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Today, Ryan and I signed our finalized 20+ page adoption home study document.  With our signatures, all of the pre-birth paperwork is totally, completely, absolutely, 100% finished.

I feel like this is a monumental moment.  It took eight months to get through the adoption application process in New York.  After the approval process was completed, we started with the waiting.  We were contacted by eight birth moms in seven months, and we went through eight different heartbreaks (some more serious and devastating than others, but all disappointing).  It felt like I had a miscarriage every month--and all the while, I was doing fertility treatments that were, month after month, totally ineffective.  Talk about discouraging.

Then, we got the phone call from Katie, and we knew that there was something different about her.  We corresponded for several weeks, and we felt so good about everything that we took down our adoption profile and stopped doing fertility treatments.  I couldn't do it all anymore.  We decided we had to move forward in faith that this adoption would actually work out for us.

We knew the baby would be born after Ryan started his residency, which meant that we had to recertify to adopt in the state of Colorado--yes, that meant we needed to go through the entire adoption approval process again.


And so we started over.  This is the checklist that they sent me in the mail.  I had a little bit of a panic attack when I first saw it.  (Click on the photo if you want to read all of the steps that must be completed in order to adopt in the state of Colorado.)

But today, five months after we started the process for a second time, the process is complete.  We are done.

I've posted before about how adopting is like taking a trip to Australia by boat instead of by plane (if you haven't read this analogy, you should--it's very clever and insightful).  Sometimes I feel like Ryan and I have been in a canoe.  It has been a work out!

But the marathon is almost over.  Based on Katie's measurements the past few weeks, her doctor officially changed her due date today. Our Little Man (who still doesn't have a name) is about 6 lbs 11 ozs, and is now due on August 6th--which just happens to be Ryan's 29th birthday. :)

To be honest, I feel like the days are dragging by.  I hear that the last month of pregnancy is by far the longest.  That's how I am feeling right now.  I keep busy all day checking things off my to-do list, but it all feels meaningless--even depressing.  I am ready--soo ready--for the baby to be here.  People tell me to enjoy my last few weeks of freedom, but I've been enjoying freedom for a lot of years now, and it has started to feel a little bit...I don't know...empty.  I am so excited to start the next phase of our life as a family.

Bring on the sleepless nights, the screaming baby in the backseat on car trips, and the infrequent date nights!  Oh yeah--the Nielsons are ready.

Come soon, Little Man!!!!