The First Steps

After just three weeks of hosting Gertrude, we knew she was our daughter. We started on our paperwork just a few days ago and it is a bit overwhelming! However, we will forge ahead so we can have our girl back in the U.S. and in our home.

Our first accomplishment (our so we thought) was sending in the first form to our government, the I600A. It was quite simple and only required copies of birth certificates and marriage license, which we had. Only problem was, Scott's name was spelled with one "t" on both of these documents. We called INS and they said it would get rejected. So, we are having all that changed which will delay our first step in getting this processed about two weeks. We are remaining calm, though, and we are in process!

We have not spoken with Gertrude yet. The day after they arrived, all the children went to camp for almost a month. Quite a long trip but probably better than staying at the orphange the rest of the summer! We miss her a lot and as soon as we can will call and write. Her birthday is Sept. 21 and she will be 10 so have to think about what to send her...it has to go out early to get to Latvia in time. We don't know if she is aware yet that we are pursuing adoption but the kids have talked about it with each other. Seems they're all planning on coming back for Christmas even though none of us know if that will work out (all depends on when we will be slated to travel to Latvia).