Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Be Still!

Not to put a damper on my last update. But, after our case manager reviewed our INS approval she noticed that INS had the wrong expiration date for our fingerprints..Ugh! What these means is that we have to wait for INS to reissue our an approval. I have been told by other internet people that this could take two to three weeks. I know, I know, you would think this should be fairly easy, but let us not forget that this is INS and the federal government which moves at a total different pace than us. However, I am going to remain positive on this. I know and trust that there is a reason for the delay. Sure I wish it did not happen, but we are so close to seeing and being referred our baby that I can feel it in my bones. As I told my staff at the office how many first time mothers were dilated at 1 cm for weeks on end..Many was there reply, so I figure I am just a paper pregnant mom dilated at 1 cm...So for right now I am going to Be still and wait for our INS approval. With of course daily reminder emails to our contact...HEE HEE. On a different note, we are going to see my dad this weekend up in Charlotte, N.C., which should be a lot of fun. I have never been to Charlotte and have heard that it is beautiful.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Come on everyone lets party!!

Good news!!!! We got our INS approval in the mail yesterday. YIPPIE...I am so excited and happy. The whole set of events is ironic. As you can tell I was getting a little anxious about it. Julie was kind and gave me the INS website. As I did not have our application number I called Brad to see if he could recall when we sent our application while I was on the site. Just as soon as I got the question asked Brad said you don't have to worry about it a letter from INS was in the mail. Brad just happended to go home for lunch so he checked the mail while he was there...It is so cool, and I am so excited. One hurdle has been crossed. Thank you God!!!
Lastly, I am so happy that Julie finally got updated medicals on their beautiful boy, go over to her blogg and give her some blogger love...

Thursday, August 25, 2005

waiting

Ok, so it has only been 25 days since INS received our completed homestudy and I am getting anxious. I know it can range from 6 to 8 weeks before we receive approval so I quess we are in week, what 4 ? I was told that the waiting was hard, I kind of blew it aside not really believing them. I am also pretty prideful and figured that I could take it. Oh how wrong I was. So here I am in week 4 going a little looney. HEE HEE... To top this stuff off we get an email from our case manager (you know the one that Brad loved so much) she is going on maternity leave. I don't know if it is better to get approval before she leaves on maternity leave or when her substitute takes over?? Hmm oh well, it is what it is...I do want to give a shout out to my blogger friend Deanna. She and her hubby Alex just got matched. Her baby boy is due in Oct. I am so happy for them. Take a look at her site Adoption Ramblings and give her some words of encouragement.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Great weekend

What a weekend folks...our friend Brian from Wisconsin came down and spent the weekend with us. He is defintely a bad influence on me. But, I love him more than words can say. We went to this Maritini bar..I swear I have never seen such a wide selection of Martinis...It was crazy. I had a blast...It has been a very long time since I have been out to a club ...however there was no doubt that I am no longer a young chicken and I should probably tame the clubbing beast inside...hee hee ....nah, it was too much fun...maybe I will end up being that girl in the Barry Manalow song Copacabana..you know ..her name was Lola she was a dancer... on the other hand doesn't she die in that song????

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Positive thinking

I was reminded of the power of positive thinking and I am so so stoked about it. Picture this, you come home and see a fed ex note hanging on your door..you have sent your FBI cards to nowweresville WV just a week ago with a fed ex return envelope, (given the fingerprint history see my earlier posts) My first thought and what I told Brad was great there is something wrong with our fingerprints. Now Brad looses it and says you need to stop thinking negatively, you always preach about positive thinking. I apologized and I told him that he was right. Guess what was in the envelopes our returned FBI cards with a clear background check..YIPPPIE in a week it must be a world record..All together let sing ...."I am so excited and I just can't hide it"....oue dossier is complete ...can I gt a whoop whoop...

Friday, August 12, 2005

let the good times roll!!!

