You want how many copies?

Dzien Dobry!

Holy cannoli there is so much paperwork to obtain and lately I am feeling especially overwhelmed. We are in the process of trying to collect 4 certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage licenses. We are getting physicals done, FBI and DOJ live fingerprint scans completed, employment verification, Child Abuse Clearances from every state we ever lived in (7 between the 2 of us), and reference letters. On top of all this, we have to get all of these documents notarized and Apostilled, I guess a Notary isn't good enough, errgg. We also have to complete 10 hours of course work online to adopt internationally in preparing for our adoption, oh and we are trying to learn the Polish language. Justin created a spread sheet checklist of all things needed in the hopes of making life easier as everything slowly come in the mail. Also, our home study is going to be scheduled soon and this is basically a full on investigation into our home and lives.

Until we get all of this completed, there will not be much to report.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned...

Do Widzenia!

Love-

Karin and Justin

The Big Announcement

First off, let me start off by telling you about Mimi. For those of you who don't know, Mimi was my grandmother (my dad's mother) and her parents were both full blooded Polish. Her maiden name was Kapinos and she passed away many years ago. I am dedicating this blog to Mimi as she was very proud of her Polish heritage and I know she would be thrilled about this. Below is a picture of my Mom, Grandpa, and Mimi on the day of my graduation from URI.

Justin also has family history in Poland as his great grandparents, Sophia and John Dobrzeniecki, were immigrants from Poland. Below is a picture of Justin's family. His grandmother is the girl on the left in the first communion dress; his great grandfather is holding the small child and his great-grandmother is the woman on the right of his great-grandfather.

I am starting this blog because BIG things are happening. Justin and I have decided to adopt a child from Poland and the process has been started. I was pregnant not to long ago, but turns out it was a Molar Pregnancy and long story short we cannot try again for another year. One year brings me closer to 40 years old and I do not wish to give birth at 40. We took the loss as a sign and believe it happened for a reason. We have been discussing adoption for a long time and finally decided to be proactive and make it a reality. The agency told us the process will take approximately a year which works for us perfectly as we would like to get this done while the Navy has Justin on land.

It is all very overwhelming and exciting at the same time. We feel this is a good way to keep you posted on the whole proces and so far, we have filled out the agency application (and got approved) and we just sent out the agreement between ourselves and the agency. Getting all of the required documents notarized is the hardest part, needless to say the notary's on base run when they see us coming. There are so many things to read and sign, and this is just the beginning. We recently ordered Rosetta Stone Polish Level 1 and 2 in an attempt to learn the language. Hopefully it is nothing like high school Spanish... ha ha. The next step is to find an agency to get our Home Study completed.

Stay tuned for more updates and as things progress, we will post what is happening. Thanks for reading!