It was one year ago today that we officially began our adoption journey. One year ago at this very moment our social worker was stepping into our home to evaluate our fitness as parents. I thought I would give you a rather long timeline of what we have done in the past year.

1/17 - 1st meeting with social worker
2/3 - sent autobiographies to social worker
2/8 - received passports (applied for 1/14)
2/12 - filled out I-600A
2/12 - sent application to agency
3/7 - I-600A filed with USCIS (INS)
3/17 - Signed agency contract (celebrated with cornedbeef and beer)
3/26 - Received first set of paperwork from agency
4/15 - Received Homestudy (complete with typos)
4/18 - Sent revised Homstudy to USCIS
4/18 - Sent initial dossier to agency
4/20 - Dossier received by agency
4/28 - REFERRAL!!!
4/29 - Sent medical to kick ass Dr. Darenkov
5/6 - Fingerprinted
5/30 - Boarded plane for Russia
6/2 - Officially met the boy
6/4 - Leave Russia for the "long wait"
6/12 - Second half of paperwork complete and apostilled
7/27 - Email from Olga to get a new certificate of residency
10/4 - Olga received new certificate of residency
10/27 - Agency supposed to receive reaccreditation, MoE meeting postponed.

That is it. We have done nothing since the beginning of October.

Here it is a year later. I suppose I should whine about the fact that I thought we would have our child home by now. I could complain that this just isn't fair. But after this long. I am too tired for that anymore. I know that I am closer to the end than I am to the start. I keep telling myself that.

So cheers to all of you just starting this process, may it take significantly less time than ours. Hugs to you that are right there with us and gigantic Big Gulps of margaritas to those of you stuck in this nightmare much longer than us! May we have the opportunity to get together to share poopy diaper stories!!