Tuesday, October 30, 2007

My little man is 4 months old today

Ah, instead of having to whine about how long our dossiers have been logged in, I can focus on the positive!! My little boy is 4 months old today... He's been in my life for 25 days already, and it is amazing how my outlook has changed for the better. AND it gives me a LEGITIMATE reason to shop for "stuff" (although to be fair, I haven't actually bought but 2 outfits!! I'm waiting until I get another weight and size check-up!!), AND we're slowly putting the nursery together.

On a related note, I think that while the new CIS regulations are a pain in the ass, our issues seem to be minor... notice I said SEEM... as I've mentioned before, our agency and program directors are in VN right now trying to smooth the transition for those of us waiting to travel (or in our case, likely smoothing our appointment dates, so that we can GET our travel dates). I've already filled out the additional paperwork (just when you think it's over!!) and sent it off to our agency. I'm anxiously awaiting the 5th of November when our directors get back from VN!! By then, we'll know what these new regulations might do to travel dates, if anything.

Also, I'm likely going to be off-line for a few days (although, I WILL post weekend pictures! Have no fear!). New Orleans calls. We leave on Sunday and are gone for a full 5 days. Tod and I haven't had a proper vacation since the summer before last, as we've been saving our money and sick-leave anticipating travel to Vietnam. This is a business trip for me, but I'm staying in the nicest hotel there, and plan to spend A LOT of time "relaxing". Tod's coming too, and while he has work he has to do while there, I think we can work in some fun!!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Weekend

Had a nice weekend. Threw a dinner party on Saturday; another Mystery Dinner one. Will post pictures soon.

Annoyed at the new changes to the VN program made by our CIS, and haven't figured out yet if or how we'll be affected and what the F to do about it. Somehow we are ALWAYS ALWAYS in the wrong step at the wrong time... what a hassle. The amazing news for me is still that I am amazingly calm over this. Worse yet I was told it "could" take up to 6 months to travel to the orphanage where M is. Our agency hasn't told us this, so I'm pretending I didn't hear it. However, when I get really sad, or annoyed with the process, I just look at M's picture... (as an aside, is he not the cutest little - ahem, BIG - boy you have ever seen??!!). I have a son. He's my baby. I love him more than anything in the world. I WILL get to him.

I'm thinking of a post I'd like to write on the China process...I've been hearing more and more that pisses me off about the way things are going (how people are having to drop out, etc.)... sad. Anyway, later this week, I'll post on that.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

LAME

Ok, face it. I'm uber lame this week. I'm swamped with work, my social life is nil, and I'm SO TIRED I can't sleep... I have another Mystery Dinner this weekend and have been frantically planning. The sad thing is I don't think that most of my guests appreciate how much time these dinner party's take!

Anyway, I'm still here. I'm still so happy to be a mom. And I'm SOOOO ready to go to VN to pick up Minh!!!!

I should have new pictures and an update next week, or possibly, the week after.

On a side note, I'm out of town (again) for a week the first full week in November. New Orleans, baby. I've never been, so I'm pretty stoked. Anyone have any places off the beaten trail that I need to check out?

Sunday, October 21, 2007

SP gift - october

OMG - I forgot to post, THANKS KELLY!!!!!!! I received my uber awesome package with the CUTEST little boy clothes!! It helped my closet, since I had only about 4 things for a baby boy!! Thanks so much. I hope your little girl is home safe, and is sleeping peacefully!! Drop me a note and let me know the details, if you have the chance.
Hugs - Nesha

turf grass makes the news


So, I've been busy all weekend working on a turf grass fashion show for the State Fair... yes, you read that right. I sticked grass to the clothes, and then helped the girls get dressed. There aren't really words to describe it, but we did make the local news. (And you can even see the back of my head in the shot of this page...I'm wearing a red tee-shirt...as you can see below.).

Click on the group shot for a better look-see. And yes, ALL that grass is alive...Even the massive fescue coat!



I'll add a few pictures just for more fun:


Friday, October 19, 2007

Good news

Can you STAND any more good news?? We just revived THIS from our program director TODAY!!!

"A brief update to let you all know that Gail and I will be out of the office from Friday, October 19 until Monday, November 5. We will be in Vietnam, going between Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Thanh Hoa. While there we will be meeting with adoption officials and orphanage directors and visiting the children currently in our program."

The good news?? Well, they will bring me new pictures of Minh, AND they also TRY to get video too. I have so dearly fallen in love with this little picture, but to have new ones AND video? Well, my cup runnith over.



Not to forget, we just passed our 16th month anniversary of our LID to China... We're still looking at about another full year before referral...which also means our kids could be VERY close in age! At thins point, I just WANT my kids. I don't care HOW old, of course!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The picture is up!

For those of you who emailed me (I hope I got everyone!!), the new site is up. No bells, or whistles, just my little man!

If I forgot to add you to the list, or you forgot to email me, just leave me a comment and I'll get to you later this week. Trust me, he's worth it!! ;->

Sunday, October 14, 2007

want to see pictures? Read below:

I'm back. Can I just say, my trip to Germany was spent in meetings, sneaking peaks at my baby boy, and sleeping...oh, and sneaking peaks at my baby boy. ;->

I'm in such a happy fog right now, I can't believe it. I never EVER thought it possibly that someone could see a picture and truly fall in love. I've heard it happen over and over, but honestly, I was always skeptical... No more. I have 3 (yes, three!!) pictures of Baby V, and I know EVERY picture inside and out. I know his eyes, his hands, his chubby little cheeks... his HAIR!! And I love each and every piece of him. My heart aches to hold his chunky little person in my arms. I am SO absolutely IN LOVE! You will fall for him too! I promise.

