A Weekend of Productivity

Well, I have had a very productive few days. This past weekend I went home to attend a JDRF family retreat diabetes conference in St. Louis. I have never been to New York, though I would like to, I have never been to LA or San Fran or even Chicago, unless you count flying in and then flying out on a connecting flight, but I have been to London and Edinburgh, Orlando, KC, and various other smaller cities and none of them get to me the way that St. Louis does! I love the arch, the zoo, the parks, the skyline, the old muddy Mississippi river, The Blues, Rams (minus Mike Martz!), and CARDINALS!! It just feels like home to me more than any other city I have been to. So I went to the JDRF conference with my sister and my niece, Tori. Tori was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 4 and as with many diseases, it is always a learning, growing educating experience. We had a great time, while my sister and I learned how to manage her diabetes better when she is sick, Tori got to act like a carefree child, something that isn't always possible since everything in life isn't sugar free/carb free and every body isn't running around armed with the knowledge necessary to recognize high and low blood sugars! We had good food and being there made me realize how much more of an active role I should take in helping support JDRF and their efforts.
Another accomplishment that happened is that Jeff and I finally bought a different car. We have been hemming and Hawing for over a year about what car to buy, what is more economical yet still environmentally responsible and more fuel efficient. Well, after much debate we finally took the plunge and bought a Toyota Matrix, not as fuel efficient as a Prius or other hybrid, but more in our price range, not as big as a Rav 4 or CR-V, but more fuel efficient and more in our price range. It will fit the dog, baby G and hopefully our camping gear (which we will find out about soon enough as we gear up for our first camping expedition this March). It is white with a sunroof, YAY! and a 6-disc CD changer, never had one before, but it's nice to have options!
The most important news I saved for last. We got all of our paperwork that we received in our travel packet done and our visa pictures and all that stuff is ready to go in the mail tomorrow! Yay! We also received our email notification that our paperwork is officially at the Consulate, so that is good, at least it is somewhere and not just floating around in space! LOL! The biggest problem we have is telling people where our paperwork is now and what that means and how long. They start to get that glassey eyed stare when you start saying things like "then it goes to the MOE" or "then the MFA matches your to a child" and when you say that it could take as long as 12 months I really do think I know what it feels like to be a pregnant elephant! So yep we are still waiting and still have some waiting left to do, which I am grateful of as it gives us a chance to do the mountain of things we need to do BEFORE we travel, not limited to getting the money together for the adoption and learning some Russian!!!! AHHHHHHH! Well, that is what time is for and with that in mind maybe I should go practice my Russian! Paka!

Moving Forward

I thought that I would start my entry off with a picture and a story about my neice, Tori. (She's the one in the pink hat, not the fuzzy one with the big ears!) Tori is 8 yrs old and the only grandchild on my side of the family. She has been immensely excited about getting a new cousin and has been enthusiastically helping Uncle Jeff collect cans to recycle to help with some of the costs. My mom, or grandma, jokingly complains all the time about how the back seat of her car is always full of cans and having to wait for Tori while she runs to pick up a can she has spotted. That being said, before Christmas for an assignment her teacher had everyone write a letter to Santa Claus to be published in the local paper. Tori's letter was as follows:
Dear Santa,
I hope you have a good Christmas. I wanted to ask you something. Can I have a panda bear that comes with a little one and a wreath and two boxes of cans so my Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jeff can adopt a baby that's all.
From,
Tori
We just thought that was the sweetest letter. We had my mom save the newspaper clipping with her letter so we can put it in Baby G's baby book so we can show him/her how much he/she was wanted!
On another note, we received our travel packet yesterday and I was SOOOOOO excited, until I started to read/ scan through it! All the information!!! It makes income tax forms look like a childrens book! So, I am going to attempt to break it down a little bit at a time and time is something I have! What we have read has made us start to rethink our original plans. We had originally thought that we would just do it all in one trip with Jeff leaving for the US after court and my mom coming over to help me with Baby G until we returned home, but they make it sound like it might be more complicated that way than just making the two trips. I had just figured I had the time that I could stay in country and 1.) It would give me some extra time to really get a feel for the Kazakh culture and 2.) I didn't want to have to leave our baby for a month because I didn't want to leave Baby G and two I thought it might make the transition process a little easier. I guess that is something that we will have to really think on even more now! Otherwise, we now have a more official list of what to bring, along with a list of suggested items from my yahoo group, and can REALLY start collecting things to bring with us on our trip(s). Time to get busy!

