I guess I got stressed for nothing yesterday, and I feel calmer today, and a little more peaceful.
Our contract with our agency was going to run out on Dec. 1 since it looks like Vietnam is not going to have an agreement with the US by then. So, that is why we were looking into Russia.
Our agency emailed yesterday, saying that they would extend our contracts with them for Vietnam until June 1. At first I was all upset, wondering what to do. Do we stay with Vietnam for another 10 months, only to be told they are still not done with negotiations? This could drag on for years! Or do we change to Russia now and then in June or before, find out that we should have stayed the course in Vietnam? I was flipping out, hating that I had a choice again, when as always the voice of calmness and reason (AKA Aaron) spoke up and reminded me that we weren't ready to start in Russia now anyway.
Since we can't financially start a new adoption yet, I think we will stay on the Vietnam list. If we had the money for a new adoption, we would probably get off the Vietnam list and go ahead with Russia. Since we can't act on Russia now anyway and our agency is giving us a chance to wait out Vietnam a while longer, I think we are going to stay on the waiting list. What's it going to hurt? If we get financially able to start another adoption before June 1 and if Vietnam is no closer to a decision, we will reevaluate what to do next and I can not worry about that decision until then. Or if a wonderful thing happens and Vietnam does open back up to the US, then we will probably be close to the top of the waiting list by that time.
On a different note, Aaron took off yesterday and we went to an American Heritage event. It was great. We went last year and it had Native American dancing etc. plus a lot of other stuff. It was outside. This year, due to the cold, they moved it inside and had a lot less stuff to look at, but I actually liked it better this year. The American Indian that led it was very interesting and catered his talks towards the children. The dancing was the best of any festival that we have gone to. (seems we average about 3 a year) It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, since we were so close, we went to the Children's Museum that we have yearly passes to and spent about 1 1/2 hours. Then came home.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
House Warming and other things
Our housewarming went great on Sunday and it was very nice. Aaron and I were very overwhelmed by the generosity of those that came. Aaron stayed home with Hannah during church Sunday morning since she was still in the midst of her respiratory virus, then he met us in the parking lot at the church building. We got fast food for lunch and ate it at Mom's apartment, so that we wouldn't get our house dirty, then headed to the house, leaving Hannah with Mom so we wouldn't spread her germs. We didn't tell her that we were having people over to our house. The older girls kept mum about it and we played it up that Sunday afternoon was her special day with Grandma alone.
Anita, the lady that planned it all, arrived early to help me set up and some of the other planners and food bringers arrived early also. I think Aaron counted about 40 people that came, not including children. We had a good time. There were almost as many men as women, and the announcement in the bulletin did specify that men were invited. We had the Titans game on mute in the living room and everyone seemed to have a great time. The housewarming was from 2-3:30, but a few friends came and stayed until a little after 4pm. We had a lot of fun, and I am so thankful for our church family. If you have never moved away from your hometown or your parents, I think it is hard to understand how genius it was that God gives us a family here on earth, whether we are related to them by blood or not. When you don't have family around, and even if you do, the church family becomes your family.
Unless something happens in the next few weeks with Vietnam, Aaron and I will be changing countries...again. Lately, I have been pretty down about the adoption. But, God has given me hope and excitement again, and I can't wait to get financially able to start again. It will be worth it. All this excitement, then disappointment, then excitement, then disappointment, it is leading us to our child. The child God has chosen our family for. Yipee!
I guess I will go ahead and tell what country we are looking at now. Russia. Now this is subject to change, but it has some things going for it.
I started surfing the net again, reading about other countries, giving the info to Aaron and keeping quiet, letting him decide what to do. Trying to put my opinion in , only if he asks. Anyway, I emailed a few agencies wanting info, and one that I liked(on the internet) sent me a bunch of stuff by email, but also called me yesterday and we talked for a while. A side note...for some reason, our computer will not open links that people send us, arrghhh, which is what most people send from agencies. These last few days, I have had to go to Mom's and use her internet to open the documents sent to us. Unfortunately, Mom doesn't have a printer, so last night, Aaron unhooked our printer, took it to Mom's and hooked it up to her computer, so we could print off some of the information. What a pain.
