Strange Dreams

I had a weird dream last night that our agency rep met us outside of someones house in their driveway and told us that someone from the agency would be calling to give us a heads up about "Cody". (in my dream I knew that Cody was the baby we were going to adopt although the name Cody isn't very Russian, so I don't know where I got that name) They told me that even though we are travelling blind to Russia they always give their military families advance notice of their referrals. I tried to explain that we are no longer military but they said that was okay and would let us know about Cody. They also told us that we need to be open to all forms of adoption (international and domestic) and to keep an open mind. I walked into this strange house and a pregnant lady was sitting on a bar stool smoking a cigarette. She was talking to a lady that I knew in my dream and told her that this pregnancy was a surprise and how it was going to mess up her plans and that she had just got her life on track again and she wanted to put the baby up for adoption. She turned to me and asked me if I knew anyone that would want to adopt a baby. I started crying and couldn't talk and the lady that I knew told the pregnant woman that we had been trying for 7 years to get pregnant and would love to adopt the baby. The woman put her cigarette out and I managed to stop crying long enough to say, "And I don't even smoke or drink or do drugs". The next scene was in the operating room and the baby was being born but it had it's umbilical cord coming out of it's back and the umbilical cord looked like the breathing hole/tube of the squid creature in Pirates of the Caribbean. The doctor assured us it was a routine operation to remove a back umbilical cord and then the dream ended with us having the domestic baby and we had "Cody" our Russian son.

I have no idea what that dream means other than I should obviously not eat so many Milk Duds and Slim Jims before bedtime. :-) Any dream experts out there care to take a crack at my dream!? Haa Haa!

In real adoption news...we are still waiting for immigration services to send us a finger print appointment. Our dossier should be in Russia right now and being translated. It might make it in time to get registered before the Russian government closes for Christmas but if not, we are not concerned. We are confident that all the timing will work out for the best. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you. Christmas next year should look and sound very different for so many of us!!!

Paper Pregnant!

I feel a bit of nausea coming on and maybe a craving or two! Our dossier is on a jet plane and officially on its journey. We went to Austin today and had all our paperwork apostilled. What a piece of cake that was!!! I feel silly now to have worried so much about getting our paperwork apostilled. We were there by 8:30 and were out within 30 minutes. We are lucky that Texas puts a cap on the fees for adoptive parents. They reduce the rate for adoptive parents to $10/form but cap it at $100. Otherwise it would have cost us $380 so I guess we'll have to thank the TX government for that one. They also gave us a form to hold on to for the future. If we need any additional paperwork apostilled it won't cost us anything since we hit the $100 limit already. Here's a rather cheesy picture of me holding the "baby" before it was on its way. (sorry the camera phone pic is not the greatest)

After we finished the apostilles we went 1/2 mile over to Fed Ex and mailed our "baby" to our agency and sent our home study to San Antonio to Immigration Services so we can complete our I600A. It cost us $60 to mail everything! Good gracious. Most of it was 3 pounds of dossier paperwork! That's how much it weighed on the scale. The doctor says its measuring right on track for this part of the pregnancy. :)

We had so much time to spare that we went over to Babies R Us and perused the store. We looked at cribs, played with strollers and checked out all the high tech gadgets they have out now to monitor the baby sleeping. They've got some night vision systems for baby monitors that rival what Randy uses to fly the Apache helicopter at night. They sure have come a long way since we were kids.

So now the wait begins for "The Call" letting us know when we are going to travel. Right now the plan is for us to travel to the Moscow region the end of January but our agency said if they have an appropriate referral in another region before that they would call and discuss that with us. We've been well taken care of so far, so we aren't worried about the wait. We're in good hands.

We Got It!!

Five copies of our glorious home study is in our hot little hands! Tonight we will finish the last of the dossier paperwork that required information from our home study, Thursday we will have everything notarized and Friday we'll go to Austin and have everything apostilled! I spoke with our agency today and they said we are still on track to get everything submitted before the courts close in Russia for the holidays. Hot diggity!

Now if Tiger and Kar's home study could get to them, we'd all be doing good!

Possibly Friday??

I spoke with our home study agency today and they still have not been able to do any work on our home study. They did say they will try to make it a priority and get it to us by Friday. I'm not going to sweat it, since I know the timing is out of our hands anyway and I've really taken your kind comments to heart about this delay. I know this timing is not ours and someone with a much better handle on the situation is in control!!

In other news, we put our Christmas tree up this weekend. Actually, I put up four trees; our 9 foot formal tree in the living room, our 6 foot family tree in the family room, and two small trees, one is Randy's tree and its all aviator themed ornaments and the other is my tree which is all teacher ornaments complete with yellow ruler garland. I completely understand that this compulsive disorder will have to be put on hold once a baby/toddler enters our home, but for now let me obsess! :-) Here is a picture of our themed trees.

Anyway back to the story, we got our formal tree up and it only gets very specific, color-coordinated, red or gold only, ornaments on it. (Randy loves that about me, ha ha) Years ago Randy's brother worked for Disney in Orlando and bought us three of the cutest Mickey head ornaments. They are just the 3-D shape of the head, all smooth glass, no facial details, kind of an abstract Mickey, and he had both our names put on two of them. The third ornament he left blank for our future child. We've never hung it before but this weekend I finally took it out of the box and told Randy, "This one is for the baby, we don't know them yet, but they already have a place in our hearts and a spot on the tree. This is for you baby Steen." It felt so good to do that! Next year will be even better when there will be a name on that ornament!!

I've Got Frustration in Me

"I've got frustration in me"...one of my favorite lines from the Junie B. Jones books that I read to my students. Unfortunately, it describes me to a T right now. I should be typing a blog that is titled, "Paper Pregnant" but not so. Our home study was promised to be in our hands by Dec 1st and as of close of business today Dec 6th, we do not have our finished home study. We had planned to go to Austin this past Tuesday and have everything apostilled and Fed Ex'd to our agency by now. I picked up our rough draft last Friday and fixed all the errors in it over the weekend. It was under the home study agency front mat by 7:00 am Monday morning and it currently sits in their office without any work having been done to it. Grrr...

I don't know what to do. All our dossier paperwork is finished except the few items that require details about our home study. If I had it today we could be in Austin tomorrow getting everything apostilled. I guess we are just stuck waiting but I hate that I can do nothing. Maybe by next week we'll have it and I won't have frustration in me anymore.

Dossier Physical...Check!

I had my dossier physical today. You know from my previous gripes how much I don't like our clinic we have to go to. I took Melissa's advice and used my ob/gyn for my physical. I was warned ahead of time by Jodi that our clinic refuses to provide the doctor's medical license but she gave me an "easy" way to get the copy. Now y'all know that there is never anything "easy" when it comes to IA so I was a little skeptical at first. I called the state medical board yesterday and got the copies from them, they certified them, notarized them and already mailed them out today for us. The agency told me they require ten business days to complete the request but she understood we needed them to be apostilled by next week and did them while I was on the phone with her. She's even trusting enough to send us the bill for the service along with all the copies we asked for instead of waiting for payment first. I couldn't believe it! I told the lady at the state office that nothing is ever easy in IA and I thanked her over and over again for helping us so quickly. What a blessing!

