Osby James

My brother and his wife welcomed Osby James on August 22. I was able to visit them and be around before and after he was born so that was a great experience. He was a big boy, weighing in at 10 pounds and 7 ounces. He is a cutie and the family is all doing great.

We had our fingerprinting appointment with CIS. It was simple. We were in and out in about 20 minutes. Nothing to it. Fill out some very basic paperwork, wait for your number to be called, get fingerprinted and that is it.

I took our dossier paperwork to our agency to get it all checked out before we get everything notarized and apostilled. Our agency recommended that we do this since it is easier to correct mistakes before we get everything notarized and apostilled. I am still waiting our our apostille of our marriage license from California. We also need to take the photos of the house, inside, outside, etc. We also have to take "formal" and "casual" pictures of our as a couple and of us individually. This pictures will give the judge in Kazakhstan a better picture of us.

So we are getting close on our dossier. I would think we would have it done in a week or so and then all we will be waiting on is the I-171H from the government.

We have also been working on getting a registry going. Initially we were not going to register but we have had so many people ask us if we are registered so we are going to register at amazon.com, walmart.com and target.com.

Also my husband's sister and my brother's wife have both asked us if we wanted them to save clothing from their children and nieces and nephews. Of course we said yes. I have noticed that infants and young children grow so fast the the second hand clothes usually look great and I am grateful to them for thinking of us.

Also we don't know the weight of our child and children in the baby houses tend to be slightly behind in their weight so we are trying to get a variety of sizes.

I continue to read the book that our agency gave us. It is so helpful. It has so much information about the experience of the children. You think when you bring your child home it is going to be an instant happy family but there is so much more to it. You must consider that even though the orphange may have not been the greatest place for the child, it is all that your child has known. It focuses on the issues that you may have at night when you put your child to bed. Your child may seem well adjusted in the day and then have a hard time going to sleep. They may wake up in the night crying and wonder why they don't hear the noises that they were used to hearing at the orphanage, they may be disoriented and just like adults when you finally put your head down to rest you start thinking about everything from the day and have a hard time going to bed. So there is alot to consider and this book has lots of helpful strategies. One thing that the book reiterates is that with time and dedication from the parents to promote attachement and bonding things will get better.