lots of time for bonding with Rafael.

We've already requested an update on Rafael because I'm sure that he has changed alot since the photo that was taken the end of July. It would be wonderful to see what he looks like now and to hear what he is doing.

The next job is to start his room. We haven't even started it yet so we have alot to do!!!! We'd better soon get started.

It's a boy!!!!!!

It's official. After 29.5 months of waiting, we are now the proud parents of a 12.5 month old little boy named Rafael!!!!!!!!!!! We are on cloud nine and a half!!!! We actually got the e-mail while we were on our cruise in the Bahamas. It was quite surreal at the time as you can imagine!!! We just got home 1:05 am yesterday morning and we met with our social worker at 8:30 that morning. We had his file reviewed by a pediatrician and then today we signed the acceptance papers. Hopefully everything will be forwarded to ICAB by the end of the week and then it's onto the next part of the wait.
We recieved one photo of him and he is just adorable!!!!!!!!! His birthday is October 25th, 2009 and our social worker e-mailed us on the 29th of October. I'm really hoping that it will only be a 3-4 month wait from here. My fingers and toes are crossed!!!!! I still can't believe that it finally happened to us. I'm really hoping an praying for all you who are still waiting. IT WILL HAPPEN!!!!!

Renee
Mom to Rafael

Four years

It was four years ago yesterday that we initially decided to adopt. It wasn't until that December that we started the paperwork and we took the two months in between to do our research and decide on a country. We had initially decided on China since there have been so many adoptions from there here in Newfoundland, but after 6 months we realized that the program there was rapidly slowly down. We then settled on Thailand or the Philippines and I spoke to a few people who had adopted from both of these countries. We ended up choosing the Philippines and we are so glad that we did. We've met so many nice families along the way.

29 months

Another month down! There have been no new referrals in the Yahoo group in several weeks but I did hear of two referrals for families outside the group who had both waited 27 - 29 months so you would think that our turn should be coming soon. You would think.....

We leave in 12 days for our vacation so we're really looking forward to that. We haven't taken vacation time since April so we are both very ready for a break from work!!

A little bit of news

I've heard from a few Yahoo friends that their agencies were in contact with ICAB and ICAB said that there are 50 families approved in 2008 who are still waiting to be matched. Of course we are one of those waiting families. ICAB supposedly are hoping to have those 50 families matched by the end of the year. Now whether this actually happens is another thing. I'm hoping that all those families, us included, are matched by Christmas. How wonderful would that be!!

My birthday was on Monday and I was really hoping that we would have heard on that day, but of course the call didn't come. Maybe our telephone is broken (ha, ha, ha, ha!!). Maybe we'll hear something on our wedding anniversary which is the 19th of October. Let's hope!