Adopting Ahren (& PBJ, too!)

Way back when Chris and I were getting married, we discussed kids. (OK, well that was really only a little over 4 years ago) We both thought that if we wanted 2 kids, we would try and have one ourselves first, and then adopt the second time around. We were married in Feb. of 2002 and by October that year we were pregnant. Levi was born on July 1st, 2003, and has been the light of our lives, not to mention the sun and moon to his two older sisters.
For a while, we didn't even think about another child. My pregnancy with Levi was not uneventful, and caring for 3 kids kept us pretty busy. Then, this past summer, the idea of adopting kept creeping into my mind. I began to read about adoptions and talk with Chris about it. At first, it was just a fun pastime. What if.... We would discuss different ways of adopting, domestic/international, open/closed, etc. Then, one day, it got more serious. We talked about a son that was out there somewhere, and how were we going to find him. We decided to take the plunge.
Our research led us to the decision to adopt from Guatemala. For us it was the best fit. We began the paperchase in October of 2005. We signed with an agency, filed our i600, got fingerprinted, completed the homestudy, etc etc etc. The list of documents needed was daunting! Each and every one had to be perfect, then notarized, shipped off to the Secretary of State to validate, and then authenticated at the Guatemalan Consulate. We had to re-do several documents as we went along until our agency and the Guatemalan lawyers felt we had it all perfect.
Then, in January, came the day we had only dreamed about. Our agency sent us photos of the baby boys that were available at the time. I forwarded the files by e-mail to Chris, and we both looked at each tiny baby trying to tell if one of them was our son. I had worried so much about how we were going to know which one was ours. Well, we looked through the photos, and we each found one we felt drawn to. When we revealed to each other which one we had picked, we were delighted to find out we had picked the same infant! He was a tiny 5 lb 6 oz bundle of joy with drool on his chin. He was so wrapped up you couldn't see much more than just his little face. Still, he was ours.