[Alex's mom]

Hi! Becky, I read your post under the foster mom contact heading and thought I better post to let everyone know how our process is going. I post on the FT board and sometimes I forget what I posted where, etc. Our Alex is now 15 mos old and about 2 months ago, we decided we should have a brother or sister for him. So right after the holidays, our paperchase began. We did our homestudy thru IAS again. We were almost paper ready and then I started looking at all the beautiful children on the photolisting--which I will probably do the rest of my life and will probably continue to wish I could adopt them all. We saw Ayana's picture and I sent an email to the agency. Did some research and followed my gut and heart (again) and decided to go for it. We are using Heart to Heart Adoptions. It is a new agency, just started in March of 2002, but I am quite impressed with the owner/operator, Linda Wynn. They only do Guatemalan adoptions and Linda has adopted her own daughter from Guatemala. Linda went into great detail about how she contacted officials in the adoption section of the Guat government and asked for referrals of good attys, etc. So...we will see how this all goes, hopefully fast as I am already longing to hold our daughter. Ayana was born 12/23/02 and her given name was Flor de Maria. We just got new pics of her yesterday and she is just beautiful!! We officially said "yes" to her a week ago Saturday and Monday we sent in our first fees. Our dossier is complete and is being certified as we speak, then we need to authenticate, forward the docs to Linda and then we are on our way!!! We are so so so excited.

Becky--keep working on your dh, maybe he will see your point of view (hee-hee!) My dh wasn't real excited about the idea at first, but now he is coming around. BUT-I do know this will be our last adoption. I have two step-daughters (Tom's bio kids) as well and Tom says he might have a coronary ( ) if we have any more kids. That's why we decided boy and girl would be nice. Plus-I don't know if I could take doing another adoption, it's sooo stressful!! Give Isabella kisses and hugs!!!

For those waiting....it does happen, it does come true and it is so wonderful!! Alex is the star here at our house and we love him so much!! Good luck to all and God Bless!!! Amy

[becky]

Congratulations!!!

I remember so well what a beautiful baby Alex was...and I am sure your precious daughter will be just as adorable!

You are right about the stress...but I am just like you...I look at those listings and I just want to bring them all home!!!

Speaking of bringing one home...my little one is calling my name (or something like mama) right now....gotta run.

keep us posted on your progress!

Becky

[TRBenson]

Hi Amy,
I am interested in hearing about your experience with IAS. We live in MN also, and are using IAS for our Guatemalan adoption. We are just getting started- about half way through our homestudy and have most of our documents in place for the dossier.

Is there anything you can tell me (good or bad) about IAS? When did you adopt Alex, and how long did it take?

I am so thrilled to hear about Ayana! Congratulations on adding another baby to your family I hope this second time around goes quickly!

You can email me privately at MandTBenson@msn.com if you'd like.

Thank you!
Tammy

[DMDes]

Alex's mom,

Congratulations! She is very cute! I know where you are coming from my husband feels the same way. We will only be adopting once, (I would love to adopt them all too). My hubby has 3 bio sons, and we are waiting to bring our little girl home from guat.
We hope she will be coming home in April.

Good luck to you and your family!

DMDes