Well I must have used up all my easiness points for the day because it all changed for my physical. First off, no notary at the small clinic I had to go to. So I went door to door in the office complex while I waited to be called back for my appointment and asked for a notary at every office. One lady across the hall was a notary but she didn't have her stuff with her. Another guy was a notary but he wasn't willing to leave his office and notarize the doctor's signature. My doctor had a roomful of patients so I knew he wouldn't be leaving to get something notarized for me. I ran all over the place looking for a notary. When I got back to the office several of the nurses said they didn't think my doctor would even be willing to complete the medical form for me and would probably send me to my PCP. Great. In the end my doctor was awesome and filled out the paperwork for me and we figured out that I would beg a lady that I work with that is a notary to go with me after school tomorrow and notarize the form for me. She's a great lady and I'm thinking I can bribe her with chocolate. Monday is Randy's physical and he's at the main clinic and I know there is a notary there so he should be okay. Knock on wood.

I also called the Secretary of State's office today to re-re-reconfirm that they will still apostille hand carried items and that they would be done that day and they put me at ease that they would indeed do that. Our home study is done and is available for pickup by Friday. After Randy's appt on Monday, we'll drive the hour drive to Austin on Tuesday and get our dossier apostilled and then overnight it to our agency the next day. Woohoo!!

The sooner we get our dossier to our agency, the sooner we travel. Right now they are hoping to have us in Russia by end of January instead of February. That would be great!

Cha-Ching!

Do you remember how afraid I was to buy baby stuff because I was afraid it would "jinx" us in getting our child?? Um, well yea, that's gone. I've been hunting for a car seat online and found a great deal last night! I bought the Britax Roundabout for $179, no tax and no shipping. I even got it in the tan I wanted so it would match the interior of my car. Babies R Us has it for $220 but I'd have to pay tax, which around here is 8%, so the online price I found is better than anything in the stores.

If anyone is in need of a car seat, here's where I bought our seat. Maybe someone else can get the deal as well.

Baby Steen's First Gift

We spent Thanksgiving at our friends Mike and Wanda's house. We always have a good time when we are with them and this event was no different. It was really cold outside, I think 47 was the high, so the guys went outside to deep fry the turkey while the ladies stayed inside the kitchen getting everything ready.



Mike and Wanda got a new lab puppy a few weeks ago so our dog Bella had some canine companionship. Mike and Wanda have two great kids that adore Bella and smother her with affection whenever we go over. The dogs were wore out at the end of the day and this is what we saw:




Baby Steen got their first present yesterday and it was AWESOME! Mike and Wanda bought our child a Little Tykes Airplane. What do you expect one pilot's wife to buy another pilot's wife for their child's gift??? It's a riding toy that is remote controlled by mom or dad when they are younger and can be steered and powered by the child when they get old enough. It has all these lights on it and makes airplane noises. We are so excited for "junior" to ride on it.


We received news from Immigration Services today. They sent us a receipt for our I600A along with a reference packet about submitting our home study. The letter stated that as soon as we send in our home study they will send us an appointment to get finger printed. We were happy to see a notice from them so we know they received our I600A and it didn't get lost in the mail anywhere. We should have our home study by the end of this coming week and we'll get it sent off to San Antonio.

Russia In the Dead of Winter??

Randy was born and raised in Florida. I was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. We love the warm climates and we like to be in the sun, on the lake, doing water sports. Both of us HATE cold weather and will never live anywhere that requires us owning a snow shovel. So isn't it a bit ironic that two people who cannot stand cold weather will be sent to Russia in the dead of winter to meet their child? God does have a sense of humor doesn't He? We heard from our agency today and it looks like we will travel the end of January to mid-February for our first trip. I don't care if I have to pack suitcase after suitcase of long johns, we'll travel ANY time of the year to meet our child!!

Anyone have a website for electric socks??

Adoption Tee Shirts

I'm always on the lookout for cute shirts or bibs regarding our Russian adoption. I found this site a long time ago and just came back to it this week. I was going on the site to order this helicopter shirt for our little one and decided to search Russian adoption items. I found some really cute and funny sayings that I think I'm going to have made. This one would be cute on a tee shirt. I'm thinking this one for a bib. I'm not sure what I would put this one on, maybe a tee shirt, but I love it!!

The Wait Begins

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." -Dolly Parton

This week begins our wait for our coveted 171H. Our I600A has been mailed and I'm sure we'll check the mail right away every day waiting for news on our fingerprinting appointment. We have a separate FBI fingerprinting appointment this Thursday for our home study FBI check. One would think the Immigration services folks could use the same fingerprints. But as I've been told before, "Suspend logic, both here and in Russia".

While we make progress towards our rainbow in Russia, we'll deal with the rain back here in the states.

Seven Years and No Itch

Today is our seven year anniversary! We met in a hotel parking lot in Mesa, AZ. Doesn't that sound like it's right out of a Danielle Steele made-for-TV movie? Randy was in town from GA at the Boeing plant doing some training for the helicopter he flew in the Army. I was with friends heading to Tempe for Octoberfest and we had to pick "someone" up so he could ride with us. Imagine my delight when we drove into the parking lot and I saw him standing there waiting for us. He was cute and definitely worth the extra half hour that picking him up added to our drive that night! Within a few minutes of arriving at Octoberfest, Randy and I had "buddied" up and spent the rest of the evening together, just the two of us, laughing, telling stories, and already finishing each other's sentences. We exchanged numbers (I still have the Dillard's receipt I gave to him with my number on it in our scrapbook) and we went out the next night. I told my mother after the second night that we went out that I would marry Randy. The rest they say, is history. Who would have ever thought we'd travel around the world a few times together, move as much as the Army moved us, and would now be looking to travel to Russia within a few months to bring home our child. Wow, what a great seven years!! Our day has been pretty low-key, we will go out to a nice dinner tonight at a local Italian restaurant. We didn't exchange gifts with each other, instead we sent the US Govt a big, fat check for our I600A! That's better than any ol' blender anyway, right?!

On to baby news; we finished all the documents that were needed for our home study. The home study agency said we would have our report no later than Dec 1st. We found out that CHI, our first agency, sent our entire home study packet that we had with them to our new agency. This was a relief because all our references and criminal background checks were in that packet and now we don't have to redo all of them. On Friday I was able to get Randy a Dec 3rd appointment for his dossier physical; a major accomplishment with our local clinic to get an appointment so soon.

We went to a garage sale yesterday that a co-worker of mine had. She told me about it last week and said that she would be selling all of her son's stuff from when he was younger. She had a pack-n-play that she told me about ahead of time and I sent Melissa, Amy, and Adrienne an email on Friday asking them for advice on whether or not we should buy it. They all agreed that it would be a good investment and when we got to the garage sale we saw it was in great condition. My co-worker had TONS of clothes for sale and it took me a long time to go through everything but I did. We bought lots of clothes for our son. Ralph Lauren sweaters, Polo rugby shirts, Nautica dress shirts, Polo cargo pants, Polo jeans, Nike shoes, OshKosh baby shirts; everything was marked .25 cents!!! The stuff doesn't even look like it has been worn. I ended up buying over 20 shirts, 7 pairs of jeans, 5 pairs of shoes, pajamas, and mittens. We decided that whatever doesn't fit him we will donate to the orphanage. We also bought extra shoes and gloves to take to the orphanage. I couldn't pass it up for 25 cents! We also bought a 100 piece Mega Block set for ages 1 and over. I also bought several board books all for .25 cents apiece. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Mouse Paint, Goodnight Moon, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Barn Dance and 5 books on shapes and colors. We did really well at the garage sale. As I type this, we currently have baby clothes in our washing machine right now being cleaned so they will be ready for our child. I can't believe it; this is so exciting for two people that have tried and waited soooo long to have a child!

