Friday, February 29, 2008

Friday - Finally

Folks, pretty lame around here lately. Not much to report positive, so I haven't been reporting anything. Tomorrow my son turns 8 months old...and I haven't seen pictures wince he was 6 months old. I was promised pictures next week. I am prepared to not even recognize the Minute. Some days I look at his 5 and 6 mo pix and can't tell it's my kid. He seems to be growing SO fast. He used to be chubby, now he's tall and thin. I just hope he still has his 2 dimples on those cheeks. I'm also almost to the point when I clean out the closet AGAIN. I had clothes from 3-6 mo; now they are packed up. I think this weekend I might begin packing up the 6-9 mo. stuff. At least the winter clothes. Even if we get him next month he likely won't need many uber warm clothes (seriously, it'll be 60 F here this weekend). I never did buy him a winter jacket 'cause I thought that could wait until he came back, but it doesn't look like he'll need one now, so hey, saved some money... heh.

Good news, kind of, is I'm STAYING HOME this weekend. After traveling 2 weekends in a row, I'm ready to bundle up and lay on my couch with the puppies for a few (hundred) hours this weekend. I do have 2 outings planned ; one to go plant shopping with a friend, and one coffee date - I hope. I am in need for some serious girl-time, as well as some serious staying-home-and- catching-up-time.

Maybe I'll take some pictures around the place. Spring has sprung and all my daffies are up, and my camillia is in full bloom... more later.

Monday, February 25, 2008

brief update on the Minute

As of Feb. 1st:

Length: 26.8 inches

Weight: 16.1 pounds

Head Circumference: 42 centimeters

We also usually get pictures at the end of each month. This month we didn't; apparently the Minute wouldn't hold still for the pretty camera... that's my kid!

more paperwork

if you can believe it, we actually have to fill out more paperwork (or rather the SAME paperwork I've filled out FOUR times already), AGAIN. Apparently the old paperwork needs a new date on it... yeah. That's right. Everything is being held up because my signature was from NOVEMBER, and CIS wants it to be from FEBRUARY... Seriously, people. WTF?

Monday, February 18, 2008

misc.

my Mom sent this to me and I liked it enough to post it here. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a read. I agree with this idea of friendship WAY more than your average person, I bet. Anyway, for you friends out there:

Are you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems that always sound good,
But never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises
that actually speaks of true friendship.


1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against
the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse
it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well
again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

9. This is my oath.... I pledge it to the end.
'Why?' you may ask; 'Because you are my friend'.

Friendship is like peeing your pants,
everyone can see it,
But only you can feel the true warmth.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy VD

happy VD to y'all. I'm spending time in (snowy) rural Appalachia. Yee-haw, and I mean that in a good way. Maybe tomorrow I'll stand inside and take some pictures of the snow. (Hell no, I'm not going out in it!)

Tomorrow will be ... 20 months I think, since our dossier was logged into China. yee-haw. and not in a good way.

On the Vietnam front: sent a package to the Minute today. I didn't get it together to even take pictures of it or anything. I literally had less than 24 hours to get it together so the fact that I got ANYTHING together is amazing. I managed to send a little taggie square/mini-blanket thing, and stuffed dog toy (gotta get him used to dogs!), and a little flannel blanket. I was only going to send the dog, but that seemed uber lame, so I tossed the other stuff in at the last minute. I wanted to send myself, but well, I don't fit in the gallon sized ziplock the rest of the stuff had to fit into!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Take me home, Country Roads

I'm going to shake off the adoption blues by heading for the hills. I'm taking my 2 big dogs, some mud boots, and my computer, and heading to my folks' place for some good ol' fashioned mud/farm therapy. See y'all on the flip side.

As a quick note, we get to send a small package of stuff to the Minute via our agency director next week!! We're also due more pictures AND video!! We're dropping the package off tomorrow in person (it's nice to have our agency just up the road!), on the way to the farm.

Monday, February 11, 2008

i think i am depressed. i hate this stupid wait.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

more from Friday - and thank you

First off, THANK YOU to those of you who have called me with your support and/or emailed/commented voicing support. At this point, it is SO incredibly good to hear from y'all, you just can't know. So, THANK YOU!!

