A Great Day!

I have had a wonderful day, today! It started early, a little before 6. I got up and made a couple of cups of decaf pumpkin spice coffee, poured me a cup, and sat down at David's desk in the office to call Kolya. Yep, that's right -- I got to call Kolya today for his birthday! Go, me! I was nervous calling without a translator, but apparently I did fine. Our adoption facilitator was able to contact the orphanage earlier this week to get the phone number and hours for me, so they were expecting me to call. Kolya's 11 today.

David, Tyler, and I sang Happy Birthday to him. I asked him if he knew what "happy birthday" means, and he said, "Da." I told him I thought we might be able to go there in January or February. I asked him if he was ready for that. He said, "Da." I told him that he would soon be my son. He said, "Da." I asked him if he had received our gift package. He said, "Da." I asked him if he was learning his English at school. He said, "Yes." ha! A boy of very few words on the phone. He volunteered nothing, just answered my questions and responded to my statements, of course.

After dropping Tyler off at school, I went and had a really hard workout class -- it was great. Then I came home, and David was home. He heated up the hot tub, and we soaked a while after a short rain. I picked Tyler up from school and took him to the health club to hit tennis balls with the ball machine. After 20 minutes, it started raining hard, so we had to quit. David had met us over there, so I took them on a tour of the facility and we played a little basketball. We ate supper there because our free meals (for new members) were about to expire. It was really good food. When we left, the cold front had blown through, and it was 62 degrees. It had been almost 80 when we got there.

Finally, when we came home and I went through our mail, I found our INS APPROVAL LETTER! Holy cow! That's what we've been waiting for!!!!!!!!! Okay, so NOW we are waiting for David's proof of employment letter, our criminal background checks, then I think we are DONE COLLECTING OUR PAPERWORK FOR THE ADOPTION! Woo-hoo! We're going to make the deadline, so we possibly will be leaving for our adoption trip at the end of January! How cool is that?! God is so good!

How's the Adoption Process Going?

Well, I am steadily working on our paperwork for the adoption. Today I spent all day in the car, it seemed. I dropped Tyler off at school, then went to the courthouse in Covington to get a certified document. I had to order one, and they said it takes 3-4 days to get it done, so I'm waiting for that one. Until I get it and know its official name, there is another document that I can't complete because it requires the official name of that document. Mm-hmm, that's the way this goes... one document depends upon another, and they all have to be notarized, then taken to the Secretary of State's office in Baton Rouge for an Apostille (certification that the notary was a real notary, etc.).

After I went to the courthouse in Covington, I went to the juvenile court on the other side of the River (did I mention that that is also on the other side of the lake?). I picked up documents there and took them to Baton Rouge for the Apostille. Then I returned to Covington to pick Tyler up from school, went to pick up a prescription at CVS, and came home. I had to organize a few files when I got home, return some phone calls, and send out a reminder email about the continuing education seminar that I'm hosting on Thursday. Whew!

There are so many hoops to jump through in international adoption! Imagine asking your physician to fill out a document regarding your general health, signing it before a notary, then attaching a copy of his medical license, and asking him to sign all in front of a notary that they are "true and correct copies" of his license and the medical report. That's the sort of thing that people are required to do in international adoption cases. It's a pain, really. But, right now I am looking at the picture of Kolya holding the care package we sent him in September. HE IS SO WORTH IT! I hope he "gets" how much he means to us, and how badly we want him home for good. I'm sure he doesn't get the whole concept, yet, because he has never had anyone who wanted him in just the same way before. But, if he could just feel a little of our hopes for him...

Kolya's birthday is Friday, and I am hoping I can figure out a good way to call him. I'd like to communicate with him all the time, but I know nothing about Skype, so I'm doing just a little inquiring... Honestly, his orphanage is so remote (it's out in the country), that I don't know if we can arrange Skype to work, anyway. I don't know how much computer access he would have there, but I'm trying to find out this week.

I have not been good this week about keeping up with my Bible study group lessons on Daniel. :o( I've just been so busy with the family visit, and all this adoption paperwork, and Sunday was devoted to our church's Trunk or Treat (and Tyler had a birthday party to go to that afternoon), that I've been too tired at night to sit down and study it all...

I hope you all have a blessed week. We are so blessed to be able to do this adoption! I have a friend whose adoption will take more than a year from the same country, but the child has not yet been certified free for adoption, so it will take them a while. We may or may not host Kolya over Christmas. It's a bit expensive, if we're able to go see him a month later... My God is good all the time! He will work things out the way they are supposed to be worked out. Pray for us as we go through this journey. There are so many indecisions involved!

