When You Wish Upon a Star

I seriously must get better at this. . .

. . .LOL! Well, clearly nothing drastically different has happened lately! On the adoption front, anyway. I did just finish up a job as a temporary Kindergarten teacher at my boys' school- one of the K-5 teachers went on a maternity leave and I filled in for a few months. It was great to get back into my degree again, as I have not taught since our oldest was born (at least not on a formal basis). Taking this position drastically slowed our paperchase, as I was working bankers hours for the most part. And it actually became a blessing-in-disguise because we've been switched to a new region yet again! Novo hasn't been moving for our agency so they've switched us to Kras. New paperwork has been copied and the fun of fill-in-the-blank will begin this evening.  

On a fun note, I have paired up with a co-worker to compete (well, perform or keep-up might be better words) in a team 5K race this summer. It's been fun to try something new. My goal is to continue to train and run a half marathon in January. We shall see. . . .

Letterboxing

As though I need another hobby to take the time that I should be devoting to the other ones,-- er,  need another hobby to fall behind on, need another hobby!! A friend of mine was sharing a story of her recent vacation to Texas with her family. She mentioned that the day they arrived they had a few hours to kill (before the scheduled agenda of the vacation, I believe), so they found a few letterboxes to fill the time. 'Letterboxes?' my BFF & I asked??? She began to explain the hobby of letterboxing: you access www.atlasquest.comfor a clue to a letterbox (there are other websites as well as other ways to acquire clues). After following the clues and finding the letterbox, you use the stamp found in the box in your own personal logbook and then also stamp the letterboxes logbook with your own personal stamp. It's like a scavenger hunt (and from what I hear, a bit like geo-cache also, although I'm not too versed on that hobby)! Some people get into it and carve their own stamps so they have a unique image for their stamping. And to remain a bit anonymous, each person (in our case, family, as we've decided this will be a group effort) also has a train name to sign into the logbooks, too. After quite a bit of deliberation, we decided on CемьяCее (pronounced SemYaSee) as our trail name: Cемья means family in Russian and Cee stands for the 1st letter of our last name. Unique, keeps people guessing what that backwards R stands for, and, really, a fun way to add a little "russian language" to our diets!

Here are a few photos from our 1st letterbox find. Of course, I won't tell you the name of the box, because it's very faux pasto ruin the hunt for other letterboxers and I'd hate to ruin the fun for all of you!! hehe

Still have not received our finalized-stamped-and-ready-to-add-to-our-dossier Homestudy report!! I guess the story is that our SW has been sick. At least she responded to me- it makes me feel a bit better and reassures me that she's not trying to bail on us, but rather is just living up to her reputation of needing a bit of pushing and reminding to get everything done. I know, it's sad that I have to say that- we really like her and we're glad she's apart of our journey still, but it does get a little nerve-rattling when I think about the time that it is taking to get this done. And with the region that we are in, we can not do anything further with our dossier until we get the homestudy because certain documents need to be dated in a specific order.  I do remain faithful that God is using this time to get us on the right path that He has for us. Proverbs 16:9 reminds me that "The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps." I'm standing firm in this truth and I will rejoice in these delays!

I also have had a very heavy heart about international flying lately. I don't really want to get into it right now, but to make a heavily-detailed story short, our extended family has suffered several losses do to airplane crashes, one of which was a major international airline crash (which resulted in over 200 deaths- you know, the big breaking-news-on-every-major-network kind of crash).

I know that fear does not come from the Lord, and I know that life is merely a vapor. And I honestly know that when it's my time to leave this earth, regardless of the ages of my boys, my Father in heaven will provide for their every need and will not forsake them. But I also know that I can petition my Lord and present my request to Him and that He is faithful to hear my cries. So this has been my prayer- that God will keep us safe as we travel multiple times to meet and petition for and pick up our daughter; that He will keep us from all evil, that the planes will be in perfect working order, that the weather will be ideal for a text-book smooth flights, that all passengers will act appropriately and that the staff of the plane will handle their responsibilities with great care not to miss a single step.

I covet your agreement in this prayer!

Oh Mickey you're so fine. . . .

. . . .well, I wouldn't call him fine, but he is pretty cute!

(a pic of the boys in their custom-by-Mommy tee's. I'm thinking of making a few for Etsy- they were so cute in these running around the parks!)

 

We had a great trip (minus the flu-bug I acquired the last 2 days of the vacation)! A much needed trip! A trip that has given us a taste of wanting to plan another mini-vacation soon! ;o) With M's business, we don't have the luxury at the moment to plan week-long vacations months in the future, but we can take long weekends and half-weeks here and there. We've been state resident seasonal pass holders since J was 11 months old and have enjoyed long weekends ever since. We've heard from several friends, both locally and in blog land, about upcoming trips that they are taking to see Mickey, so I thought I'd take a moment and pass along a few tips.

