What a difference a week makes. In the past week we have:

1. Learned that our adoption dossier has moved from the MFA to the MOE
2. Officially announced our intention to move
3. Accepted a new job (KJ)
4. Made an offer on a new house
5. Begun to pack our house and move things to a storage unit
6. Hired a contractor to finish our basement
7. Replaced the decks on our house (Steve)
8. Contacted an agent to list our house

I am sure I missed something, but that seems like more than enough for now.

With the dossier changing government ministries in Kaz, we should be only a few weeks away from clearing the internal hurdles of the application process. As I understand it, we should hear in 2-3 weeks that we are cleared to adopt, and from there our dossier is assigned to a baby house and we are told where in the country we will be going for our daughter. We may also be given a timetable for travel at that time. it really feels close now. Scary close at times considering the other things we have taken on recently

So the move! Yes we are moving to the town of Boothbay over on the coast of Maine. KJ has found a great new animal hospital to work in and we are very excited to think that the hours should mean that KJ will be home a lot more than she has managed to be over the past 6 years. We are also very excited about the opportunity to be closer to the water and especially sailing. Boothbay is a wonderful region of the Maine coast and has lots to offer a family. I will try in a few days to post some links with information about the Boothbay area and potentially our new house.

KJ and I have been looking at real estate in the area for a few weeks now and until Monday morning had seen very little to get excited about. That all changed with the first house we saw this week, and on Tuesday we made an offer. At present we are in the negotiation phase of the deal and hope to have everything worked out in the next few days, and to close in early June before going to Kaz.

KJ's parents will be coming here to our house in Lovell to look after our wonderful boys (our Rotties) while we are away, and now may have the added pleasure of making our house available to be shown. Before then we are doing lots of work to the house - really things that we have put off for several years now - and hope to have it ready for its debut on 01 June.

As is often the case, we will have lived in the house for years with the intention of finishing out the basement and will only now get around to doing it to sell. I know that we are not alone - many people put more money and time into their house in preparation to sell it than they ever did to live in it. It is a shame in many respects, though the flip side is that you learn to live in an unfished house quite well and really only tend to notice when other people come by and point it out. No deeper meaning there, just what it is.

Well I actually saved this as a draft intending to get back to it over the weekend, but never did, and now it is tuesday morning and there is lots more news to divulge, so I will end this "friday" posting and begin anew in what will hopefully become a much more complete posting. Take Care.