I guess on our seven year anniversary we aren't doing any "itching" because we are too busy nesting and getting ready for our child, and my heart feels so good inside right now. This is the kind of happiness that a fancy anniversary gift could never buy, this is the kind of happiness that comes all because two people met and fell in love...

Progress

We were able to check several things off the "to-do" list this week.

We had our fire marshal inspection this week and it went fine. I worried over nothing. The only thing we got dinged on was we didn't have access to our circuit breakers. The panel is in the garage and one of Randy's tall, red Craftsmen tool boxes is in front of it. Apparently you are required to have 36" on each side of it. There wasn't even 36 mm of clearance around it but I told her we would fix it.

I had my TB test this week and it was clear. I had my HIV/Syphilis test today at the county health dept. I was having trouble finding a place to do our Hep B&C test that didn't cost over $150/person. When I was at the lab today I told them about my troubles and asked them if they knew anywhere I could go. Both nurses looked at each other, one nurse closed the door and whispers to me, "Because you are doing a good thing by adopting, I'll do the test for you, but I'm not supposed to since you aren't a regular client here. (Um, thank goodness I'm not a regular client at the Thursday STD clinic!) I do have to charge you the fee though, it's $54.50." I stuck out an arm and told her to stick me. I had $53.00 in cash on me and they only take cash. I ran to the ATM next door and paid them the rest of the money. At lunch I called Randy and told him to go there and tell them who he is and see if they would do it for him too and they did!! All our results will be back in two weeks.

You know we've had lots of problems with getting physicals and I decided to take Melissa's advice and have my ob/gyn do my dossier physical. He's the nicest guy and was always asking if we needed any help back when we were trying for a bio baby. I have the last appt of the day on Nov 28th so all my lab work will be back in time and he can complete the dossier physical. Now we just need to get a physical for Randy but I've got a plan up my sleeve to get him a physical sooner rather than later.

Our toys from Constructive Playthings arrived today! Didn't I order those just a few days ago? The push in go caterpillar and giraffe are ADORABLE and they are already out of the package and being played with. The photo album is really cute and the picture openings are nice and big so we can put bigger pictures in them but yet the album is still compact. Does that even make sense? I recommend that website, their prices were good and I only paid for standard shipping and it got here fast.

At dinner tonight we talked names, finally! Randy told me tonight, "We really need to start coming up with names." So I seized the moment and we took the baby name book to dinner. We are down to two but are throwing a million middle names into the mix. We will probably leave the middle name open until we find out their Russian name and see if it works.

Progress!

Tag, I'm It

I've been tagged by Jane so here goes...

Job's I've Had:

1. Sales person in Handbags & Accessories Dept at Broadway Southwest

2. Bank Teller

3. Sales person in Men's Dept at Dillard's

4. Temporary summer jobs as receptionists

5. Kindergarten & First grade Teacher

Places I've Lived:

1. Phoenix, AZ

2. Glendale, AZ

3. Flagstaff, AZ

4. Tucson, AZ (that about covers the state of AZ)

5. Savannah, GA (Hunter Army Airfield)

6. Daleville, AL (Ft. Rucker)

7. Harker Heights, TX (Ft. Hood)

Foods I Love:

1. Mexican (AZ Mexican, none of this TexMex stuff)

2. Seafood (especially shrimp and crab)

3. Italian

Places I'd Rather Be:

In the nursery rocking our son to sleep, singing lullaby's while he gently takes his little fingers and scratches at my arm and snuggles in.

Places I've Traveled:

1. All over the west coast of the US

2. All over the southern part of the US

3. Midwest states

4. Mexico

5. Hawaii

6. Korea

Movies I Love:

1. Pretty In Pink

2. Dumb and Dumber

3. Joe Dirt

4. Star Wars (even if I was afraid of Darth Vader in my toilet)

Shows I Watch:

It's safe to say that our DVR is just about maxed out on the number of shows we can record!

1. Desperate Housewives

2. Lost

3. Army Wives

4. Amazing Race

5. Little People, Big World

6. The Hills

7. Survivor

Books I Love:

I'm not a big reader, shhhh don't tell my students. I LOVE children's books and enjoy reading to my students in lots of different voices and styles. I like to read catalogs and magazines. That's about all my attention span can handle. I prefer crossword puzzles to reading and go through a crossword puzzle book a month.

I'm going to add two more things to be answer when you get tagged...

Your Favorite Physical Feature About You:

My eyes, they change color depending on what I'm wearing, like my dad's eyes, and one eye has a brown freckle in it.

Current CD In Your CD Player:

I've got a 6 disc changer in the truck but it has:

1. Double cd set of the 80's greatest hits

2. Linkin Park

3. Depeche Mode

4. Two "WOW" Christian Hits cd's

All right, Kar and Michelle, you've been tagged!!

Thanks to everyone that taught me how to add the hyperlink the pretty way!!

I Did It!

I ordered something for the baby! Whew, that felt good! Now that I took the first step, I'm on a roll, better put the credit card back in the safe.

I found a soft, fabric photo album from Constructive Playthings to take with us on Trip #1 and leave with the baby. It is brightly colored and has plastic covers on top of the pictures and at the end there is a little mirror on the last page for them to see themselves in the photo album. That was the selling point for me! If anyone is interested in it here is the link: http://www.constplay.com Unfortunately it won't let me link directly to the photo album but you can put it in the search window and it is the only one that comes up. If anyone knows how to make the link not look like a link and look like "Constructive Playthings", let me know how to do it. Jane, I think I've seen you do it on your blog before for the AAI link. How did you do that? Oh, I also got one more bonus, when I was checking out I took their customer satisfaction survey and my thank you gift was a year subscription for up to four magazines. Family Fun was one of them so I now have a free one-year subscription to that magazine.

Anyway, after finding the photo album I came across the Push Pals giraffe and caterpillar similar to the one Iliya was using in the video Melissa posted on her blog. Here again, I would love to find out how to link her blog without it having the web page address print out. I decided to order the giraffe and caterpillar as well. I'm sure our son will enjoy them on our wood floors and probably drive the dog crazy with them.

Randy called on the way home from work and I excitedly told him about my "break through" and told him I not afraid to order baby stuff anymore. His reply..."Oh lawd!!" :-)

We also bought all the outlet covers tonight and the cabinet locks. We have our fire marshall inspection on Wednesday and they require the house be totally baby proofed at the time of the inspection. It is pass/fail so we have to get it right. We also had to upgrade our kitchen fire extinguisher from a 3 lb to a 5 lb. Believe it our not, even with my cooking, the other one was never used but the fire marshall said if it is old, we have to show proof that it was serviced every year. Twenty bucks at Walmart for a new one was a lot less headache!

So there you have it, baby steps towards breaking the jinx, but I'm doing it!

Letting Go of the Jinx

I've mentioned before that in the seven years that we've tried to start a family we haven't bought any baby things for fear that it would "jinx" us. That sure did pay off...insert sarcasm.

Now that a referral looks like it will be sooner rather than later for us, I'm ready to let go of the fear and start buying baby stuff. I'm looking for some good children's magazines to subscribe to. The other day when I was at our home study agency there was a postcard for a free subscription to American Baby and I was going to take it but then it dawned on me that we won't have a baby so a lot of the information wouldn't be relevant to us. Are there any good magazines out there for toddlers or adoption issues that you could recommend?