The 4 P's of advice:

--Ponchos- buy them at home and bring them with you. Our weather here is pretty unpredictable and if it looks like it may rain (and of course it's Murphy's Law that it will rain when you're here), you'll want to have a few ponchos ready so you don't have to pay their inflated prices in the parks. We prefer to purchase the thinner more-disposable kind because they tend to get musky after a few uses. The dollar spot at T@rget has had some really great ones in the past. And a perk about them is that since you get them so cheaply, if you do use them, you can just toss them before you head back home.

--Pin Trading- We've taken to this sport in the past 2-3 years. We started out buying each of the boys a starter set of 4 pins or so and a lanyard. When they see a cast member (WDW's term for employee) with pins, you can trade one of yours for one of theirs. We've gotten some pretty fun pins on our trips. Since then, we've purchased additional pins for trading on eb@y MUCH cheaper than full price- I'm talking for a buck and a quarter per pin. They'll be random pins, but you're getting them to trade anyway. This is also a great way to pass time with a younger/smaller child who may not be able to or does not want to ride something another child does. We've done this in our family- Dad rides with J while H & I go pin hunting! Makes for a happy family.  And a public service announcement about pin trading:

--Penny Press Machines- Again, another great hunting activity for the kids and I. We started this on this most-recent trip. For 51 cents, the kids get a nice shiny souvenir. We bought the foldable book to hold the pennies in 1 spot. On the next trip, I'll be sure to bring plenty of quarters and shiny new pennies for the machines. They also have quarter presses, but they're $1.25 a piece, so we're stickin' to the pennies for now.

--Portable, Hand-held fans- WDW sells the kind that spray water, which are great. Expensive (I think something like $17 a pop), but great. The water spray is nice, but really, just a cheaper fan-only version would also be good. And, they'll store a little easier when you're traveling.

 

We begin school tomorrow.The boys are both very excited! They've met their teachers (J's is a good friend of ours and he's known her since he was born- it'll be cute to watch him correct himself when he accidentally calls her by her 1st name. We've been practicing calling her by her "school name." hehe) We ate dinner this evening, bathed, and  prayed for their sleep and their 1st day of school. I walked back into my room to finish up a few more projects that I'm in the midst of. I was pretty proud of myself as the clock only said 7:54 at this point! Then I heard the pitter patter of little-ish feet run across the house and my oldest barrel through my door proclaiming his accomplishment- he lst a tooth! His 1st top-tooth-loss. And the humor wasn't so much that he was in bed for the night when this happened, but rather that this particular tooth wasn't even that loose! There was no "hanging by a thread" or eating apples to help it along. LOL! Which reminds me- better go switch that out for cash before I forget! Night night!

Looking Forward

Adoption update 1st: We've decided to proceed in the Novosibirsk region- we have found 1 Dr there, have the option of flying the Dr we used previously in from Moscow, and are now more comfortable with the option of using a Dr in the states. We prayed about all of these option and feel good about proceeding. So, we are gathering dossier paperwork, filling out forms, and waiting (still) for the homestudy update to be finished. Which reminds me- let me stop to call her right now. . . . . .

. . . .okay, left a message. *sigh*

In the mean time, I've filled out paperwork, made photo sheets of our family and house, sent several forms with Mark to work to be filled out by the appropriate people, etc. And of course, things have to be dated in a certain order, so I can't take care of background checks until the homestudy is signed off on.

So, today I'm working on our upcoming vacation to Disney. I've successfully called and requested a certain section of the resort, booked our dining options, added the dining plan to our reservation, started a checklist of things to bring, and downloaded a mickey-head template to make new shirts for the boys to wear while we're there. We are such Disney people- been pass holders since J was an infant. Most recently, with the monthly car payments behind us (whoo-hoo- and I'll be driving that sucker till it can't be driven any more!!!! Feels great to have zero car payments on either vehicle!) we've purchased a Disney Vacation Club membership. I won't go into all of the reasons why anyone who vacations (not only to Disney- your points can be used at over 400 locations around the world!) should do it (because, trust me, I have my shpeel down pat- that last line was just a taste of it!!), but as we evaluated our own vacation patterns and the 4 family weekends we'd taken to Disney in the previous year (in Mark's line of work, it's much easier to take a Friday off than a full week planned months ahead of time- being a business owner has it's downside), financially it made perfect sense for us. I'm now an owner of a little piece of heaven on earth.

It's still a little early to start packing - our countdown is still in double digits. Okay, off to craft. I'll update with pictures later when I'm finished (regardless of how it turns out- I'll at least humor you!)

