LOI

Three teeny tiny little letters.....who would ever believe they would have such a life altering emotional response! Yes I got my LOI!!!! For those who don't know, LOI stand for Letter of Invitation, this is the what adoptive parents for Kazakhstan anxiously await, this is what allows us to enter the country and the babyhouse/orphanage to meet our children.

My call came on Saturday morning at 10:18, I was actually at the bank getting some unrelated stuff from my safe deposit box when my cell phone rang, I didn't even glance at it I just let it go to voice mail while I finished up. I glanced at Ciera's birth certificate in my box and thought...hmm, I wonder if I will need this for anything...nope I can get it later if I need it. I locked up and left the bank. Out in the car I pulled out my phone and saw the call I had missed was from my agency, not overly concerning as I had left a message on Friday. I listened to the message "you need to call us urgently"...oh crap that can't be good I thought. So I called and heard, your LOI has been issued and they want you there on the 24th or 25th. WHAT??? That's 2 weeks from today.....yikes.....she had more to say but quite frankly I think I only processed about 1/3 of it, but did manage to hear "oh and we need a copy of Ciera's birth certificate" darn good thing I had not left the bank parking lot yet! I headed back in and got asked "you're back already?" "yes I need one more thing...oh and can you make a copy of it for me", thankfully they did.

I left there and made a couple of shaky calls and went to pick Ciera up from dance, I started to tear up as I told her "you know how we have been waiting to to to Kazakhstan? We are going to go in 2 weeks" and you know what my sweet little girl said "do they have jelly beans there?" HUH? Not quite the response I was thinking I'd get, she seemed rather underwhelmed, I though well it has been a long haul for her so maybe she's just thinking "yeah I'll believe it when I see it".

For the Kazakhstan visa you need a passport picture...I had to go to 4 places to get it..Costco ....no sorry we have too many orders to fill today, we can do it tomorrow (no thanks), off to Blacks...sorry our printer is broken (don't you have more than one you do print pictures as a business), off to Zellers....sorry no photo studio here.....Walmart...yes!!! At the dear price of $19.98...how is it Costco can do them for $6.99??? Doesn't matter, I need it let's just do it.

Fast forward to Monday...at breakfast Ciera mentions "hey we didn't have a party at daycare when I started kindergarten" ok fair enough "ok you know what, on your last day before we head to Kazakhstan we can take in ice cream for you to celebrate".

I spent Monday stressing getting my visa applications filled out, and getting all the various copies of things I needed. Stressing how to get my $$'s from my agency (where they hold them in trust) to me, to get to the bank and change it into what I need. Fortunately it all came together thanks to some creative thinking on several peoples parts. If anyone ever needs to do an adoption loan, I have a wonderful person at National Bank, even though I did my loan well over a year ago...she went out of her way to help me yesterday, she is truly amazing, if anyone wants her name let me know (she works in the GTA).

I head off to Fed Ex and pick Ciera up on the way to make sure I picked her up by 6:00, I walk into daycare and meet up with K , she tells me how excited Ciera is, I said "really??" apparently Ciera is telling everyone we are having a celebration for the baby and everyone can come!!! I guess it took 48 hours to process!! Ciera came out of her class and said "I need to run upstairs to tell Miss M something", so I followed her and I hear Ciera saying "we are going to Kazastan to meet our baby!".

We made it into FedEx, where the poor woman behind the counter had to tell me 3 times how I had to fill out the form for the return envelope....then when I handed it in and walked outside, I started to cry...I really wanted to just sob but I didn't want to scare Ciera. It was a combination of ok that all worked out and holy bananas this is really happening.

Needless to say yesterday and today I have been bombarded with questions from Ciera, but sadly today I had to tell her that the baby won't be living with us when we are there, nor will the baby be coming home with us, she was quite sad and I reminded her that it was the same as when I met her, and that we will see the baby lots during the day....apparently satisfied with that the next thing was "can we go swimming when we are there?", you have to love how kids think!!!

I am now in wait mode again...waiting to hear that my visa will/is/has been issued so that I can then madly scramble to book flights.

Why do I keep having to remind myself to breathe?!!!