Randy and I also talked names the other night. There are a couple of names we (translated means, "I" like and Randy nods his head every now and then to appease me) like and have talked about using. But again, we have never nailed anything down for sure since we didn't want to jinx anything. Lately when we refer to the baby we call him Junior. "We'll have to buy Junior this or we'll show Junior how to do that". I told Randy the other night that we need to start using the names we are thinking about and see how they sound. The guys at Randy's work refer to our son as Ivan but I told Randy we will not name him Ivan. They ask him how we are doing on the paperwork to get Ivan or any news on when Ivan will come home. I really envy people that picked a name years ago and have always wanted that name the whole time. That would make things a lot easier for us.

I guess it's time to start buying stuff for the baby and letting go of our past fears and start to focus on the future. It's time to order magazines, say some names out loud, and let ourselves get excited for what is ahead of us.

Seasons Change

Fall is coming to central Texas and you can begin to see the changes. The grass is not growing like it was this summer, the trees are starting to change to yellow, the temperatures are starting to cool off to the high 70's, and before you know it daylight savings time will be here and we'll be falling back an hour. Change is inevitable. Sometimes we meet change with opposition and dread and sometimes we greet it with open arms and embrace it. This is one of those times when Randy and I are welcoming change and look forward to what change has in store for us.

A few weeks ago I was reading a fellow bloggers post about changing agencies and getting a referral almost immediately and it made me start to really question our decision to use CHI as our adoption agency. The agency was always very helpful to us, well organized with paperwork, and had a great reputation, but the recent turnover in their agency, lack of reaccredidation, and the increasing wait time for a referral started to send up some red flags. We were kind of naive about IA and thought that every agency had a year long wait time for a referral, but the more I started to look at other agencies the more I realized that we did not need to wait so long. I brought up the idea of switching agencies to Randy and he gave me some good points to ponder, but as I continued to research other agencies, the more it appeared to us that leaving CHI was what we needed to do.

After finding another agency, we made the decision to leave CHI and start fresh with our new agency. We felt it was the best timing for us before we got too far into the process and lost a lot of money. CHI was very understanding and worked with us on refunding all of our money that we had paid up to this point minus the application fee. What a blessing.

Our new agency is very small and has an outstanding reputation. They have their reaccredidation and currently have an extremely short, to no wait time for a referral in the age category that we are looking for. We truly feel like this is where we are supposed to be.

While we were switching agencies we managed to find an independent agency here in town to complete our home study. Our home study is finished and we are just waiting on the written report to come through. They are aware of our push to get it finished as fast as possible and are working to finish the home study as quick as they can. Our I600A will be mailed this week and we were told by an adoptive parent here in our town that used our new agency, that the San Antonio office that we will use got both of their 171H's (they did two separate adoptions) to them in four weeks. Our dossier paperwork should be here in the next couple days and is a very close match to CHI's so we won't have to change a lot of things. We were over half way finished with our dossier paperwork when we were with CHI.

At this point, we are going to get our dossier submitted as quickly as we can and then we should be getting our referral very soon after our dossier is submitted. Things are now happening so quickly that we are almost nervous that we will be ready for a baby by the time it all happens. Somehow I think we'll be able to work that detail out after 7 years of trying to have a child. :)

Thought for the Week

I think this quote is applicable to our lives this week.
"Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it's letting go." -Sylvia Robinson

I hope everyone has a great last week of October and for those of us that are waiting for a child, I hope this is the last Halloween without a little ghost or goblin by our sides!!

You're Just Going to Have to Tough it Out...

I think I've been pretty vocal about my dislike for my insurance company, Scott and White, and our local clinic that we are assigned to here in town. I've got four more reasons to be unsatisfied with that place.
1. Deep inner ear infection
2. Strep throat
3. Bronchitis
4. Pink eye

These were the findings yesterday when I FINALLY got in to see the doctor. I called last Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. for an appt that day. I told them I was really sick and took the day off of work and would like to come in. Nope. They were already booked by 8:30 a.m. but they could let me come into the lobby and do a rapid strep test on me. Fine, I'll take whatever I can get because I was hurting so much. I had my test and they told me they would call within 45 minutes and let me know the results. Three hours later I called them and they said it was negative. I asked them if they could see if the doctor would call in a r/x for some antibiotics, anything, to get me feeling better. I was running a 102 temperature and aching all over. They told me they could send an "electronic message" to the doctor and see if he could do it but it might not be until the next day that he would do anything.

I take the second day off of work and I get a call from the nurse around 4:00 explaining that the doctor thinks its probably viral and there is nothing they can do...."You're just going to have to tough it out and let it run it's course." She told me to give it a week and see how I am.

Yesterday was over a week and I got in to see a Phys Assistant and he quickly started writing prescriptions. I still had a fever and I have a "very deep" inner ear infection, a nasty case of pink eye, bronchitis, and oh what a surprise, my throat is "extremely red and irritated and covered in white bumps"...strep!

Today is day two on my antibiotics ($65 worth, and that is with insurance!) and I am starting to feel A LOT better. I swear, someday I'm going to live in a town that has good medical care and I don't have to go through all of this just to see a doctor and get some relief! I just hope when we get our child home that I'm not dealing with this kind of silliness to get them some help when they are sick because I have a feeling that mama bear won't be so nice about it when its my little cub feeling bad.

You Say It's Your Birthday...

Yep, I'm turning 37 today. Eek!! How did 37 get here so fast? Is it just me or do the birthdays seem to be speeding up the older I get? My wonderful husband spoiled me with a Homedics Shiatsu chair massager. I L.O.V.E this thing and I can tell I will get hours of enjoyment from it. In honor of my birthday y'all get to read 37 things about me (I stole this from another blog) that you might not know.

