****CaptainSerious*****

wille2b

Hey, just read a few of your posts and I am so excited for you! I was wonderin when you think you might get a referral and how long from referral to travel??? Dh and I really wanted to adopt from panama but it was too expensive, so I am really curious about your story, its like watching ourselves, well in peru instead! I would second the consignment shop, for foster care we went to a few and got soooooo many things that were almost new for so fricken cheap! Once you get the referral it will be so much easier to shop! We put a saying in our nursery and I love it, we got it at target and it says "some people dream of angels, i hold one in my arms" I think it sums everything up no matter how old the child is! Anyway good luck!!! Cant wait to hear more

CaptainSerious

Thanks, Wille.

We're not expected a referral for quite a while.  Our paperwork most likely won't go down to Peru until January.  From then, it takes about 8-12 months to be approved.  After that, we would first start waiting the 6-12 months for a referral.  The only thing that would speed up the process would be if we request a child from the "Waiting Angels" list.  We are considering doing so, but the hard part is finding a child on the list who matches the list of special needs we feel prepared to parent.

Once we receive a referral, we'll travel pretty shortly--anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks after (which is why it will be hard to do all the shopping then)!  We'll both have to stay there until the adoption is final on the Peruvian side, and then one of us (my husband) will be able to return home.  I'll stay with the child in Peru until we have a US Visa to bring him/her home.

Anyway, it's a long haul, but it just felt right to us, you know?