Saturday, March 29, 2008

Easter Cuteness

Well, E's first Easter was a smashing success! He really had a lot of fun, okay we had more fun and he didn't really care all that much, but it was a great day. He was excited to "find" his basket when he got up, was an angel in church and had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here's a few highlights:





And after the very long day......

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Productivity is a Wonderful Thing

I've had a very productive 2 days. Took a snow day yesterday - no way, no how was I going through that hairy four-hour commute home again like during last month's big snowstorm. We got 14 inches yesterday and home was a very nice place to be snuggled up with my favorite little munchkin.

On the adoption front, I mailed off our I600A today with a big, fat check for the US Department of Homeland Security. Our new home study is not complete yet, but the application along with a letter of request and our birth certificates (which I originally forgot to include and noticed it about 2 hours later - gotta love small towns, the lady at the post office dug out the envelope and opened up again to let me come back and include them) will at least get us an appointment for fingerprinting. I'll send the home study next month or whenever our social worker completes it. Then, we sit back and wait for the coveted I171H.

We also got our donation request packets out to 35 area businesses for our silent auction in June. Hopefully we will get some great items donated.

We have an appointment with our social worker Sunday, April 6. She will do E's final post placement report and also our new home study. I cannot believe we're doing his last report already. Next month it will be one year that he's been with us and he also turn 2! We took a week of vacation for the same week we were in Bishkek last year and will do some fun family things that do not involve crazy foreign drivers, weird food, or really, really long plane trips! We're having a Curious George themed birthday party - his first one at home! His first birthday party was awesome, but a little subdued - it was just the three of us in a small hotel room at the Ak Keme in Bishkek and a tiny, little cake that I was too afraid to eat. E was a sport - I know that had to have been the most frightening week of his life, but he put up with us putting a hat on him, taking tons of pictures and he even tried to rip some of the paper off the presents. Here's a look back at birthday number 1:




Friday, March 14, 2008

Ready to Fly.....

YIKES! Don't tell me I've got another aviator on my hands - the stress will kill me!




Here's a cool picture we got a few weeks ago after the three of us went for a little walk outside:

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

WE'RE PREGNANT!!

Gotcha, didn't I?!

It's true, though, we ARE pregnant, just in a nontraditional sense. We just packed up our formal application packet with a very large check (thanks Uncle Sam) and our friends at FedEx will have it delivered to our agency by the end of the week. I guess this is how great it feels when you pee on that stick and see those two lines. I personally have not experienced that, but I'm sure it's just as wonderful as this is.

While we are thrilled and excited to move forward, we do so with trepidation. We have just enough funds to complete our application, INS advance processing and home study. This means, if we receive a referral in the next 4-6 months, we will not have the funds necessary to accept the child much less travel to bring him or her home. That scares the pants off us to say the least, yet at the same time our hearts and souls tell us this is the path we are to follow at this time.

We pray that with spring upon us our fundraising efforts will really take off and we humbly ask once again that you consider checking out some of our fundraisers (all of which can be found in the margins of this page) and of course, pass our web address on to all of your family and friends. You know the old saying "it takes a village to raise a child". In our case "it takes a village to bring ours home".

We hope to have more exciting updates in the very near future.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Waiting........

I kind of forgot about the pain involved with this part of it. The endless waiting on other people to come through for you. Having to depend on someone who really could care less about your cause to do things that are vital to it's progress is exhausting. I am a self-proclaimed control freak and the thing about adoption is that you surrender all control to everything! A very wise adoptive mommy reminded me last week that this is OUR passion, it is not anyone else's. It is up to us and us alone to make it happen. The only control I have left is how I choose to react to our situation. That's a tough pill to swallow because today, I'm not real pleased with our situation.

The broker that is supposed to be working on our refinance has pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth and I suspect it is because she has found out that she cannot make good on the promises she made us. Our federal tax refund has not yet arrived so our formal application materials sit, all filled out, waiting to be mailed. Our appointment for our home study which was to occur in the next couple weeks has yet to be scheduled and no one seems real concerned about any of this.

To top it off, we've been dealing with some medical concerns with E and that is causing much anxiety and stress.

So, after a little pity party and some pouting, I have taken a few steps towards resolutions, I hope. We've contacted a new mortgage company who came highly recommended to help with exactly what we need. The broker is friendly, yet very much business (which I like) and while he is not as confident as the last one, I'm trying to remain positive that he will come up with a good deal for us. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our tax refund will show up in our account any day now, of course, when it comes to the Feds, crossing your fingers is about all you can do. I'm sending off an email to our agency coordinator requesting an appointment as soon as possible. And, today, I decided to request our police clearances - one teeny, tiny, little piece of the dossier puzzle. Might as well start the hunting and gathering, right?

Tomorrow WILL be a better day!