With their agency and Russia, she said the wait for a girl was usually 10-12 months. I thought she meant 10-12 months after turning in the dossier you got a referral, then you waited months before actually bringing your child home. But no, she meant 10-12 months from the application to their agency to bringing the child home. WOW! Even better than that, we already have most of the dossier paperwork done. I mean, this will be the 3rd dossier I have done in less than 2 years. Since our homestudy is done, we have passports, we have registered with CIS, etc. it shouldn't take much to update and have it turned in. So having that stuff done will probably take 2-3 months off of her projected waiting time. I hope to be ready to start with this next adoption in less than 6 months. I would love to start sooner, but we'll see how many hours I can get in at work.
We have to take 2 trips to Russia. The first will be approx 5 days where we meet the child, accept the referral, and fill out paperwork. Then we go home for 1-2 months, the get invited back to Russia. That trip is 10-21 days long and you go to court, get the child, finish the process and bring her home. It is exciting and terr
Anita, the lady that planned it all, arrived early to help me set up and some of the other planners and food bringers arrived early also. I think Aaron counted about 40 people that came, not including children. We had a good time. There were almost as many men as women, and the announcement in the bulletin did specify that men were invited. We had the Titans game on mute in the living room and everyone seemed to have a great time. The housewarming was from 2-3:30, but a few friends came and stayed until a little after 4pm. We had a lot of fun, and I am so thankful for our church family. If you have never moved away from your hometown or your parents, I think it is hard to understand how genius it was that God gives us a family here on earth, whether we are related to them by blood or not. When you don't have family around, and even if you do, the church family becomes your family.
Unless something happens in the next few weeks with Vietnam, Aaron and I will be changing countries...again. Lately, I have been pretty down about the adoption. But, God has given me hope and excitement again, and I can't wait to get financially able to start again. It will be worth it. All this excitement, then disappointment, then excitement, then disappointment, it is leading us to our child. The child God has chosen our family for. Yipee!
I guess I will go ahead and tell what country we are looking at now. Russia. Now this is subject to change, but it has some things going for it.
I started surfing the net again, reading about other countries, giving the info to Aaron and keeping quiet, letting him decide what to do. Trying to put my opinion in , only if he asks. Anyway, I emailed a few agencies wanting info, and one that I liked(on the internet) sent me a bunch of stuff by email, but also called me yesterday and we talked for a while. A side note...for some reason, our computer will not open links that people send us, arrghhh, which is what most people send from agencies. These last few days, I have had to go to Mom's and use her internet to open the documents sent to us. Unfortunately, Mom doesn't have a printer, so last night, Aaron unhooked our printer, took it to Mom's and hooked it up to her computer, so we could print off some of the information. What a pain.
With their agency and Russia, she said the wait for a girl was usually 10-12 months. I thought she meant 10-12 months after turning in the dossier you got a referral, then you waited months before actually bringing your child home. But no, she meant 10-12 months from the application to their agency to bringing the child home. WOW! Even better than that, we already have most of the dossier paperwork done. I mean, this will be the 3rd dossier I have done in less than 2 years. Since our homestudy is done, we have passports, we have registered with CIS, etc. it shouldn't take much to update and have it turned in. So having that stuff done will probably take 2-3 months off of her projected waiting time. I hope to be ready to start with this next adoption in less than 6 months. I would love to start sooner, but we'll see how many hours I can get in at work.
We have to take 2 trips to Russia. The first will be approx 5 days where we meet the child, accept the referral, and fill out paperwork. Then we go home for 1-2 months, the get invited back to Russia. That trip is 10-21 days long and you go to court, get the child, finish the process and bring her home. It is exciting and terr
Aaron's parents are coming this weekend. Trying to go cheaper by cooking all the meals here at the house, I was so proud of myself today that I made a menu for the weekend and bought all the food, now it is just a matter of cooking it. Not counting breakfasts, I have 2 lunches and 2 suppers, 3 of which are going to cook in the crock pot. I love the crock pot. Speaking of which, I was planning on getting it all ready in the crockpot inside pot, don't know what you call that part, and putting it in the fridge, so I can pull it out in the morning and start it cooking before we head out to coop classes. Better get to browning my cube steak.
ifying at the same time.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
I probably shouldn't be posting this late at night. Or maybe this early in the morning, since it is 12:17 am and I have a big day tomorrow. A friend from church wanted to throw us a house warming party. I am very grateful that people want to do this for us, but a little nervous about how it will go. Our house is only 1200 sq. ft.. Small by most people's standards. I don't decorate. I actually went out this week and bought some hand towels with leaves on them, to hang in the bathroom, bathroom mats for each of the bathrooms, and pretty soap dispenser/toothbrush holder matching sets. Stuff we "needed" anyway. That is the extent of it. When I look at things, I see the big picture. I don't see details. I might look at our living room and see that everything is put up and in it's place, but never notice the cobwebs in the corner, dust on the tv, or dirty floorboards. Unless I am actively making myself look for them. Then when people come into my house that I know are detail people, then I get a little selfconcious. Wondering what they are seeing that I am sure I have overlooked. I hope it is a fun time.
