The long & winding road...

The picture on the left was taken today at "Nana's" house. Nana is my dad's mom, my grandma, and Marcella's great-grandma. Today, we visited with Nana. As we were leaving, Marcella wanted to venture on her own, through the snow, up the ramp, in her dress, tights & black patent leather shoes.
This picture symbolizes quite a bit to me, and I thought it would be a good companion to a blog entry on the topic of our next adoption from Peru. The picture to me, represents the uphill climb that we set out on to adopt Marcella, and to now expand our family via Peru. Granted, Latin American countries aren't receiving a whole lot of SNOW these days, but the idea is that we've come a long way regardless of wind, snow, rain or shine...we've learned so much...and we continue to venture on towards our dream of building our family through adoption...
The Peruvian adoption process is night & day from the Guatemalan process. Many people are naturally curious or interested as to 1) why Peru? and 2) what's this process going to entail. I'll highlight a few of the main points:

• We decided to go through Peru, because this is where George was born. We feel a connection to the country, the culture, and a desire to adopt a little Georgie--or Georgina--from Peru.
• This leads to the next point--boy or girl, nino o nina? We decided to not specify the sex of our next child. Therefore, we will have no idea until...???
• How long does it take & Why does it take sooo long? The short answer: no definite timeline, but probably about 1 to 2 years... We are currently in the homestudy & dossier stage. The homestudy is a Wisconsin check on our suitability to be parents. The dossier is the set of formal paperwork that we compile to submit to Peru. The dossier is very intensive, and puts to shame much of the work I did in law school. Once the homestudy and dossier are prepared, we will then wait for 'acceptance' from Peru...
• and we will wait.
• and wait.
• and wait.
• Sometimes Peru will decide they need more information from us;
• Sometimes Peru might decide they don't like something we've presented to them;
• Sometimes we will hear nothing....until one day we find out they've accepted us.
• Hooray! Once we have been "accepted" to adopt from Peru, we will again wait until we are matched with our child. This could take a month or a year.
• Unlike Guatemala, where we found out about Marcella when she was 2 weeks old, and we received monthly updates on her and our case, we will know nothing about our Peruvian child until...
• We get that magical call, informing us that we have a child!
• Our child could be anywhere from 0 to 3 years old...typically around 18 months. Our child will have been raised in an orphanage, most likely (foster homes do not exist, as they did in Guatemala...)
• When we get that magical call, we have about one week to travel to Peru to finalize the adoption process. Yes, one week!
• We will stay in Peru for about 5 weeks, to meet our child & finalize the process.
• And then, the Kutschma family of 4, will come back home!

We know there will be many trials & tribulations along the way, but wanted to let you know a general idea of how things will proceed. As with all adoptions, there are exceptions to every rule, and many bumps in the road. So, I started the blog with the picture of Marcella trekking up a snowy ramp, and I will end with the idea that we are thrilled and excited about our Peruvian adoption, but we know we have a long & winding journey ahead of us. "GRACIAS" family & friends, for being here with us along the way... G, B & M