A Little Slick, but Still Have Power!

So I have been feeling a little cooped up lately, so I thought that I would write a little. We had a small ice storm this past weekend, but nothing us veterans couldn't handle. Of course, we didn't even lose power which does make things a bit easier! Finally this weekend they are calling for some snow. We got sleds for Christmas about 3 years ago and have been able to only use them one time! I swear we had more opportunities before we got them! Well, on the adoption front we have to send our agency some more paperwork, mostly the new form that is now being required since it wasn't in with the rest of our paperwork! There's always something! With all the questions going on about our particular program/country I had this overwhelming sense of peace about our whole process the other day. I am confident that we were going the right direction. That doesn't mean that the journey will be easy or without heartbreak, it just means that it is the right one for use to be taking.

Just waiting and wondering

So like I stated in my last entry our dossier paperwork is gone and now we are waiting. So far it hasn't been long so I am still pretty sane, well I am at least just as insane as I was when we started so that is a good thing! There have been a lot of different things happening with our program and when I think about those I get anxious and a little nervous and just want to go over to get our child just so I know that everything is okay! It breaks my heart to hear of families coming back home without their child, but some of these families have such a good faithful outlook that I am encouraged by them and the way they face their disappointment. I have been substitute teaching and it keeps me busy and reminds me almost daily the many things Jeff and I have to look forward to. For example, today I subbed for a first grade class and as luck would have it a front moved through our area and brought with it freezing rain and sleet, not quite as fun as snow, but the kids were so excited about it they could hardly stay in their seats! Okay, so maybe winter weather gets me a little excited too, but having a child to share that excitement with, OOOOHHHH WHAT FUN!! Although after the wonderful ice storm we had last year and going 14 days without power I will say the white fluffy kind of winter weather is much more to my liking! Well, I have rambled on long enough! And for some of the bloggers out there that were wondering about being too early to make Christmas cookies...NEVER, I managed to get two batches of some of mine done already! Have a good Christmas Season!

It's in the Mail!

So finally after months of getting paperwork together and stressing about the best way to go about the paperwork, it's finally done and in the mail to our agency!! I am thrilled, Jeff is happy too, but not so much as me since I was in charge of the paperwork. Now we wait to see if we get the all clear and they move it on to St. Louis. We are praying! In the meantime we had a garage sale to help offset the cost of the adoption and with a lot of help from family and friends made a tidy sum to put towards the expenses. We are still working on other ideas and maybe now we can really focus our attention on that since we will be in a holding pattern until we hear from the government of Kazakhstan/our agency. What a great day!! WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Looking Forward to Waiting

Well, here we are in September. We made it through the scorching month of August without melting or bursting into flames. The adoption is coming along for those of you that are reading this blog for that very reason! We should have the final copy of our homestudy in hand by the end of this week or next week. I need to get all my dossier paperwork to my agency to look over before we get it appostilled, but as far as I know it is all ready to go. The only exception is pictures of the house. We were waiting until the grass was green again, well now it is green, but needs to be cut! Always something. I am kinda anxious to be in the waiting stage. WE are doing pretty good with our recycling endeavors and in a years time we might break $100, okay maybe more than that! As far as everything else, I have applied to substitute teach to help bring in money for the adoption AND I am planning on doing some reffing for volleyball. I should stay pretty busy! My friends and family have been so excited and I swear they are always giving us something new for the baby, which only just fuels our excitement and makes us want to hurry over to get our little one, but right now we wait. I guess I have rambled on long enough. I'll keep ya posted!

The Heat is On!

Well, here it is August and things are now at a sweltering simmer, and that's just the temperature! We now have the all the pieces to the puzzle to get the home study completed and most of our paperwork seems to be in order for our dossier Aside from the Home study and the letters from our social worker the only piece of paper we are missing for our dossier is the Approve USCIS application. We've been checked and double checked by seemingly ALL police type agencies and fortunately we came out clean! We were REALLY worried (nah!). As we finish the dossier paperwork we will really go into a holding pattern and just be waiting for a referral and an invitation to go to Kazakhstan. In the meantime, Jeff and I have set about on an aggressive can collecting campaign (Look out cans, here we come!) Between that, collecting and recycling printer cartridges and old cell phones, and a couple other fundraising ventures we hope to fund our adoption. The good news is with ALL the recycling we are doing, Baby G will be the most eco-friendly baby in the family! Not much else to say, if anyone wants to give their pop cans, cell phones or printer cartridges to a good cause we will gladly take those off your hands! Until next time!