Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Mother of all lists.

I know it's rather early to say or speculate, but rumour has it that not only is Foreign Affairs processing very quickly, but our agency in Kenya also wants to process our adoption with lightning speed - to attract more Canadians to the program. Our estimated referral date is between April-July. APRIL!?

Hurry up and wait, and then your like "Whoa Nellie...", are you kidding me? We can't move in May. I don't think... Let's be realistic here - that would be a damn adoption miracle. A bureaucratic miracle, and those are about as rare as rocking horse shite! But - we better get on it and start preparing nonetheless.

Can you say overwhelming? There is a lot to do to prepare for moving overseas!

Time to make a lists, and lists of lists...

  • Find loving foster home for sweet Koda
  • Find foster home for turtles
  • Find new home for parrot
  • Find tenants to rent our house who will look after our cats/chickens
  • Find/Borrow 6 suitcases (We have 4+ already, but can bring 3 each)
  • All business paperwork up to date and finalized
  • Sell business B
  • Find home in Nairobi
  • Hopefully make extra $ or fundraise for remaining adoption fees/airfare so we don't have to borrow it (Winning the lottery would be nice - just putting it 'out there'. ;)
  • Get vaccinations (ha... I just wrote vacations... yes, that would be nice too.)
  • Pack away the house
  • Renew Passports
  • Look into home schooling

And a million other things (let me know if you can think of any!!), but my brain is a bit frazzled right now. This will be a work in progress!

The problem as I see it - is that almost everyone of the above requires it own list! They are HUGE tasks!

8 comments:

Tracy said...

Ahhhh!! Your list is similar to mine except fewer pets lol! And I haven't written mine out, but now that I see your ... I need to make it real! It's overwhelming!

On the suitcases, you could use boxes. I got moving boxes within the allowable dimensions for baggage, put a paper inside when you seal it with your contact info or info of someone in Nairobi and write it on the outside of the box. I wrote a Kenyan friends name and cell. I taped it like crazy with that thready packing tape .... Super strong.

If you need suitcases on your return you could get them in Nairobi at the market.

Jolene said...

Great idea! Thanks Tracy!

Anna said...

Hey Jo, greetings from Finland! It was only this week I discovered your blog and I've been reading it practically every night and I'm already caught up in your excitement! And now you are already talking about a referral! :D AWESOME!

You definately have some things to deal with in a few months... I wish the best for you and hope everything goes smoothly! :) I'll be visiting here often, thanks for sharing your journey!

Jolene said...

Hi Anna!

Thank you so much for stopping and leaving a message! It's so nice to hear where my readers are from!

Are you considering adoption from Kenya as well?

Take care..

Sylvie and Victor said...

Wow! I feel the excitement in your post!!! So happy for you guys. Things seems to be moving in the right direction. I don’t know where I would start if I was in your shoes! You seem very organized, so do it and do it right!

Jess said...

You maybe have answered this in another post I missed, but what are you guys doing for a job in Kenya while there?

Crossing my fingers that it will be quick, you have waited so long already....

Jolene said...

Living off our line of credit! (If we can't sell property).

Hubby is a stone mason by trade, but owns a Contracting business. There is no transferable work for him in Kenya. I am hoping however, that perhaps once there - he can find work with other expats or work for room and board etc. It will be difficult though, as the Kenyan labour is so cheap.

He is very specialized however, and has some skills that would be very difficult to come by there. We'll see... keeping our fingers crossed!

In the larger picture - the cost of our adoption with residency will be about the same amount as many people pay for an average adoption!

Anna said...

Sorry, I forgot to answer to your question. :)

No, we are not in a process but still doing IVF (we have one bio-c). I'm only dreaming of adoption. My husband is not convinced (yet)... Maybe some day. :) Africa is close to my heart and for some reason, I always imagine our "little sister/brother" African and not looking like us. :D Go figure. You can't change your heart, I guess...