37 Things About Me:
1. I was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ.
2. I have one sister that is six years younger than me.
3. My parents have been married for 42 years.
4. I was born the day before their anniversary, what a gift huh??
5. I’ve lived in Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas.
6. Georgia is my least favorite state, Alabama is my favorite state.
7. The first album I ever owned was Def Leppard Pyromania.
8. When I was four I told my friend Debbie I had the sharpest teeth in the whole wide world and they could bite her finger off. She let me try it and I ended up getting a spanking and sent to bed. She still has the scar to this day.
9. I can name all my elementary and junior high teachers I’ve ever had.
10. I can sing all 50 states thanks to a song my music teacher taught us in the 5th grade. (50 Nifty United States)
11. My mother said she knew I would be a teacher from the time I was little because I was the bossiest kid on the street.
12. I cut my own tonsils out with a plastic PVC pipe when I was five.
13. I love riding on the Harley with Randy. The times we are out together on his motorcycle are my happiest moments.
14. My father made me a motorcycle mama from the time I was little (I think about 3 or 4 years old) when he would let me ride on the gas tank of his dirt bike and we’d ride through the desert by our house. (I'll have to scan that picture sometime to show you)
15. I have never seen “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” nor “Grease”.
16. I theater hopped one time in my life and was scared to death of being caught the entire second movie.
17. After seeing “Star Wars” when I was young, I was afraid to use the toilet for fear that Darth Vader would come up from inside and get me.
18. I used to make up skate dances to Xanadu in my driveway when I was young.
19. I made my own red and white yarn pom poms for my skates to wear in above mentioned Xanadu skate dances.
20. I hate cold weather and cold weather sports like skiing and sledding.
21. I love warm weather and being out at the lake in the sunshine.
22. I played competitive league soccer for six years.
23. I always wanted to be a cheerleader in high school but I couldn’t do a “Russian” (that jump where you spread your legs out to the side and touch your toes) so I never got the courage to try out.
24. I’m fiercely patriotic and hearing the “National Anthem” sung at ball games or events bring tears to my eyes every time I hear it.
25. I love aircraft of all types and LOVE going to air shows with Randy. I guess it’s a good thing I married a pilot!
26. My first try at a university ended with a .96 GPA (that’s not a typo). My second attempt at a university resulted in a 3.9 GPA and graduation with highest honors. Go Sun Devils!
27. I eat chocolate chip cookie dough straight from the tube.
28. I have a passport and it actually has stamps in it!
29. My travel goal is to see the Seven Wonders of the World. So far I’ve only seen one; the Grand Canyon.
30. Before I die, I WILL be on The Price is Right. (I just wish it was with Bob and not Drew, I miss you Bob!)
31. I can change my own oil, change a flat, and jump-start a car. Thanks dad!
32. My mother taught me how to sew and I’ve made all our curtains in this house. Thanks mom!
33. A few close friends means more to me than being someone that name-drops a bunch of people they are friends with but haven’t spoken to in months.
34. I am a closet tree hugger that is worried about the environment.
35. I named my parakeet Sam after the cutest guy in the 7th grade. (I know, cheesy)
36. I am madly in love with Randy and I think he’s the cutest, funniest, most loyal man I’ve ever known.
37. I want to be a mommy before I am 38.

We're Still Here

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here and we are not:
a) pregnant
b) moving
c) sick

I had no idea my post about cancelling our home study would worry so many people. I'm sorry to have given some of you a scare. I had no idea how many of you read this blog and don't leave comments (cough cough Sarah and Kim cough cough) until I get a phone call asking me "what on earth is going on with you" or "you better not be moving". We are still not able to post on our blog what is going on right now with our adoption but I can tell you that Randy and I are so excited about everything and have so much hope on the adoption front for the very near future. I promise I will update everyone as soon as we can talk about it because I'm literally ready to explode with excitement!

Cancelled Our Home Study

We decided to cancel our home study. There are some changes ahead for us and we decided to cancel now before our adoption went any further. There are still a few things that need to be done and then we'll be able to update everyone on what is going on with us.

Weekend Fun

We had a great weekend in Fredericksburg for the Oktoberfest. We always love getting out in the RV and seeing new places. We've driven through Fredericksburg several times but never stopped and spent more than one night there. It was so much fun and we were able to visit with our friends, shop, listen to live polka music (you don't get to do that everyday) and we did some hiking.

I've included a few pictures of our weekend fun:

Enchanted Rock outside of Fredericksburg, TX. Second largest granite mountain, no clue what the first largest is. We climbed to the top of this.

The three of us as we started the loonnnggg climb to the top of Enchanted Rock.

Randy and Bella took a break halfway up and enjoyed the view.

We made it to the top!

You can't go to an Oktoberfest and not take a picture in front of the six foot tall beer mug.

I got to do some shopping and the stores of Fredericksburg did not disappoint. I actually let myself buy something for the baby. We don't shop for baby stuff b/c we've never wanted to "jinx" ourselves but I couldn't help buying this little plaque when I saw it. I'm going to hang it on the door of the nursery.

I came across a quote this weekend that made me immediately stop and take it in. Lately, I've started having dreams about our baby. The dreams happen right before the alarm clock goes off in the morning and when I wake up I try to keep the dream going in my mind because it feels so good. This quote is how I feel about our child when I have these dreams:

"You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, that's where I'll be waiting" ~Tinkerbell

Have a great week everyone!!

Houston We Have A Home Study

We received a call today from our home study social worker. She will be here next week for her visits! October 13th and 14th are the magical days. I really don't know what to expect, except that she told me that she will meet with us together first and then the next day will meet separately at our house with her while the other person is in another room. She said she will not do the white glove test but she will go through the house and check smoke detectors, outlet covers, and fire extinguishers. We don't have outlet covers and I told her that up front. Do you think we should get them now or wait until our child is ready to come home? I need to have Randy check both of our extinguishers and make sure they aren't expired.

We are leaving for Fredericksburg, TX tomorrow for Oktoberfest. We are taking our RV there and meeting up with some friends that we like to RV with. So that leaves only the week for us to get things ready. Really all we have to do is vacuum, mop, and dust and we'll be fine. But heaven help us if she wants to see the garage. I hope she travels with a hard hat!

Feel free to let me know what to expect so we aren't surprised by anything.

Getting Rid of Worry

My friend Kathy sent me an email this week that was a story about a man who always had a positive attitude all the time and when someone asked him how he stayed so positive he said that everyday he had the choice to be positive or negative and he chose to be positive. It was a nice email and was inspirational but at the end of the story there was a bible verse that has stuck with me ever since I read the story:

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Wow! What an appropriate verse for a person trying to complete an international adoption. I know I can be a worrier. I worry about reaccredidation for our adoption agency, I worry about what Putin is doing to the Russian govt, I worry about getting all our paperwork done in a timely manner, I worry about how we are going to pay for the adoption... I can really worry myself if I let it go. But after reading that verse, it is starting to sink in that I need to let that go and let the worry go. Thank you Kathy for the email, I really needed it at this point in our adoption and it has really touched me.

Earlier this week I had decided that at the beginning of each week I would type an "inspirational quote" blog in an attempt to start my week off on a good note and pass along a funny or touching quote to others. After getting Kathy's email I decided that today's entry was a no-brainer on which quote to use. Hopefully, someone will find as much value in it as I did this past week.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

That is what people say when they've been given an award right? Thank you for the emails and comments on "Blog of the Month". I was pretty surprised when CHI contacted me about it a few weeks back. I've never blogged before and I have no formal training (isn't it obvious) in writing. But I did have a great 2nd grade teacher named Mr. Gerard that loved to teach us creative writing. He was the coolest teacher to have in 1977 and he was your classic hippy. Long hair, scraggly beard, and he'd wear these huge, black biker boots everyday. He used to bring in his guitar and teach us songs like "House of the Rising Sun" and "Yellow Submarine". As a teacher today it amazes me that he got away with teaching seven year olds the lyrics to "House of the Rising Sun" but it was the 70's. Singing aside, the man did a great job instilling a love of writing in me and it's something I enjoy doing to this day.

I hope that my blogs can bring a smile to someones face and help put a little humor into the llllooonnnggg and sometimes painful road to being a parent that many of us are facing. There are just some things along this journey that you have to laugh about, otherwise you would go insane.

But beyond the "Blog of the Month" title, my greatest compliment came from my mother a few weeks ago when she started reading my blog. She told me, "You write like Erma Bombeck, very witty and funny." Wow, that was the BEST compliment anyone could give me and I wish I had just 1/10th of Erma's talent. I think I'm a pretty funny person and I like to make people laugh. Randy is THE funniest person I know, besides my dad, so I hope we get a child that loves to cut up and be silly just as much as his parents do, otherwise the poor boy is doomed to a lifetime of rolling his eyes over his parents sense of humor. I have faith that he will catch on, we'll make a class clown out of him in no time!