So it is Friday, and I am so excited that it is Friday. It has been a crazy week and I oh so need the weekend. Anyways...we are officially waiting for INS approval. Yippie!!!! I am really excited I am told that it takes anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks to get approval. After approval the referral wait begins. I thought we were suppose to send the homestudy to INS but I guess I was wrong. We got in the mail our original homestudy from our social worker and she placed a note stating that she had sent the homestudy to INS the week prior. Cool huh!!! So, if I am right in my math we are officially in week two of the waiting. Ok so now the pressure is on for me to finish this paperwork. Which I think is great. It is nice to have some motivations. Now the real question begins when do you shop for baby furniture??? I really am stumped on this one. I mean we just had a scare this week about the laws changing in Guatemala, but thank God it did not make it out of committee...so I don't want to buy to soon. Any suggestions, ideas??

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Poem

I was given this poem and I loved it so much I had to post it. I plan to put it in the baby's book.
Where is my sweet little baby
I ask the lord each night
I long to see its face
And hold its body tight
Who is this beautiful child
That was conceived just for me
It grows inside another
Unaware of it's destiny
What are the circumstances?
That made her let it go
Is it the hope for a better life?
I will do my best
Please let her know
Why is it that my joy
Will cause her so much pain
Please help her with the emptiness
That she forever will maintain
When you place this child in my arms
I have this one request
Be her constant reminder
That this child has been blessed

Friends

Friends what would we do without them? One of my good friends after reading my last post emailed me. She was and is very concerned about me. She figures I have gone off the deep end and quite frankly she is right. :0) Her email reminded me what this whole blog is about. It is about a journey, our journey to parenthood. A journey that most people want to finish quickly. In that process I guess we push and force things to happen. I guess sometimes we push against the universe. I am learning, evidenced by my bruises, that the universe has the Ace Card. Damm it...LOL. Anyways, my point is good friends are invaluable as I/we are going through this. For example it was our friends, John and Robin that helped us finish the baby's room. Every Sat and Sunday for the past month at the crack of dawn they would be knocking at our door tools in hand ready to get to work. I know it is really sweet. BTW the room looks soooo good we just finished it on Sunday. I will post pictures when the furniture is put in. So for now you will just have to trust me when I say it looks great.

So now I am going to go home open a bottle of chardonay toast with and to my friends and watch some good reality TV. Afterall what is life without VH1Surreal Life. Come on everyone secretly loves the show. It is like a car wreck you have to slow down and look.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Fingerprinting 2

Ok so here it goes...we go to the Sherriff's office at the allocated time. I start filling out my cards. So far so good...Well low and behold I make a mistake on the card by not filing out the proper code. Like a big dummy, I scratch out the code. As soon as I do it, I realize my mistake. I realize that Guatemala is going to reject these cards. Now, not tooting my own horn here, but I had been pretty cool about the whole finger print delay issue up until now. I ask the employees at the Sherriff's office whether they have any blank cards and they say they don't. I then call my case manager who acts like a total B**** to me and basically tells me I am screwed and to find new cards on my own. I absoutley loose it. I mean when I say I lost it, I mean I went postal. On a side note here, I did not want to go with the agency we are using. We are using them as Brad felt comfortable with our case manager. So as you can imagine, as the adult that I am, I bring that up to him at this time. Sorry, childish I know , but I was really upset. Anyways, Brad gets his done and I sit there watching it. In order to save his life, Brad calls the local FBI office and they tell him that they have the cards I just have to drive across town in work traffic to get it. I say what the hell bring it on, and off I go. At the FBI office I am given some cards but they are different then the ones sent by the agency. At this point I don't care. I return to the Sherriff's office with 20 minutes to spare. This whole process has now taken over 3 hours. As I stated earlier they only do fingerprints fours hours one day a week. The same employees are there I show them my new cards and she states.."Oh we have these" GRRRRR!!!

Monday, August 01, 2005

Fingerprinting

Let me start off by saying that I firmly believe that it would probably be easier to get fingerprinted if one is arrested rather than adopting. I will be posting the story in a little bit, I just wanted to get that off my chest.