Secondly, here's a little more from my agency's call last friday (and this is supposed to be "confidential", so please don't copy/spread/share this info, ok?):

¨ 12 families are currently past 60 days; we do not know how many families are in this process total (from all agencies)

¨ Our current thinking is that a change must come from a political force; families are encouraged to write their local Congress and Senate representatives to ask that they become involved in re-vamping the way CIS is currently handling the Orphans First Procedure

So if I don't want you to copy this, why am I putting it here? Well, I am encouraging ANYONE in the process or any one who has friends and family in this process to go make some phone calls. Or email your congressperson. I plan to - first thing tomorrow - call both my senators' offices and start crying ON THE SPOT. And I will continue to call until I feel that something is being done. I won't mention that I need my case moved along any faster than anyone else's (although of course I WANT Minute home, but this is bigger than that), but will simply mention that I am a mother to a son who is laying in a crib ALONE in an orphanage while CIS sits on their f-ing butts and plays stupid politics, and the other 300 cases pending travel approval in Vietnam.

Hello, CIS! WAKE THE F- UP! since when is politics more important than the 300 plus babies that need a mother (father/brother/sister/grandson, etc) RIGHT NOW? As if this process weren't painful enough already...

Am thinking some BIG thoughts these days... more on this soon.



Friday, February 08, 2008

more CIS bull shit

CIS information just came in from our agency... it's bad. US CIS is being amazingly bloody F-ing stubborn, and it appears that b/c our government is unwilling to work particularly hard or with any one, and so our paperwork (and anyone else who is waiting on CIS in Vietnam) is sitting on some idiot's desk in Hanoi and gathering dust. We just got off the phone with our agency and the basic idea is that they (CIS in Vietnam - that's OUR US government, people) can't be bothered to move cases off their desks b/c the people above them don't give a damn about foreign adoptions and it seems that they would rather just NOT DO them. So, paperwork gets to them, and then it sits and sits and sits... and all the while, my son is in a crib, alone.

The basic plan is that while my agency is doing what they can do to advocate for those of us in i-600 LIMBO, we have to take our case to people who might be able to do something (as our agency's and other agency's requests to speed the process has fallen on def ears). Call your congress people, write letters... I'm not sure at this point exactly what to do, but our agency is coming up with a list of things to do, and I'll post it here. Prospects for soon-travel are looking bleak. While some people are traveling sooner (I mentioned one family waited 27 days), others have waited 64 days to hear, and 2 families with my agency waited 80 days to hear about travel... that's our tax dollars at work. Amazing the amount of shit we have to deal with just to get this point...and then this happens.

I'm done. If I keep this up, some very foul words will appear on this site....

More of "my" golf course

Just for comparison, here are some pictures of MY course:



Ok, FL pix for Mark






So, pictures from Bay Hill, that's Arnold Palmer's home course, in case you aren't in the know, or haven't been reading the ol' blog daily. I didn't actually PLAY the course, as I don't actually PLAY golf, but we lunched in the club house, and I spent some time walking around looking at the really ugly spots they have on their greens...eek! Very bad news for the superintendent, I can tell you that. Anyway, these are the only Florida pix I have. Sorry.

(Yeah, this is what I do for a living...rough life, huh?).

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Bog stalking - AGAIN

Well, I had a lovely hour with some other Vietnam-A-mamas today. I am always hesitant for a few reasons, the biggest one being that I don't really fit in. I don't have my baby yet. I don't know anything about the process (really!). I also know nearly nothing about kids. These ladies are so much fun, and their girls are soooo cute; I'm never sure how to act. However, it is very important to me to get to know these ladies (and hey, I like them!!), since SOON I WILL have a baby. And I'll be right there talking about formula, walking, and teething. Until then, it's so nice (but it does make me a little jealous) to get to spend some time with these really great ladies - and their BEAUTIFUL girls.

So, I went back to my office after our time together, and began blog stalking again. I think it's almost time to start thinking about packing, planning, and getting last minute stuff together. I ran across another family (a local family, actually) who got their travel approval in 27 days. 27!!! They leave very soon, as a matter of fact. We got our start-the-wait-date when...? Like the 4th? That would put us traveling in early March. For some reason, I've been thinking the end of February, but that's so unlikely at this point. But I could be more than pleased with March. Especially EARLY March. (Although if anyone out there has a say in this - PLEASE make it FEBRUARY, ok? I can pack fast if necessary!!).