I'll leave you today with my favorite Erma Bombeck quote, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and I could say, 'I used everything that you gave me'."

That Was Fast!

We mailed our home study packet on Tuesday and figured the United States postal service would do its darn-dest to get it on the fastest mule they had available and figured it would be several days until our packet made it up the road to Dallas. Wrong! It was in CHI's office the next day much to our surprise. Our CHI rep sent an email to say she needed a couple weeks to review the packet and copy it and would get a social worker assigned to us for our home study. Surprise #2...we received an email the next day with the name of our social worker!

We also found out that the paperwork has changed for the dossier and country registration and the change looks like it is for the better. I sent an email to our CHI rep to clarify a few things before I get my hopes up too high but from what I can gather, a lot of our paperwork is already complete minus the 171H and the home study verdict. We've had some great news this week and I've been humming that song, "I'm Walking On Sunshine" since we got our social worker assigned to us, which beats the "Do Your Ears Hang Low" song I've had stuck in my head since I taught it to my kiddos on Wednesday.

Randy is flying late tonight so I'm getting ready to settle into the recliner to watch "Blades of Glory" and feed myself heaping spoonfuls of chocolate chip cookie dough straight from the tube. TGIF!!

Birthday Girl

No, its not my birthday yet, you have 33 shopping days left until my birthday, but we have a four legged birthday today...our chocolate lab Bella! Actually, we call her Bella Jean since she's a southern gal. She's one year old today. Bella is the GREATEST dog and has brought us so much happiness. Two years ago our beloved lab Bailey died from cancer and it absolutely devastated me. She was with me for 11 years and everyone loved Bailey. The vet used to tell me that she was a "once in a lifetime dog" and that all our subsequent dogs would all be horrible after having such an incredible dog. I swore I'd never get another dog again after going through all that pain but God knew differently and along came Bella. She is a great dog and even our vet agrees that she's another "once in a lifetime" dog.

Bella is s-p-o-i-l-e-d rotten but she spoils us rotten too. She gets to "snuggle" with Randy on our recliner and she gets to sleep in the bed, she is convinced that she is still the little 8 lb dog we brought home from the breeder and can sit in our laps. She even gets gravy on her dinner as a treat. Funny story, a month or so ago we were talking with neighbors and were talking about putting gravy on Bella's dinner. One of the guys said, "You don't have kids do you. Because nobody with kids would actually take the time to put gravy on their dog's food." True, so true! But she's our baby! So until we get a two legged baby, you have to endure pictures of our four legged baby.

Bella's first day home:

Bella loving on the neighbor's daughter when I was baby sitting. She would be awesome with a little boy or girl running around here.

And here she is, one year old!

It's done!

Finally, everything is finished for our home study packet and it will be mailed out tomorrow. We had our physicals today which weren't without some sort of drama. We saw a resident so we could get in earlier but I had no idea we'd be seeing Doogie Howser! He was really young and just a little thing. When he came in the door he introduced himself and shook our hands and literally did a spinning, twisting jump up onto the examining bed without using his hands and holding onto our files the entire spin/leap. Pretty impressive gymnastics for early morning. He led our appointment sitting on the bed with his little feet dangling off the side. He asked us some standard questions, listened to our hearts and lungs and then signed off on all the paperwork. As he's leaving to get it notarized I mention to him that we need to get a copy of his medical license so we can check the medical report for the dossier while we are there. He says to us, "I don't have a medical license." Excuse me? "I only have an in-house license good for Scott & White." You've got to be kidding us. Then he proceeds to tell us he is not even an M.D., he's a D.O. which is not acceptable for international adoption. I specifically asked the scheduling lady over and over again if he was an M.D. and was assured over and over again that he was. He ended up finishing our paperwork and we were quickly on our way home. I called our case worker today and explained it to her and she told us not to worry, that she would make it all work out for us. Whew! Getting a medical evaluation has been the hardest part for two run-of-the-mill healthy people to get.

It doesn't matter anymore, it is over and we are done with our home study packet!! On to the next task...the dossier, which I'm not worried about because we have a lot done already and after this health physical ordeal, I'm thinking, "Bring it on, I've taken on bigger giants than you!"

Back in the Saddle Again!

Sing it with me...'cause I'm back in the saddle again!' It has been crazy the past few weeks. I have had so much going on with school starting back that I haven't had a minute to blog. As you know I moved schools this year and moved to a new grade...Pre-K! Oh what fun Pre-K was. I liken the first few days of teaching Pre-K to herding cats. It's not something for the faint of heart. Pre-K kids are quite the challenge the first few days and I had a really good class; only a couple toots to keep me on my toes, like my beloved J who was in the class bathroom for several minutes when I heard him yelling, "crash, boom, bang". Worried, I opened the door to check on him, and saw him standing there buck nekked with a very startled look on his face as shreds of toilet paper were trickling to the ground like confetti at a parade. It was at that moment that I think I felt grey hair number 72 pop out of my head.

Anyway, our Pre-K numbers were "too low" at 14-15 per class and our Kinder numbers were high at 25-27 so the district made the decision to move me to Kinder, in the middle of the week, and on Thursday I got to move my ENTIRE classroom that was already fully set up, to the Kinder hallway and I was given a class this past Monday. Fortunately, my admin team helped me A LOT and the teachers on my grade level all pitched in and the move went smoothly. I have a great kindergarten class and I've really had fun with them the past few days. They walk in a straight line, they sing with you instead of watching you sing, and they have yet to strip themselves down to use the bathroom. (knock on wood) It's good to be back in Kindergarten.

And just to keep things interesting, I came down with a really bad cold after three days in Pre-K that is just now going away. As most of you know, I don't drink alcohol of any kind, but I was at the point in my head cold that I was chugging Robitussin straight from the bottle and following it up by wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve and slamming the bottle down like a gunslinger in an old west film. Thank you Robitussin people, whoever you are!

We are less than one week away from our physicals. As soon as the doctor fills out the form, it will be lovingly placed in our home study packet and sent to our social worker and we will be finished with our home study paperwork!! We have heard that our referrals from our friends and family are starting to show up to the adoption agency so everything is moving along nicely (knocking on wood again) and we are looking forward to the next phase of the process.

Dynamite Comes in Small Packages

When I was younger I played soccer and played on the competitive/select teams that you had to try out for. I was always the smallest girl trying out for the teams and before a try out when I was worried about being the smallest player on the team, my father would tell me, "Remember, dynamite comes in small packages," trying to remind me that no matter how big the challenge is don't ever give up. That is something that has stuck with me over the years and it's always been a reminder to me that when I want something, I can achieve it no matter what. I like to call that determination, but I think sometimes Randy calls it hard-headed. (ha ha)

With that in mind, I called the doctor's office today and pleaded my case to yet another person and told them my sorry tale of how long our adoption would be held up by waiting until November for our physical. The lady on the other end put me on hold for quite some time and when she came back she said they can get Randy and I in on Sept 17th!!!!!! Yeehaw!! I guess determination or hard-headedness, whatever you would like to call it, pays off!

