OUR VERY OWN CAMPAIGN TRAIL

I love being able to compare our adoption to a Presidential election. We started our campaign in October 2006 to hold the honorable position of Parents. With this position comes a great responsibility to do what is in the best interest of our child, and to make decisions that will affect her life forever. We hold in our hands the ability to impact her quality of education, healthcare and wages, to ensure her security, to limit and promote certain freedoms, to enact legislation, to manage her foreign affairs by intercepting evil influences and supporting the good, and to promote her pursuit of life, liberty after age 25, and happiness.

We have won many delegates along our campaign trail, and the following is a list of people who made significant contributions on our behalf:

3 donors provided financial gifts
6 social workers managed our adoption affairs in the U.S. and Russia
7 friends provided letters of reference
5 Medical Doctors proved our state of health and sanity
3 Georgia Secretary of State employees provided authentication of documents submitted to Russia
5 Notaries proved our true identity
6 Medical Lab technicians tested us negative for drugs and communicable disease, on 8 occasions, just to make sure
1 Forsyth County Officer provided background checks and fingerprint verifications
Family, friends, church members and the entire GA-400 branch of Citizens Bank provided prayers, support, services, gifts and encouragement

Travis and I made several trips during our 2-year campaign to many offices around the state, including:

12 trips to the Forsyth County Sherriff’s office
19 trips to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, to authenticate over 200 documents
25 trips to various UPS and Post Offices
5 visits to doctors’ offices
8 trips to medical clinics to have blood drawn
2 trips to the U.S. Citizens and Immigration office
40+ trips made to various notaries
1 visit to an X-ray lab
1 visit to county hall
Many trips to our home study agency’s office
3 classes in adoption education were attended

So, the general consensus of Americans we know feel confident we are qualified for this Office, and we thank you for your support. In our initial act of diplomacy, we visited Russia to convince delegates there of our intent to give a citizen of theirs parents who will dedicate their lives to love her to the fullest extent of their ability. On September 6th we will once again travel to ask a Russian judge for his or her formal decree in joining us with our daughter. If we gain approval from the judge on September 10th, we will be sworn in as parents and child, forever a family. Until then we are on pins and needles for the judge’s decision, praying that it will be a landslide victory for us to bring our daughter home. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the battle for President still looms…