Tyler had a 24-hour virus, but is better, now. He stayed up until 10:00 last night finishing up all his make-up work for school! Then, this morning I remembered that he would be having all his tests today instead of Friday because of Grandparents' Day at school. Yikes! We crammed a little on the way to school with spelling and vocabulary, but he's on his own for his reading fluency and math tests. The good news is that he's a smart boy. :o)

Mama and Daddy are coming down today for Grandparents' Day. It's storming pretty badly right now while they're traveling, so they said it is slow going. The storms haven't quite made it here, yet, but certainly they will shortly. We should have a pretty good time visiting. They make for good company. Unfortunately, they will be leaving on Saturday, so it's a short visit. (It's hard for me to understand families who don't get along -- I've been so blessed with an awesome one!)

I had email contact with our adoption agency yesterday. They are supposed to send me some documents and instructions on how to get them filled out SOON, but I'm still waiting... If our paperwork isn't done by the middle-end of November, we won't be able to file until after New Years! grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Oh, yes, patience... I keep forgetting that!

Randi received her first PT school acceptance! Hooray! How exciting! Bring 'em on!

Tyler's been sick all day today. :o( He came downstairs at 4 a.m. sick at his stomach and stayed sick that way until 1:30 p.m. He was running a very low-grade fever. He finally held down some jello, then some soup, then more jello. When I checked his temp at 5:45 p.m., it was 102.6! Tylenol brought it down, then later the ibuprofen brought it down some more. Poor little guy had to miss a soccer game tonight. He has felt so miserable that he was even unhappy that he has to miss school again tomorrow. (Yes, he usually wants to miss school. You see, school is stupid because it has math! This kid is known to put the thermometer on a lightbulb or under hot water to try and trick me into letting him stay home.)

Go, Saints! What a fun game that was! Saints 48 Giants 27

Our ladies Bible study is really good again this fall. We're doing Beth Moore's study on Daniel. Her studies are so good at getting us into the Word. I love the challenge.

I keep thinking about Kolya and how the adoption process seems to be bogging down. I suppose having him home by Christmas was a pretty lofty goal, anyway. The paperwork is just a pain, and it seems like it will never be completely done. Just when I was thinking we were probably about finished, more requirements. At the same time, I know I should be grateful that there is so little paperwork required as compared to our first adoption! I mean, truly very little paperwork.

My neck is sore tonight for some reason. I'll be signing off, now. G'night.

Our Weekend

We had a good weekend. Tyler was out of school for records day on Friday, so we left on Thursday night toward Texas. We drove half way, and spent the night there, then drove on to Texas on Friday morning. I left Tyler and David with Daddy; and Mama, Julie and I had lunch together. Then Julie and I went shopping. That's a major event, in case you didn't know. Julie doesn't like shopping any more than I do, and we shopped 'til we dropped! First, we found some bedding for the baby's room -- too cute! Then, we spent a looooooooooong time getting a maternity wardrobe. Julie was so adorable in those clothes that I think she almost had fun. (But don't tell anyone -- it would absolutely RUIN her reputation!) After that, we went to Babies R Us for her to start her selections. It was a long, tiring day, but I'm pretty sure she's glad that we got all that taken care of in one day. We really got a lot accomplished.

On Saturday, we went to Six Flags. It was a celebration of Tyler's "gotcha day" and Julie's birthday, and it was also Dana's birthday. We had a group of 19 family members! I love Six Flags. :o) That was Tyler's first time to go, and he had a great time. It was a long trip back to Tyler afterward, but all worth it. We got up early Sunday morning and drove home, and I was sooooooooooo sleepy! We listened to the Cowboys on the way home, and (luckily) were able to catch the last 5 minutes plus the overtime on t.v. YEA! GO COWBOYS!!! I have to say, though, that I felt just a smidge sorry for Kansas City, since they played such a tough game, and still haven't won any (hey, I said a SMIDGE! LOL!).

Picked up Ruthie from the Pet Palace today after school. (Her's so poodie!) We have our fingerprint appointment at INS tomorrow morning! Hope the processing goes smoothly and quickly. Could we be traveling by Thanksgiving? Could we possibly be home by Christmas? Probably too much to hope for (I always hate to get my hopes up about things), but still . . .