Not Begging...but pretty darned close

I don't need much. I live pretty simply. The one thing that would make me happy...unbelievably happy (like riding my bike around the neighborhood with balloons tied to it happy) would be for my fingerprints to come back today. Please. That's all I need.

State Department Update

4/29/2010

There has been no official suspension in adoptions of Russian orphans by American parents. However, in some parts of Russia, we are aware that adoptions are being slowed down or delayed. The United States and Russia held their first round of talks on adoption issues in Moscow on April 29. The discussions focused on the U.S. and Russian concerns regarding protecting the welfare and rights of children being adopted internationally. The talks were productive and an expert-level working group will travel to Moscow for further discussions on an adoption agreement on May 12, 2010.

Department of State Update

April 20, 2010

We have received no official notification that adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans have been suspended, but it is clear the recent controversy has slowed down adoptions in some parts of the country.

Volcanic ash prevented the U.S. delegation from traveling to Moscow over the April 17^th weekend.The talks in Moscow between U.S. and Russian officials are now rescheduled for April 29 and 30. The United States plans to emphasize the importance of this issue, and will discuss our mutual concerns about how to better protect the welfare and rights of children and all parties involved in intercountry adoptions. Many thousands of Russian children have found loving, safe and permanent homes in the United States through intercountry adoption. Families in the United States have adopted more than 50,000 children from Russia.

UPDATE: Okay, so it is currently 3:20 a.m. on the 29th in Moscow. Are we settled?

mama

The One Thing I Know

I don't know how you slept last night.
I don't know what you had for breakfast.
I don't know if you laughed
or if you cried.
I don't know what you're wearing.
Or if you smiled.
I don't know how you smell,
or how soft your skin is
I don't know what color your hair is
or your eyes
Or if you've felt the rain
or sun on your face
Do you like the sound of soft music?
Are your feet and hands oh so soft?
I don't know who you are...

but I do know that I love you.

mama

Through thick (volcano ash) and thin..,and a terrible terrible mistake.

Volcanic ash prevented the U.S. delegation from traveling to Moscow over the April 17th weekend.The delegation now plans to travel to Moscow during the week of April 25. They plan to emphasize the importance of this issue to the United States, and will discuss our mutual concerns about how to better protect the welfare and rights of children and all parties involved in intercountry adoptions. Many adoption cases are continuing to move forward in the courts including a few people that I know (who have managed to make it through the flight delays). Fingers crossed for you all! Squeeze your little one tight!

Wanna Help?

Please sign this petition for the US and Russian Presidents!

http://www.gopetition.com/online/35485.html

Thank you,

mama

Gliding Along

Remaining positive.
Keeping our thoughts with those already planning trips who have met their referral.
Hoping for the best.
Knowing things will work out just fine.

Mama.

UPDATE 4.12.10~
(CNN) -- Top officials from the U.S. State Department plan to travel to Moscow this week to push Russia to allow adoptions by U.S. families to continue.

Anxious Hearts

Being patient is not something I am good at, but I know it's something I need to get used to if I'm going to keep my sanity. On to fingerprints #3. Tuesday morning I went to the Sheriff's Office (I had been going to UPD because they do ink prints and they are free- which is very important right now) to see if they could give this fingerprinting thing a try. I brought photocopies of the unreadables and told them my horrible story of being print-less after four months of trying. The sweet print lady, Sharleen said that she thought I should try the Live Scans instead....and of course I told her that the agency said INK PRINTS ONLY-NO BIOMETRICS. As it turns out the live scans are not biometrics. They scan the prints so they can tell the quality and then print them on the card...voila! They look just like regular prints! I also found out that my prints are worn (no doubt from typing all day) and would probably never make a good ink print. The Sheriff's Office wrote a note about my worn prints to include in the packet. I did the Live Scan and called the HS Agency and told them what happened. They seemed to think that this should work. I do hope so. I also hope that it doesn't take another 8 weeks...but it probably will. I went to the bank for a certified check and then to the post office and sent those suckers off.

Meanwhile, we can't do anymore paperwork until I get the prints. We have everything ready to go, ready to be notorized and apostilled...BUT we don't want the dates on these documents to expire...so we wait...wait wait wait.