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Picture parade



A few pictures from my work-in-progress nursery. The crib was a gift from my boss and his wife; pretty awesome, actually. They have a daughter who was adopted from Guatemala, and they have both (but esp. my boss) have been so wonderfully supportive during this process. It's good to have people who care around me!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Heather and Keira

Yes, I did receive your package...I was so excited and took lots of pictures of it to post here...then I totally dropped the ball. I am a bad person and forgot to even mention it. I DID get it, and it was wonderful. So great, esp. to have pix of your little cutie!!! The candy was also a big hit around the house. I will eventually post my pix. I have such a back log. I'm looking forward to having Minh home so I can use an excuse to STAY HOME!! I've been working so much that I haven't done the sort of stuff I usually do - like blog. or upload pictures, or do laundry... so, THANKS AGAIN!!!!!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

So, back from sunny FL

I've been out of town for a week. A GREAT week, actually. Did a LOT of networking, lots of play, and even a little work. Did my first "power dinner" - get this - at a HIGH END steak place! dudes, there was nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the menu I could eat - and met with the golf course design group at the Palmer home course (Bay Hill). We had a working lunch in the club house - a TOTALLY new experience for me. Needless to say, a small town WV-borne-and-bread farm girl doesn't take in a lot of country club lunches. Anyway, it was a total experience and a LOT of fun, surprisingly enough. At least I had the proper attire, for once. I've got some pix, if I remember, I'll even post a few. (note to self, I also need to post nursery pix, as I have a few of those too!!). Anyway, all in all, a good week, but I am glad to be back home!

Now for a totally different topic: to answer a few questions about my last post. Yes, our FINAL wait has begun in earnest. We SHOULD not have to wait longer than 60 days to get our travel approval, and GOOD NEWS - once we get the approval, we can book our tix immediately. Everything else is good to go on the other end. At least THAT is something! oh, and to answer the question, what if you don't have your first referral email? No worries, our agency sent me a fresh copy to forward JUST IN CASE!! (I did indeed have it, but still good to know they were on it!).

Wow. what a long painful trip this has been. However, I am staying positive, and trying not to get too upset that my son just turned 7 months old without me.... most days I do fine. We actually got an interesting letter from our agency (every VN family got it) about how uncool it is to travel before your official travel approval comes in, and how calling the CIS office is a huge pain in their ass, and backs up the paperwork even further...so don't do it. That kind of thing. Interestingly enough, while EVERYONE and their second cousin-once-removed has asked me "why don't you just go over there and get him?" it has never occurred to me to try to do anything out of turn. There are SO MANY families trying to travel and adopt children/babies, that families who do things out of turn seem really rude. We're all in it with the same goal in mind, and we all have to literally wait our turn. I really feel badly for families who have been waiting for months and months (like 7!!) to travel, while other families may have gotten to travel sooner if they weren't actually following rules...anyway, my point is I am going to do this the CORRECT and OFFICIAL way, so if you see me, PLEASE don't ask me why we haven't "just gone over there and gotten him yet?". The answer is I don't want anything to go wrong, and once he's mine, I don't ever want there to be any question about the legality or anything.

And finally, a special thanks for the packages I've been receiving. My Mom sent a great gift for the Minute, KP and Miss B sent a great package - with some uber cute stuff for the Minute and fun stuff for Minute's Mom!!, and Miss Nikki sent the CUTEST stuff for Minute and a dress for Magic (unless she thinks Minh might LIKE pink, in which case, the dress is for the Minute. hee hee).

If I owe you a card/call/package/etc. please do not think I've forgotten you...even if I have (kidding!!! I totally haven't!!). I'm so wrapped up in work, and trying to do the last minute things before we travel that I just havn't been on top of the stuff I am usually on top of. So, you might get that birthday card in June...even if you have a January Birthday (sorry Jen. Yours might get there sooner....maybe by March!!)...but I haven't forgotten you.

It's just now getting good, folks. Hang in there!!!