Kidney's on Ebay

I finally got through to our doctor's office and the good news is they can get us in on Nov. 18th rather than Nov. 24th!! I'm so glad I went to all that effort to get us in earlier. *insert sarcastic tone* I spoke to Randy about it tonight and we have decided to go out of network and pay for a physical on our own dime. I'm not sure what that cost nowadays but I have a left kidney I'm willing to part with in order to raise the funds. We have made so much progress on our paperwork in such a short time and it makes me sick to think we will be put on hold for almost three months just for a general physical. I know everything happens for a reason and timing is not our timing but God's timing, but I would like this adoption to happen before I'm eligible for the Seniors discount at Denny's. Tomorrow I will begin the hunt for a local doctor out of network to give us a general physical. Anyone know how much kidneys go for on Ebay??

Oh and for those of you that asked about my first day in Pre-K...well let's just say there are no longer any brownies in the pan and it is only day two with a room full of four year olds. Heaven help me!

From Mrs. Steen to "Mommy"

It's that time again, another school year begins and I no longer have the luxury of sleeping in everyday. I'm really hoping this is my last year to teach. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be a mommy. I switched grade levels this year and will now teach Pre-K. GASP!! What have I gotten myself into? Meet the teacher night was last week and I met all but one of my students and I must say, they are really sweet and there were a couple that I could have taken home, they were so stinking cute. So I look forward to tomorrow but I'm nervous. I'm not sure who is more nervous for tomorrow; me, the kids or their parents. Check back with me in about three weeks and we'll see how I'm holding up.

Randy and I had a nice, lazy, last weekend of freedom and I need to take this moment to brag on my husband. For those of you that can't handle this kind of sticky, sweet, sentiment...turn your heads. For the rest of you, I have the greatest husband!! Last week I worked A LOT of hours trying to get ready for school and trying to complete adoption paperwork. By Friday I was so exhausted from all the long days and late nights that I took a 45 minute nap on the floor of my classroom in our class library. I curled up with the blanket I use for class picnics, turned out the lights, closed the blinds and went to sleep. As the week drew to a close, our house was not looking it's usual neat and tidy self and I came home on Thursday night after open house to find the laundry going and dinner being made by my darling husband. Then yesterday he helped me get the house whipped into shape by vacuuming the floors and cleaning the kitchen. The final icing on the cake was tonight when he washed my car for me after I complained about how dirty it was. I'm a lucky girl and sometimes I feel guilty that God has blessed me this much while others are not so lucky in love. Randy truly took care of me this week when I needed it most.

Last night we took our friend's children to Austin with us for the Red Bull Flugtag. Have you ever seen the commercials on t.v. where the people make their own flying machine and launch it into the water? We've seen it lots of times and said if it ever gets close to town we'll go. Apparently 100,000 other people in the Austin area had the same idea. We had no idea it would be so packed. We didn't see the show and couldn't find a spot to sit all together. Luckily for us, the kids are so easy going and such great kids. It's one of the reasons we love taking them places and always have fun with them. Even though the Flugtag was a "flooptag" we had fun with the kids and stopped on the way home at Chuy's for some awesome Mexican food, something our little town is desperately in need of. It was a nice way to spend my last weekend of summer.

Well I hear the timer going off, I made brownies tonight to take to work tomorrow. The amount of brownies I consume tomorrow will directly correlate with how my day went with a classroom full of four year olds. Let's hope there is something more than just crumbs left over tomorrow afternoon, and let's hope this is my last year teaching for a few years while I make the transistion from Mrs. Steen to Mommy.

Progress!!

Update: 8/23/07
We are continuing to make progress on our paperwork. I found out we do not have to do the FBI check so we can delete that item. We have not had success making a doctors appointment for our physical. Our mega, massive, take-a-number, health care provider said the first available date to get us in for a physical is November 24th!!! I have a personal call in to our doctor but he is out of the office until Friday so we are waiting to see what we can do there. Thank you Melissa for teaching me how to do the line!! I'm half way through my autobiography and I hope to finish it this week. Tonight is meet the teacher night and I can't wait to meet my darling little angels!

We are making good progress on our paperwork. Yahoo! Below is the list of what we have left to do and I think you'll agree compared to the list that I posted last week, we only have a little bit left to complete for our home study.

To Do:
1. Photocopy of I600A
2. General physical from our doctor (appt will be made on 8/21)
3. FBI check
4. Employment letter (my new contract came out today so I was waiting for the updated $ amount)
5. Financial statement (see reason above)
6. Autobiography
7. Country fee (It did not arrive in our paperwork from St. Louis)

That's it!! Progress, sweet progress, in just one week.

A glimpse into my future

I went shopping yesterday at the Round Rock outlet stores. Now I know this would be torture for some of you, (Randy, cough, cough) but for those of you that don't know, I am a shopper. I love to shop for shoes, clothes, bathroom towels, scented soaps, socks, toaster ovens, you name it, I love to shop for it. I am one of those crazy women that is up at 4:30 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving to be at JCPennys for their door buster sales and I fully support any legislative bill that would deem "Black Friday" as a national holiday. My love for shopping is not just a hobby, but a passion and something I would be proud to list on my resume when applying for a job. I love to shop, period.

Yesterday at the outlet mall, I had a moment in which I was able to see into the future and I think I may have scared myself. It was the tax-free weekend here in TX, again I could support that being a national holiday, and the mall was packed. But unlike shopping during the holidays when the malls are just full of people, yesterday was packed with families shopping for their children, something I've never been able to do. Kids were every where, crying babies abounded, three year old children screaming to go on the motorized pony one more time, and I was constantly dodging and weaving strollers. Single strollers, double side-by-side strollers, umbrella strollers...I had never seen so many strollers in my life. And it dawned on me as I tried to weave my way through the Tommy Hilfiger store and I watched these families try to squeeze those double strollers through the aisles that having children puts a serious crimp on shopping. It suddenly became clear to me that in only a few months I'm going to be one of those tired, glassy eyed women that I saw yesterday trying to get their children to hold on for one more store so they could finish their shopping.

Then it happened, my saving grace in a pair of pink Crocs...a little girl with a bouncing pony tail who looked about three years old yelling for her mama to come look at all the pretty jewelry. Every time her mother would pull another pair of earrings off the rack the little girl would ooh and aah and clap her hands at how pretty they were. She cheered for necklaces and head bands and told her mother the pink flowered belt she saw hanging up would "match my Crocs perfectly" and I realized that maybe, just maybe God would give me a little pint sized shopper that I could pass along my passion for shopping, like Yoda to a young Jedi, and I would have someone to second my motion enacting "Black Friday" as a nationally observed holiday, someone to agree with me that if done correctly, white shoes past Labor day are okay, and someone to cheer and clap over her new pretty earrings that match her pink Crocs "perfectly".

Not for the faint of heart

Updated 8/17/07
We printed off quite a bit of paperwork today and will get it notarized tomorrow. Luckily, my school secretary is a notary and she said she'd be happy to notarize everything for us for the low, low price of a Gin and Tonic. I've bolded and italicized everything that we've completed since I don't know how to draw lines through it like my friend Melissa can do on her blog.

Several people have asked me about the amount of paperwork we have to fill out and what kind of forms they require, etc. I think I've finally got enough strength to type out the list of what they require for the home study. Keep in mind this is just the home study list and the dossier will be a separate issue that we will have to collect information for. Here goes...