8 weeks is a long time when your heart is anxious.

mama

Green Plastic World

Does a child really need so many giant plastic toys? I really am overwhelmed by the yards full of plastic toys that I drive by...sitting covered in pollen and mildew neglected in the Florida heat. The houses I visit with piles and piles of plastic untouched toys in the corner. The parent who says "she never plays with those, she'd rather play with the cardboard or in the the dirt." I dearly hope that I don't fall into that consumerist mode. There's more to parenting than shopping. My nieces would rather I push them on the tire swing or play a game where I hide toys in the yard for them to find. I've bought plastic doll houses at yard sales for them and they sit in the yard today. They played with them for a few minutes (literally) and then never touched them again.

Grrr...

FBI fingerprints round 2 = unreadable. Very annoying.

Driven

Why is this so important? Why do we keep pressing on? It's things like this that remind me that we should move quickly...

http://www.youtube.com/user/EveryChild#p/u

Please watch the video.

mama

Keeping it real

Sometimes it is easy to forget where you are going if you don't stop and smell the roses along the way.

My best friend (Mr. N) and I went to Miami for a few days for business, but we did get to spend some quiet time together and we also enjoyed some great meals and good friends. He and I walked through the Fairchild Gardens and took time to laugh and love. We talked about our future and how wonderful it will be to have our little burunduk to share all of this with.

He really is amazing. I know that he will be the best dad ever.

The only thing that can make the roses along the path smell sweeter is having a tiny hand to hold while we're doing it (and a tiny nose to share it with).

We love you...wherever you are.

Mama

Brief Update

Yesterday I came home to a FedEx envelope. I had no idea that the apostilled passports would get back so quickly! I'm impressed. We put together the packet, copied it this morning and dropped it off at FedEx this morning.

In addition to getting the registration documents done last night I also called the agency to review the dossier. It looks pretty easy and at least half of it was done with the home study! I haven't looked at some of the forms, but it's nothing we can't tackle. I also started the I-600 form. Today I made sure that we could use the home photos and passports that we already did and we can! Whew! I also went to the courthouse and got certified copies of our deeds. Moving right along. We can't move too fast though because we need to save $$$. If we move fast and finish this year we might get the tax credit...but we don't have the upfront cash at the moment....soooooooooo. Kind of a double edge sword. I know it will all work itself out and I shouldn't get too stressed out. I should work at a pace that I am happy with...and that is what I plan to do. :)

This weekend our good friends J and A are getting married and we are very excited. It will be a happy occasion for so many. I am glad that tomorrow is Friday.

I am thankful that I get to have this experience with the most wonderful man in the world. I really am lucky! I have a wonderful life with a great husband, wonderful family, fantastic friends and cute furry children.

~mama

and you thought turtles were slow...

My birthday was last week and Mr. N. and I had a special day together the day before. We went for a drive and had a delicious lunch. The whole day was perfect and the sun was out...not too hot. Gotta love Florida springs!

Sorry I have been slow to post about our progress but really nothing has been going on. We have been working on the registration paperwork which was pretty easy but it took us a few weeks to complete. I think we needed a little rest after the home study. We sent notarized copies of the passports to the department of state for the apostille today. Whew! accomplishment! The rest of the paperwork for the registration is complete so once the passports are back we can send in the whole packet. Of course we are still waiting on my FBI background checks (the re-do) to finalize the home study (and that could still be 2 months). This week (and yes I know I've said it before) I am going to start the dossier. I will call the coordinator this week to review all of the needed documents. Hopefully Wednesday...Tuesday is out because LOST is on and we can't miss that. We are excited about starting the dossier! I just want to get all this paperwork DONE! I found a t-shirt online yesterday that says "so far no morning sickness...but the paper cuts are terrible!" That about sums it up for us.

Hang in there sweets...mama and daddy will be there soon!

love,

mama

Three words or less that make me smile, happy and full of joy?

HOME SOON.

I need to work faster.


~mama

Care for a Little Wager?

We just finished the home study and we are starting the dossier.

What month do you predict for a referral?
What month do you predict for trip one?

There's no money involved here...just a little harmless fortune telling :)

Mr. N. and I have our votes...but we won't be telling what they were until the time comes.

Your vote? Please leave a comment. Don't be shy. Share your predictions!

~ Mama

Inky Monday

Did the fingerprints again today. Mailed them off too!

~mama

Burunduk!