Ok, so I'd love to share pictures with my bloggy friends out there, and I thought of a way to do it so that I can honor my agency's request to keep them "sort of private" and still share my pictures with you. So, what I'm doing is setting up a private (and separate) blog this week so that you can email me with your e-address, and I'll send the blog URL to you individually. Just tell me who you are, do I "know" you, and list your blog address if you have one.

On that blog will be the baby's pictures, and some more info (like his name). I'll leave it up for about a week, and then delete it. I'm totally paranoid about giving too much info, so I think this is a good way to do it.

Sound good? There are some very special folks who read my blog (ok, y'all are ALL special, right?), and I think this is a good way to share his pictures without me worrying that everyone and their neighbor could read the stuff I'd rather only y'all knew. So, my personal email is on this post (look under the comments sections), so you can write me with the info. I'll probably put the blog up on Thursday, and take it down the following Monday.

BTW - I travel with tons of pictures, so if you know me, let's grab a coffee sometime and I'll tell you more than you ever wanted to know, oh, and of course, show you my pictures!!!!

Sunday, October 07, 2007

sorry!!

For those of you waiting for pictures, I can't post them yet b/c our agency has asked us to wait. I'm cooking up a way to do it, tho', so be patient, they WILL come. He's too damn cute NOT to share!! It will have to wait until next week, 'cause I leave tomorrow a.m. for Germany for a week. It will be a wonderful trip 'cause I have three wonderful pictures of my new baby boy to gaze at while I fly the friendly skies!

Check back around next Saturday and I SHOULD have the picture thingy worked out by then.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

A few more details

DOB - June 30, 2007

Birth weight: 5.9 lbs
(Weight on Sept. 20 th = 12lbs)

Length (on Sept. 20th): 22.4 inches

He's living in an orphanage outside of HCMC.

We are expected to travel in January.

He is obviously being well taken care of by his nannies.

Yes, I have pictures. No, I can't post them yet.

Friday, October 05, 2007

OMG - Guess what

I'm a mom.

We got the call. TODAY.

I'm in LOVE.

He's a BEAUTIFUL baby boy...and he's ours...

more when I get back.

(Have I mentioned how cute he is????)
(And he's ours!!)

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Hey Bloggy People

Just posting briefly to mention I'm out of town at a friend's wedding this weekend, then I leave immediately for "over-seas". I likely won't be blogging anytime soon (unless I can squeeze one in Sunday with wedding pix). I am feeling better today after hearing back from our program director (the little note in green in the last post). And hell, I'm gone a week in October, and then another week in November! That'll keep me from thinking about referrals.

'Sides, the way referrals HAVE been going is that they get them at roughly the very end of the month (or first week or so of the new month). That means I need to just hold out until late October...Maybe early November before I start bitching again. Ok, I can do that. (Honest!!)

Today's also 2 months since our name went on the list for VN. And while I know it's only been 2 months since we officially began our wait for Baby V, we've really been waiting for over 16 months for our first child to come to us. While it makes the wait for Baby Magic easier, it also makes the wait for Baby V that much harder. (Ok, really. I'll stop complaining.)

So, in an attempt to blog about something that isn't The Wait, I had a very interesting dream last night. It was one of those that you wake up form and you totally think it happened (you know what I mean? like one where you had a fight with your spouse, so you wake up pissed at your poor husband who is all like, What I do??... ). Anyway, this one was a totally plausible one where I was at home and got a random phone call from my EX-BFF, Beth. In my dream she needed me for some life-crisis thingy, so we kissed and made-up, and I helped her out. It was so realistic that I woke up and had thought that it REALLY DID HAPPEN. Then I told Phil about it, and he reminded me it wasn't actually REAL... oh, yeah. 'Cause for a minute I was going to call her and be all "Hey, how ARE you?"... but alas, not only do I not have her number anymore, but she doesn't return emails either. (Aha- another dead-horse-topic I kick to death, huh?).

And one LAST thing. Despite all my whining (it IS my Blog after all!!), life is actually really grand. Our house is better than ever (come see it, if you haven't!!), Tod's teacher training is going great, UP is actually (almost) dating (more on this another time!), and we're all pretty happy. I LOVE the Fall.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Slight VN set-back....UPDATED

Well, I wish I had better news to share, but as with everything in my experience (related to adoption) things NEVER EVER go the way we expect. Let me explain:

We were told by our agency that we were on the cusp of the cut off for the next batch of referrals. (This was in August), so I was UBER positive that we would be in the next batch and was so sure that October would be a good month for us (i.e. we'd get our referral!). I can't imagine why I was so damn positive given how shitty our experiences have been thus far, but anyway focus, Nesha, focus... Anyway, I just found this out from our agency today:

We received a group of referrals in late August and another group last week. We do not know if we will be getting any additional referrals before the end of the year, though we are, of course, hopeful!


Ok, so while THEY are hopeful, I'm not anymore. Mainly, I'm so SICK and TIRED of waiting...And I'm sure Y'ALL are sick and tired of hearing about it!!! The only good news is that we should almost certainly be in the NEXT batch of referrals... when ever the $%&# that is.

As a brief aside, I JUST got this this second (After I wrote to say how bloody annoying this waiting is...ok, I didn't say that. I simply said how I understand the program is fluid, and you never know, blah blah blah...

"it’s not that we are not expecting any more this year; it’s that we don’t know for sure...and I don’t want to give our families expectations that cannot be guaranteed. Please do not take provided time frames as set in stone, as (as you said) the process is fluid and cannot always be determined much ahead of time."