I am trying to convince Aaron to have a little fire going in our firepit in the back yard, for people to roast marshmallows on and to get some people outside. I think the planners have greatly overestimated the size of our house. Plus, even though they invited whole families, I don't think that many men will come, and that can get Aaron out of a house full of women. If you know Aaron, you know he will not be looking forward to that part of it.
Madelyn and Natalie are still getting over their respiratory virus with the ever present cough, that seems to be lasting forever. I am taking them to church in the morning though, it has been days since they have had a fever.
Hannah went to bed Thursday night and woke up an hour later with the barking cough and stridor. I figured it was a matter of time before she succombed to it too. I got up early Friday morning, and made arrangements to meet someone about 5 miles from here that could take the videos and paperwork to my class at the coop, since none of the kids were well enough to go. I was so glad I caught the lady before she left. It was cold and pouring down rain, and I didn't want to go 30 miles to the school just to drop something off.
I worked 7-11 last night and tonight. We spent all day cleaning. I will be glad that we have a clean house, but it is tiring. Aaron is staying home with Hannah in the morning, then I think he is going to go to Mom's apartment about the time church should be over. We will eat there, so we don't have to clean up lunch at our house, then we will leave Hannah with Mom, and the rest of us can come back and wait for the company.
I am trying to convince Aaron to have a little fire going in our firepit in the back yard, for people to roast marshmallows on and to get some people outside. I think the planners have greatly overestimated the size of our house. Plus, even though they invited whole families, I don't think that many men will come, and that can get Aaron out of a house full of women. If you know Aaron, you know he will not be looking forward to that part of it.
Madelyn and Natalie are still getting over their respiratory virus with the ever present cough, that seems to be lasting forever. I am taking them to church in the morning though, it has been days since they have had a fever.
Hannah went to bed Thursday night and woke up an hour later with the barking cough and stridor. I figured it was a matter of time before she succombed to it too. I got up early Friday morning, and made arrangements to meet someone about 5 miles from here that could take the videos and paperwork to my class at the coop, since none of the kids were well enough to go. I was so glad I caught the lady before she left. It was cold and pouring down rain, and I didn't want to go 30 miles to the school just to drop something off.
I worked 7-11 last night and tonight. We spent all day cleaning. I will be glad that we have a clean house, but it is tiring. Aaron is staying home with Hannah in the morning, then I think he is going to go to Mom's apartment about the time church should be over. We will eat there, so we don't have to clean up lunch at our house, then we will leave Hannah with Mom, and the rest of us can come back and wait for the company.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
This morning I stayed home from church with Natalie because she has a horrible cough and a fever. She says her throat hurts, but I think it is more from the cough. Hannah has complained of a sore throat all afternoon, but no fever yet. I am sure I will be making the trip to the doctor for Natalie in the morning.
Yesterday, we had a ton planned. Work called around 8:30 wanting me to work 11am to 7pm. We decided I would go in and that left Aaron to do the running with the girls. Madelyn's soccer party was at the skating rink at one and we had some free passes for the other two, so he took them there. Unfortunately, Natalie was starting to feel bad and he didn't realize it until he was already there. He said she laid on his lap almost the whole time.
There was a birthday party at the church building at 6, so took Madelyn and Hannah and dropped Natalie off at Mom's since by then she was running a fever. I got off work about 7:10pm and went straight to the church building to relieve Aaron. We stayed at the party long enough for me to eat some pizza for supper, then we left and dropped Madelyn off at a Halloween party that all the kids were invited to, but I decided to just leave Madelyn. I asked what time to come back and pick her up and the mom said that she would meet me in town around 9-10, she would call. Hannah, Natalie and I stayed at Mom's apartment the whole time waiting, and finally at 10:45 I called to let her know I would just come get her. I was so tired. But she was fixing to leave, so she met me in town and we got home and went to bed.