1. Copy of any previous home study
2. Reference letters (5-7)
3. Pre-adoption questionnaire (part complete together, part completed individually, Randy finished his and it is 23 pages long)
4. Written directions to our home
5. Photocopies of birth certificates
6. Photocopies of marriage certificates
7. Photocopies of divorce decrees
8. Photocopy of I600A (this goes to Immigration services)
9. Medical report for each of us from our doctor
10. Letter from local police checking our police record
11. Central child abuse registry clearance
12. FBI check
13. TX Dept of Public Safety check
14. Employment letters
15. Financial statements
16. Photocopies of insurance cards
17. Copy of recent 1040
18. Photocopies of passport pictures
19. Autobiography for each parent (detailed as possible, should be at least 5 pages)
20. Cultural questionnaires
21. Guardianship form
22. Pictures of us together and specific pictures of our home
23. Psychological evaluation
24. Press release
25. CIS release of information (I'm forgetting at the moment what CIS stands for)
26. List of references
27. Adoption agreement
28. Country fee schedule
29. Commitment to Excellence form
30. Grievance policy
31. Home Study agreement form
32. Floor plan of our house with room sizes and what each room is used for

Not to bad huh?? And that is just to get someone out to the house to complete our home study. The good news is we have about 10 things completed from that list. It's progress! We worked the other night on it and I just sat at the computer scanning documents and printing them from the printer while Randy ran from room to room collecting all the items for me. We had a good system going and got a lot done even though compared to the list it doesn't seem like much. I have one more question to answer on my questionnaire and then I'm done. Today we are meeting up at my school to get a bunch of documents notarized (our school secretary is a notary thank goodness) and then we can cross a bunch of other stuff off the list.

I better cut this off here. I need to get to the police department this morning to get my fingerprints taken so we can cross some more things off the list.

I think we just demolished a small forest!

Our paperwork arrived today! In it was our official letter of acceptance which was exciting and reason to take a ceremonial picture but completely overwhelming at the sheer amount of paperwork that is going to be needed to adopt. Fortunately I have Randy to keep me focussed and tell me that we will just take it one step at a time, which is all you really can do. But let me have my omi-good-ness freak-out moment...there is so much to do!!! We need to do everything from financial statements to finger printing, to background checks, to submitting the floorplan of our house with room measurements and uses for each room, to medical checks, to letters of references from friends and family, to our autobiography. Like I said in the title, I think we may have wiped out a small forest today with all the paper we are using.

That all aside, this is really such an exciting time for us and we are thrilled to be overwhelmed with paperwork at the moment b/c it means we are moving forward. Also, on a positive note, our agency rep requires a 45-60 minute meeting with us to help explain all the paperwork and help us get it all started. It makes me feel good to know that we have someone looking out for us and wanting everything to go as smoothly as possible.

It's on, it's off, it's on...We're approved!

I know there is a big time difference from my last post until now but I've been waiting to get the good news that we are approved with CHI and post this exciting news to everyone. Unfortunately, I was not able to do this. Approval with the agency should take two weeks and at the two week mark we had not heard anything. I called to see what was going on and found out that we qualified to be approved but we were on hold indefinitely because the Russian govt was reconfiguring some laws and policies. No surprise there, its kind of how our luck has been over the past 6 1/2 years that we've been trying to start a family.

Yesterday I received a phone call at work. I have already gone back to get my classroom set up because the district has asked me to be a district level mentor and teach a week of New Teacher Induction (NTI) to the over 500 new teachers coming to our district this school year. So I am missing out on a week of prep time for my classroom and I've had to go in early and work. Anyway, back to the phone call...it's me and the crickets up at school b/c no sane person has returned this early and the secretary calls over the loudspeaker that if I'm at school to buzz the office b/c I have a phone call. I NEVER get calls at school and I knew Randy was flying so of course my stomach sinks. I call the office and the secretary tells me, "Some lady from a Children's something or other is on the phone, do you want to take it?" Uh, YES!! I think I set a new speed record for fastest time to the office and it was Stella on the phone from CHI calling to let me know that we are no longer on hold and that she is mailing the paperwork out today for us to start our home study. She said the bad news is the Russian govt did say they will no longer adopt out any girls younger than 16 months and that the referral time might take up to a year after our dossier is submitted but the good news is they are still accepting adoptions.

Finally we can post and let everyone know that it is official, we are adopting from Russia!! It will be about 2-3 months for us to get our dossier complete and submitted mainly b/c of the sheer amount of paperwork and getting everything notarized and apostilled by the state. After that its another couple of months to get it translated into Russian and then we wait for a referral. We are requesting either a boy or girl, no special needs, under the age of two at the time of referral. We have no medical conditions or criminal backgrounds that make it harder for couples to adopt and limit the regions in Russia they can adopt from so hopefully it won't be hard for them to match us with a child. Feel free to put us on your prayer lists and pray that things will move smoothly and quickly for us.

I guess that is about it for now. I will be updating everyone through this blog so you may want to bookmark it on your favorites ;-) and check in every so often for news on our progress. We are so excited to get started and hopefully about this time next year we will be close to being a family!

I also wanted to tell you to leave us comments and questions and we'll do our best to answer them.

Sticker Shock

We went to the informational meeting yesterday in Austin that CHI offers. It was informative and worth the trip to Austin. I'm glad we went since some of the information provided to us in the brochure we received this week had already changed. And wouldn't you know the part that had changed was the price. We were planning on the adoption costing about $22,000 to $25,000 but we found out the amount is now $33,000. GULP! Hence the title of this entry, "sticker shock". Looks like Randy will be airing up his bike tires in order to pick up a paper route for extra money. :-)

Nonetheless, we have begun to fill out our initial application to CHI and are trying to determine if we want to become a party of three or a party of four and adopt twins rather than one child. But more children equals more money, again, see the title of this entry. Where's that Magic 8-Ball when you need it??

In the beginning

As many of you know, Randy and I have tried unsuccessfully for over 6 years to start a family. I've been poked, prodded, given pills, given shots, tried vitamins, given more vials of blood than the Red Cross would need in a disaster, elevated my tush, stood on my head, and, well you get the picture. We've tried a lot of things to get pregnant but it just never happened. The doctor's call it "unexplained infertility". Basically I'm a freak of science but that's not polite to put on one's medical records so they give it a little less offensive label.

Adoption was always in the back of our minds but we still didn't want to give up on having a child of our own. We couldn't understand why God wouldn't let us get pregnant. We are a college educated, home owning, gainfully employed, loving couple. Why can't we get pregnant?? We always figured God had other plans for us, but I had it in my mind that I was going to speak to Him about it one day and ask Him what the deal was. I started to wonder if something bad was in our future and God knew and didn't want me to get pregnant so one of us wouldn't be left as a single parent. I know, very dark, but the mind can really do a number on you when you are trying to sort out the meaning of life. Luckily, I think I've got it figured out (insert chuckle) and I'm beginning to realize that God knows that somewhere over "there" a baby waits to be adopted and loved by a college educated, home owning, gainfully employed, loving couple....us!

So here we are preparing to submit our paperwork to be accepted by Children's Hope International (CHI) and pursue an adoption of a Russian boy or girl. They say it could take a year or more for it to happen, but the way we see it, its already been over 6 years so what is one more?! We realize its a long, expensive road that is ahead of us, but we are excited at the prospect of knowing that we could finally have a family. No longer a party of 2 at the restaurants but a party of 2 and a 1/2. :-) Someone to yell, "higher daddy" as Randy pushes them on the swings, someone to turn the pages of Green Eggs and Ham as I read them a bedtime story, someone to accept wet kisses from a big ol' chocolate lab, someone to make us a family.