It's on, baby...

Many thanks to my good friend Kristen whom I met while completing my China dossier.  Without going into too much detail (I am after all, a very wordy person) here is our story.  We were both approved by the same agency last year to begin the paper chase for our China girls.  I am a highly competitive person, which is why I rarely choose to play games.  They make me mean.  My coordinator is also a highly competitive person and we were in frequent contact during the paper chase.  Every morning when the coordinators would discuss our progress (we had to have our dossier submitted by February 28th) my coordinator would say "my girl is still first!".  Until January.  Kris posted a message on our agency Yahoo site stating that she was DTC.  I had been beaten!  While disappointed that I was not #1, I decided to e-mail her a message of congrats.  From there we learned that we have a great deal in common.  Actually, we have a ridiculous amount of things in common.  In June I traveled to visit her in WI and in August she returned the favor. 

My big fat thanks goes to Kris because she has been the person that I have called, emailed, or left crazy messages for since beginning this journey to Haven.  She was also one of the few people who knew how much I longed for this son, even as I was paper chasing for my daughter.  While our journeys are slightly different now, I am so glad to know that she is still with me pushing me on.  I'm not kidding, she emailed me a list of things that I needed to get done for this week!  She's that kind of friend.  I know it isn't easy for her to hear how excited I am or how frustrated I find the whole process.  All I can say to her is, aren't you glad you didn't know in the beginning of the China process????  Many thanks from your neurotic friend, Erica.

In other news...I got my dossier packet!!!  I guess you know what I'll be doing this afternoon.  Yep, reading every single word.  I'm not a skimmer.  My first career was as a nurse and I learned that you need to read and understand every word of any document placed in front of you requiring your signature.  Even when I get my oil changed and they ask me to sign here, initial here and here, I still read the whole page.  Sometimes I just do it to piss them off.