Natalie had a tiny cough and a fever of 100.4 for about 2 hours on Thursday, so I went ahead and scheduled an appt for her and Madelyn at 8am Friday morning. Madelyn has poison ivy pretty bad on her legs and on her face. Well, Natalie didn't run a fever at all that morning so I just had the doctor look at Madelyn and they all got the flumist nasal spray, and since Natalie wasn't sick we all went to Friday coop a little late.
Princess the dog is doing so good. She did poop a few times in her cage, but I wonder if it wasn't from the antibiotic the vet put her on that gave her the diarrhea. We have a tiny porch off of our kitchen that has walls around that are around 2-3 ft tall. There was a nice big doghouse left by the previous owner, so we cleaned it out, put it on the porch and at night, we put the kiddie gate across the steps into the yard and that keeps her safe from coyotes, neighbors dogs, and whatever else might show up at night. When she gets full grown we won't worry about gating her in so much. I feared she would yelp all night, but so far she doesn't. I put her out there at night, lock the gate, and she will stay out there and sometimes when she hears us in the kitchen in the mornings, she will whine in excitement and I will open the gate for her. I am so glad that we have a sweet dog.
I stopped having the Ladies' lunches at church in May I think. Where we would eat once every other week for lunch on Tuesdays. Well, I had planned on continuing that through the summer, but stuff would come out, then we closed on the house and I had so much packing and stress with the well. So, I finally scheduled it for Tuesday and now I have 1, possibly 2 sick kids, and I don't know if it is just from thinking about it, but my throat is a little sore. I hope I get to go.
Yesterday, we had a ton planned. Work called around 8:30 wanting me to work 11am to 7pm. We decided I would go in and that left Aaron to do the running with the girls. Madelyn's soccer party was at the skating rink at one and we had some free passes for the other two, so he took them there. Unfortunately, Natalie was starting to feel bad and he didn't realize it until he was already there. He said she laid on his lap almost the whole time.
There was a birthday party at the church building at 6, so took Madelyn and Hannah and dropped Natalie off at Mom's since by then she was running a fever. I got off work about 7:10pm and went straight to the church building to relieve Aaron. We stayed at the party long enough for me to eat some pizza for supper, then we left and dropped Madelyn off at a Halloween party that all the kids were invited to, but I decided to just leave Madelyn. I asked what time to come back and pick her up and the mom said that she would meet me in town around 9-10, she would call. Hannah, Natalie and I stayed at Mom's apartment the whole time waiting, and finally at 10:45 I called to let her know I would just come get her. I was so tired. But she was fixing to leave, so she met me in town and we got home and went to bed.
Natalie had a tiny cough and a fever of 100.4 for about 2 hours on Thursday, so I went ahead and scheduled an appt for her and Madelyn at 8am Friday morning. Madelyn has poison ivy pretty bad on her legs and on her face. Well, Natalie didn't run a fever at all that morning so I just had the doctor look at Madelyn and they all got the flumist nasal spray, and since Natalie wasn't sick we all went to Friday coop a little late.
Princess the dog is doing so good. She did poop a few times in her cage, but I wonder if it wasn't from the antibiotic the vet put her on that gave her the diarrhea. We have a tiny porch off of our kitchen that has walls around that are around 2-3 ft tall. There was a nice big doghouse left by the previous owner, so we cleaned it out, put it on the porch and at night, we put the kiddie gate across the steps into the yard and that keeps her safe from coyotes, neighbors dogs, and whatever else might show up at night. When she gets full grown we won't worry about gating her in so much. I feared she would yelp all night, but so far she doesn't. I put her out there at night, lock the gate, and she will stay out there and sometimes when she hears us in the kitchen in the mornings, she will whine in excitement and I will open the gate for her. I am so glad that we have a sweet dog.
I stopped having the Ladies' lunches at church in May I think. Where we would eat once every other week for lunch on Tuesdays. Well, I had planned on continuing that through the summer, but stuff would come out, then we closed on the house and I had so much packing and stress with the well. So, I finally scheduled it for Tuesday and now I have 1, possibly 2 sick kids, and I don't know if it is just from thinking about it, but my throat is a little sore. I hope I get to go.
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