A little bit closer to getting our little chipmunk home! Today we mailed off the home study packet and the first of many big checks. Very exciting. We have however been slightly foiled by Uncle Sam...who did not like my FBI fingerprints so now I have to have them redone. Could be another 10 weeks. We have plenty of paperwork to do between now and then so it's no big deal, but the fingerprinting bit wasn't much fun. You think they use the nice electronic fingerprinting? No, it's all caveman style with ink and paper. The police officer was not happy that he had to do this...he said he didn't like getting ink on his hands...and getting out the other stone-age equipment was a pain. I so look forward to his face when I come in a second time. Mr. N.'s fingerprints on the other hand came back perfect. No problem. Oh well, just another hurdle among many more to come I am sure.

For my birthday (which is in a few weeks) my sister-in-law and her family gave me a bunch of adorable clothes for our Burunduk! She also had some beautiful cloth blocks made...and an adorable gnome named Gabe. I will post pictures of them soon! If you go to Two Stray Cats on Etsy you will see them. They are the green ones with the mushrooms.

Here is the Etsy store!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoStrayCats?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=App_Seller&utm_content=shops&utm_campaign=fb_seller_shop

Mama

Catching Snowflakes

I live in Florida so catching snowflakes is virtually out of the question. I said virtually since on occasion we do have snow (on a very very very RARE occasion that is). When we do have snow, the flakes usually melt when they touch the ground...but you can catch them on your tongue. Tiny little fragments from the sky that can be so rewarding to someone that never sees snow.

Only a few more flakes of home study paperwork to catch and we can write this part of the process off of the list! Today is February 9th, 2010. By Friday the 12th (Jordan's birthday!) we will be done with our home study paperwork. We just got the LAST certificate from our parenting classes. Mr. N will get his medical form tomorrow. CPR on Thursday. That's it. Saturday make copies and mail it in!

So what's next?

Home study visit
NOPE! Surprise, we did that last Sunday and it was SO easy. I was freaking out for nothing. I kept the visit on the down low to keep me from being antsy. The social worker was very very nice. He spent about an hour and a half with us asking some general questions all of which we had discussed before. We were pretty well informed thanks to all the reading and the APs that I have become friends with (thanks to you all). The listservs are also helpful. I recommend reading and knowing as much as possible...but the questions are mostly about how you were brought up, your beliefs about parenting, what you will do with the child while you are at work, etc. The walk through the house was probably less than 5 minutes so don't worry about the dirt! Just clean up the clutter. The only question he asked that threw us off was "describe your personality." Yikes, we didn't brush up on this. We nailed the visit. He said he'd have the report written and sent in before Friday.

Registration paperwork.
This is a set of paperwork much like the home study but not as detailed. It's for the agency. Compared to the home study it should be easy. In fact there is some cross-over so I can just make extra copies from the home study. I ordered extra marriage certificates and birth certificates so that isn't a problem. The hard part will be the technical part. They made drop down PDFs for some of the documents but they don't seem to work right. UGH.

Dossier.
Once the registration paperwork is done we will start working closely with the agency on the dossier. This part is more complicated. I'll get into this later in the process. Right now it seems far away and a bit daunting...but then again a month ago the home study paperwork was frightening and far away and miraculously we are here now.

That's the update! I hope that one day other PAPs will be reading our blog and learning from it like I have learned from the blogs of so many before me. I hear about their children and see the pictures and it's hard to put myself in that place right now. It seems like a dream. I wonder if they look back at how they felt when they were at this stage, or if they have moved so far away from it they they have forgotten?

Good night all...and thank you for reading and supporting us!

mama

Confession of a Heartless Woman

Well...not quite heartless. I have made dozens and dozens of paper hearts, but I have to confess that I haven't kept up with making one every day. I have some catching up to do. I'm not a bad person...I'm a busy person. I do feel a little guilty though for not making them EVERY day. I'm still counting the days until we have him (or her) in our arms. Every day we get past brings them a little closer to us.

Today is my mom's birthday! I had planned on taking her to Cedar Key for a boat ride, but the forecast said it would be in the high 50s here...meaning that it would be pretty cold on the water. It think it's probably in the 60s here...still too cold on the water so we postponed the day (she's 70 today!) for a few weeks when the weather will be awesome. My sister and I have a surprised party planned for her tonight. The whole family and a spaghetti dinner at my sisters. Hopefully no one has spoiled the surprise. Well see 2 more hours!

mama