Frustrated

Our agency has switched our region to the Novosibirsk region. A bit further out, not a problem. When we asked about Dr's in that region that we can bring in to assess our referral when we travel, our case manager emailed the facilitator in that region, who replied that he knew of a Dr that Canadian families have used. Wonderful, except that our new case manager (our old one just left the agency this past week) doesn't have a name and doesn't think she can get one. Yet we're expected to just go with it and assume there'll be one that we can use when we travel. ??? There was such a sense of relief when we had our previous Dr in Moscow come to both orphanages and assess our referrals. It was a luxury that, frankly, we're requiringagain (at least at this point). The 2 regions that they were going to place us in (first to open up), Tula or Tver, apparently are not offering decent referrals and they're not placing anyone there at the moment. And then there's St Pete, which has a lengthy wait for little girls, more than likely over a year. So, we wait to find out if this case manager can get a Dr's name out of the facilitator and make a decision for our journey if a name can not be produced.  With as crazy as our 2 referrals medicals were in Moscow (one child was much healthier than the medical told us and the other was much worse than the medical said), we are not comfortable with just relying on a referral's current medical and what the orphanage may say about her.

On the brighter side, it definitely gives us something a bit more specific to pray about- but then again, perhaps it opens up our prayer to now encompass quite a bit more.  Please join us if you pray. I rest easily knowing if there is a child out there for us, my Heavenly Father WILL lead us to her (or him- can't put God in a box, right).

**edited to add: Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted last. Woops. Summer has taken hold of our schedule, for sure.

A cleaner kitchen

The boys and I had a great day yesterday! We spent the afternoon at a local kid's museum where they pretended to be firemen putting out fires, making fossils with plaster and clay, and picking oranges,  aka "orange balls," from the trees and watching them become "juice" (simulating how the oranges get from the tree to become juice). We're members of this particular museum and they boys have a great time every time we visit.

When we got home, I felt energized to clean out my kitchen for this week's "Throw-Away Thursday." Well I must admit, I cheated! It quickly morphed from T.A.T. to re-organize, remove, and clean. I do have 2 photos to show you- the top is the pile of trash I removed. Some of it is grocery related, but others were things like cups with no lids, things my kids don't use anymore but are too trashed to sell, and non-kitchen related items that some how found their way into my drawers. The bottom shot is of the items that will be in our next garage sale (already priced, I must add). Took me an hour and a half to accomplish this little project and while it doesn't follow the rules of T.A.T, you wouldn't know it by looking at my kitchen because the end result is quite similar, equating to more free-space in my cupboards and drawers. Yippee!!! Next project: my room, followed by our sitting room and the laundry room closet and cabinets. *joy*

 

In adoption news, I believe we sent in the last piece of paperwork to have our home study updated. Mark hadhis physical on Tuesday and he sent the paperwork in to our social worker when he got back to office. Yesterday he had his USCIC fingerprinting. He wasn't able to go when I went because of a large sales meeting he was planning for that following weekend and he was swamped with the particulars for that event. So he rescheduled and finally had his done. *check!* So now we wait for our HS update to be completed and for the phone call that lets us know which region we are definitely being placed in. Until then, we're work on a few misc items that'll be required regardless of the region, like photos of the house and family. Right up my alley!

Graduation & Throw-Away Thursday

Today my big boy graduated from kindergarten. He looked so handsome in his cap and gown, his tassel swaying from atop his head. Both boys did such a great job singing the songs they learned with their classes during the program. In just a few days J will finish the school year and he'll be one step closer to the first grade. It's *this* that chokes me up and makes me sad. I'm not a mom that cries on the first day of school- no, that day is one of celebration. But the last day, or really the last week in general, is tough for me. It's the sign that he'll no longer have *this* teacher or be in *this* class. It's a sign that he's growing older and far too quickly.

Anyway, enough of my rant. Here's a few pictures from the evening:

 

 

A new blog friend, Kristine, posted a weekly challenge last week. It's called Throw-Away Thursday. You grab a trash bag and throw away items around the house with a 30 minute time cap, counting as you go and trying to get rid of 100 items. I spent my time in the boy's playroom and cleared over 75 items, consisting of broken items, games with missing pieces, and loved-no-longer toys. Some of these items will be put away in the garage until our next garage sale (we have about 2 each year) but most will be tossed.

 

On the adoption front, there's no big news right now. I had my fingerprinting done (total time from in to out was only 18 minutes!) last week but Mark had to reschedule due to a conflict with a very big project with work. Once he gets his new appointment and he has his physical, we are done paperchasing our homestudy! Woot woot!

