Catching up

Finally. I'm taking the time to catch you up on the goings on about Chez Carley. First, I received the third installment from our CSA. Check out the pix below!! So far it has been a lot of fun, a great way to get fresh veggies (like some I've never heard of!! Kohlrabi, for example. We got some this week. I'm making it for dinner tonight!!), and I feel good about having local produce fresh from the farm.
















Next up: My super great June Bugs Secret Pal. Yes, I didn't get my April gift until early May, but you ALWAYS make up for it (and hey, it just gives me something to REALLY look forward to!! So, honestly, I don't mind!!). This month's package was loaded with the cutest clothes, adorable little bunny barettes, and sweet little shoes... oh, and the absolute CUTEST EVER socks!!!! Thanks tons. I just love them ALL (especially the monkey socks!!! Really, I've been thinking of doing the new nursery in a monkey theme!! How much fun would THAT be??!!). Thanks again. I do hope you've choosen to stay on as my SP. If not, I'll be very sad, but will understand...It has already been nearly one full year, can you beleive it?! What a wonderful year you have made it.
















Also: the house is coming together. We are down to 4 little boxes of misc. JUNK that still needs to be unpacked, but everything else is done!! We've been doing a lot of work on the yard (see that green stuff in the yard?! That's actual GRASS!!!), plus on the flower beds around the yard that I have added. Anyway, here's another photo of the front of the house. If you haven't seen the inside in person, but want to, come visit!! Otherwise, we've been asked to be on the historic homes tour for the neighborhood we are in, and we're going to be opening our house to total strangers on September 16th. I figure it'll have to be REALLY REALLY clean, so I'll take more pictures INSIDE then!

















Finally, last but not least: our potential second adoption. Tod and I have agreed on a country (Taiwan), but not the program (there are about 4 different programs, but there are only 2 we're really intersted in...I'm sure I'll go into it later). However, I haven't spoken to anyone at CCAI yet about the wisdom of pursuing another adoption while we wait for our precious Baby M. China's "rule" is you have to wait one full year between kids, but who the hell know how much longer we're going to have to KEEP waiting for Baby M ALREADY!!?? Speculations range from next June-August (from our agency), to sometime in 2010 (from a China prediction website that has been up for a LONG time). So, we could have our 2nd child (who oddly enough would actually be our FIRST child) in 6 to 18 months from now (if we started now). I already have almost everything I need document wise for our dossier, the main hang-up is frankly, money. But, it's also JUST MONEY. We'll already have to re-do our fingerprints and our I-171H AGAIN (adding another what, roughly 2 grand to the total cost). I figure, we have to re-do our HS and finger-prints already, why not just pay for them one more time and just add a second kid to the list then!! Other than going through another agency for the adoption, we still have to file the SAME apperwork over again... I still need to talk to someone who knows more than I do about this, so we haven't made any final decisions yet. We'll have to make the decision by July (that's when we have to re-do fingerprints and HS), so that's when we'll decide for sure. I guess another China adoption is a possibility too. We can simply get our HS updated, and make 2 copies so we can send that in with our 2nd dossier for baby #2 from China. Then we'd be LID June 2006 AND LID like, August 2007, or something like that... but China is pissing me off right now, so I don't really don't want to be in this same position in another 2 years... A HUGE milestone is coming up for us, and it looks like we'll still not know ANYHTING more this June than we did LAST June...Anyway, we are making strides, but they are small and slow.

The one good thing (I suppose) is that I have had plenty of time to get settled into my job, and we're in a wonderful house...and the best part is I've made some really good friends (ok, really jsut one really good friend, but I've met lots of folks on line I hope to stay friendly with - like my Secret Pals!!). On that note, I'm heading back to the yard to work on my garden (and put this crappy WAIT out of my mind.)