We are a family of three very excited to become a family of four! This is the second time around for us, we adopted our first daughter Aleksandra (Ally) from Karaganda, Kazakhstan in the fall of 2005. We had such a wonderful adoption experience we decided to get Ally a little sister!

We have been married for 5 years and we live in Phoenix, AZ. Chris works for acompany called Dynatek, he sells computer software systems to the banks.  Jill loves being a stay at home Mom!

We are pregnant!!!!!

Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.

What is it?

Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I

went to the mailbox today and... well, we got an I-171H approval form.

A what?!? An I-171H? As in, we're going to have a baby?!?

It looks that way.

But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600A application

forms. Didn't you hide our homestudy update?

Of course I did, but don't forget, there was that one night...

What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night, But it was only once. We were

just messing around. I didn't print clearly. I didn't even use ink!

(pauses again) But it was kind of fun. (giggles). It was, wasn't it?

I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints.

So now we've got our I-171H document, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll

adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something,

make sure everything's okay?

I already did.

And?

I'm five documents along.

Five documents! And they're all notarized, certified, apostilled, and translated

okay?

Just great. There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see

the Notary's middle initial but it showed up just fine under the

magnifying glass.

Thank God. And you, honey? Are you feeling okay?

I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this.

Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like

this happens, but of course I'm happy!

Jill, Ally and Chris

       8/2007

       Click on

“Our Travel Journal” above, to see photos and hear about our days in Kazakhstan!