An Update

I received a call from our coordinator yesterday- we have been unofficially placed in either Tula or Tver regions. We will know as soon as they know, but they felt that the 2 of these regions would be a good fit for us. They are both just outside Moscow (which means no connecting Aeroflot flights!!), do not require blind travel, and allow us to bring in a Dr. easily (since they're both just outside Moscow). It's still sinking in, but my excitement is growing with each thought of what this means for our journey- it's beginning to feel more real- you know, when you see something beyond paper-chasing that really puts you "into" the journey.

They've given us both of these regions because they run very similarly paperwork wise (and will thus give us more to do now instead of later). The "tricky" part of these regions is that they only allow 1 registered family per agency, thus the reason we do not know which we will be placed in. I suppose it has more to do with which family currently registered there accepts a referral first. We were told that one of the regions has a family over there right now. We are the first in line in both regions to be placed next, so it looks like we are moving along quite well.

In other adoption news, Mark & I are currently reading Adoption Parenting. Awesome book which I highly recommend. We are both beginning to feel much better prepared for our daughter with the information it is giving us, and frankly, there's quite a bit of great information that we are applying to our boys; it's certainly written for the adoptive family, but has great information for all children in general. It's a required reading for our agency (part of our Hague-compliance pre-adoption education) and I'm very glad it is!

And in non-adoption excitement:  tomato plant #1 (I currently have 3 growing in my yard) has tiny-pea-size tomatoes that have "sprouted" from it's limbs!!! I'm thrilled to have success in my garden. Once I get my laptop back from those geeks over at Best Buy (and thus have photoshop again), I'll post some pictures. I leave you with an Etsy find that I would love to purchase (but really, needing 6 of them at $8 a pop, they're not in my future), just because they are so stinkin' cute!! (and because pictures make blog reads so much more enjoyable, right??!!)

slowly but surely

Do you want to hear something amazing? My hubby called today and asked if the mail had come yet? I walked out to check and sure enough, it had. Sadly for him, what he was looking for was not in today's mail. However, in amongst the contents of the box were 2 envelopes addressed to each of us from Homeland Security. My adoption friends, you KNOW what this would be!! It was the anticipated letters with our fingerprinting appointments for our I-600A. The funny thing is that I wasn't quite anticipating these letters for a while since we only sent in the initial request 13 days ago. From start to finish is only 3 weeks and 2 days. Last time we cleared 2 months easily! It makes me wonder! But I surely won't wonder too loudly!

Our family had a great day yesterday. We were sure to go to church on Saturday evening so we could sleep in a bit Sunday morning, which was nice. We stopped by a local blueberry festival, but were a day late since all of the blueberries had been picked the day before. So we took the opportunity to run some errands as a family, which is a rarity! We did find brown curtains for Sunshine's room. We purchased a crib bumper from ebay quite a long time ago- before we traveled or even knew we were traveling last time:

 

It's made by Dwell, I believe it's called Garden or Garden Blossom or something along these lines. I think we'll paint the walls a shade similar to the brown on the back wall of the photo, possibly with wainscoting along the bottom of the walls. I had the idea to recreate the vining and flowers from the comforter with threading and felt, so we picked up 2 sets of dark brown sailcloth panels for this future crafting project! It will give me something else to create after our dossier is complete and the real waiting begins.

Here we go

I apologize setting up the private blog and then not posting right away. We have been so busy with school and baseball (J began playing this season) and life in general that it's been hard for me to find a spare moment to sit down and update. All of this, coupled with feelings of fear and uncertainty, not wanting my heart to dive in fully for fear of more heartache.

With that, it's probably clear that our family has begun our process once again. It's very exciting to be back on our journey, but, as I just stated, a little hard, too. We have yet to tell our family- we just don't want to deal with the 20-questions we will certainly get from everyone- and we have a huge family! Some are a little outspoken and to be honest, we just don't want some of their opinions at the moment. We are waiting until our dossier is finished and submitted before opening up about his. The only ones that know/will know are the ones that we need letters and such from for our home study update.

When we began this journey over 2 years ago, I was filled with great hope and anticipation about who our daughter is and how we would feel when we find her, the fairy tale of adding to our family, I suppose. It's returning to me, but very slowly. I've spent many hours in prayer- and continue to do so- because I know it is our Heavenly Father who has put us on this journey and in knowing this, there is a child out there that He has known since the beginning of time would be ours. I opened His word a few days ago and was brought to Galatians, thinking that the verses I was looking up were about something completely different (I meant to turn to Philippians). God spoke to my heart in Gal 1:5- "In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will." He spoke into my heart that just as He has known His children that He has adopted into His family since "the creation of the world" (from Gal 1:4), He most certainly knows the child He has to be a member of our family. I'm resting in that.

I've been catching up on other's blogs over the past week or so. It brings great joy to my heart to update on your stories. I've missed you all!!! Very much!