Eye on the Prize - BABY

Conception has taken place - our long and very rocky road to adoption has taken yet ANOTHER turn.

Now that we have cancelled our move to Ontario, our adoption from Vietnam can not take place either (living in New Brunswick, you can not adopt from Vietnam).

A few weeks ago I called our agency, TDH, to advise them that we were not moving in hopes to receive our $500 registration fee back (or at least a part of it).

She quickly asked me if we still intended to adopt and I said 'yes' and she started rambling on and on about this amazing opportunity they had for us.  They are waiting to be accredited in Russia (in Nov or Dec) and they needed families that would have their dossiers ready for February!

SO...we graciously accepted!

We are their FIRST family on the list for when they get accredited.  AND.....we could travel in as little as 6-8 months to pick up a baby girl from 9 months - 3 years old!!!

WOW....dream come true!

SO...this is where we get the word "BABY" in the title!

Dream come true, with a little glitch that we found out about when we called TDH back to accept!

Well, I guess Russia is very strict about only accepting 'healthy' looking people to adopt their children.

When asked if we 'looked healthy'  (and trust me, our poor agency had such a hard time with this).  I said 'ummm, yes.....healthy and with a little cushioning'!    I asked WHAT is the exact criteria of weight guidelines for 'looking healthy'.  Apparently, there is NO specific criteria BUT was told that if we get to the point of going before the judge and he or she says we are 'not' healthy looking - they could turn us down right there to approve the adoption.

SO.....that said, I KNOW we can do it and we are on a 'Biggest Loser' style weight loss, get 'healthy looking' journey and we have 6-8 months to do it in!  WOW!!!

I'm pretty militant about this because to me, this is our LAST chance to adopt.

I'M FOCUSED....
I'M DETERMINED....    and
I'M OVERLY DEDICATED....

I just KNOW we can do this.

I contacted our Adoption Practitioner this week and he told us that opportunities like this do NOT come very often and we should consider ourselves VERY lucky that we were 'in the right place, at the right time' basically!

SO - this is IT....there is NO other way than to make this work!

And....this is where we get 'Eye on the Prize' in our title.


This blog is my 'outlet' as a way of getting really REAL about the struggles with my weight and documenting the journey to our baby girl!

SO....here we go!