Glad it is looking like it is all coming together.
I was coming on to tell you that really the decisions are all pretty much made by everyone else!
We were not asked when we wanted to do anything at all! And we were so keen to adopt that failing illness or major tragedy we would have agreed to any date! So we were just given a date, for us it was matching panel and then two weeks later intros started.
I will tell you what I did and how it worked out....
I told my boss every step of the way, and he was very understanding. I shared with wider team when I knew that things were certain (Matching panel) and I wrote very detailed notes for who would replace me. My organisation could not recruit a person from outside to do my quite complicated job (or they did not try) and so two colleagues, one from team and one not, took over half my duties each for the year I was off.
Everything worked out quite well.
I'd say do be me, in this respect, because things worked well!
HOWEVER, my only thing that did not work well was due to me!
When I had my birth dd (11 years ago) I took work home when I went on maternity leave and worked all the way up to the point where I was being taken in to the hospital to be induced, stopping at a colleagues house to drop off the work on the way to the hospital!
When we adopted I did virtually the same thing, working from home during intros in the evenings because I am so anally retentive I hate to let go!!
Don't be me ! Give them a date, when you know, write copious notes, stick to the date. Stop, relax, become a mummy!!
Good luck. 