Grateful

I can't believe it's already been so long since my last post.  We stay busy, and time just flies when it gets dark at 4:45 p.m.  Evening has already started by then, and it makes me feel that much more tired.  I'm really tired, and can't seem to get over that...

David's finally decided he has to take his hospital care into his own hands.  I know -- no surprise there.  He had me check online the medications he's being given.  The main one - the injection that is so painful -- was banned in the U.S. 30 years ago -- not kidding!  30 years ago the U.S. banned that one (it's an NSAID) because of the horrible problems it caused some people.  Even Lithuania banned it 10 years ago!  David took the remainder and hid it from the nurses.  Tonight he had a big blow-up argument with the nurse about it and told her absolutely "nyet!"  He said she finally left the room mumbling and not happy at all.  He has prescription NSAIDs with him, so he'll just take those when he needs that.

Tyler's watching Lassie dvd's that David brought with us.  He's desperately bored.  Television is a hoax here.  The channels are so snowy and they're all in Russian, so the only thing he wants to watch is cartoons and wrestling, and neither is on tonight.  We're all Go Fish and Bunco-ed out!  Now it's 9:20 and I'd like to get us to sleep.

No orphanage visit today, but we had information about the local Church of Christ and went there, then spent the rest of the afternoon at the hospital.  Church was a wonderful experience.  The people were really sweet, and offered to let us stay with them instead of paying for an apartment.  It's basically two men and 10 ladies.  One of the men is over 70 and he and his wife weren't there today because her back was hurting so badly.  They sang all songs that I'm familiar with, so I just sang the English version.  They have a very nice building with pews, an office, Bibles, song books, a kitchen, and a full bathroom with baptistry.  They also have a nice van that they came to pick us up in, and the church building is only about 10 minutes away from our apartment.  Two ladies there teach classes at the local language school, and they translated everything for me - nice.

David should get out of the hospital tomorrow, so I don't know how the timing of that might interfere with our orphanage visit.  We may have to miss another day, but that's okay, if we can get David settled and happy.  Picture below is the building where Kolya lives and goes to school. 

Our sermon and Bible class topics for today were on gratitude.  Showing gratitude and what to do when others don't.  Do we expect gratitude?  How do we show it?  I am grateful that I have a God who's stronger than I am, and that He always knows what He's doing even when I don't know what He's doing.  He has a plan, and I am a part of it.  He has given me His Holy Spirit as a comforter, and He is reliable.  God is good all the time.

More of the Same...

David's still in the hospital; it's after 10:00 p.m. and I'm tired.  David's feeling much better and really thought that the doctor would let him leave the hospital today.  Crazy.  He had major surgery just 3 days ago, and he thought he could just go ahead and leave because he felt like it.  Silly boy.  He's bored stiff!  He's getting his appetite back, and the hospital only brings food once a day (lunch).  Other good news:  realizing that the doctors at this hospital must really love their work and want to help people, because they are certainly competent enough to work elsewhere, yet choose to work at this public hospital where the pay is crappy.

We went back to the orphanage today to play with Kolya for about an hour.  (They call this orphanage a "boarding school."  The kids live and go to school there.)  I didn't want to stay longer today because snow was forecast for the evening, we have to go to the orphanage in the morning (9:00 a.m.) tomorrow because the translator has some papers to file across the street from there at 9, and I wanted to get Tyler into bed at a decent hour tonight.  Tyler's not sleeping very well, and we're all feeling the stress of this trip.  I'm tired most of the time, myself.  Between traveling, jet lag, and surgery, it's been a very long 10 days.  Yes, that's all -- it's only been 10 days, but feels like a month, honestly.  The weather is supposed to warm up to around 30 this weekend, then get back down to the upper teens and 20s again next week.

Tyler and Kolya are really enjoying having each other around.  It's fun to watch how they just sort of picked up where they left off when Kolya left us in August.  They wrestle, kick around the frisbee, play with transformers, draw pictures, and play football together.  In the middle of it all, Kolya will just stop and walk over to me for hugs.  He is the sweetest thing! 

Yesterday, I had an emailed letter to deliver from a friend who hosted another boy (Sasha) from the same orphanage.  I asked if I could deliver it first-hand, and was told that I could.  Kolya walked us over to the building where they both live/go to school, and I was able to deliver the letter and the hugs to Sasha.  Pretty cool. [Pic: Sasha, Tyler, and Kolya]

It snowed pretty hard on our way back from the orphanage.  The hospital is on the way back, so at least that much is convenient, although the orphanage is in another town from where we're staying.  We're staying in the larger town just because it's nicer here, with more stores, services, and apartments.  We have a pretty nice 2 bedroom apartment near the downtown area, so we can actually walk to the grocery store if we want.  It's $37.50 USD per day.  (The translator stays with us in the apartment, which is fine, but would have been nice to realize before we got here, just so we would have known.  She's very sweet and very helpful.)  There's a pretty good Italian food place just about a block or 2 away that we walked to a couple of nights ago.  Good pizza.  We take cabs everywhere else.  It's about $12 for a one-way trip to the orphanage.  It was $33 to have the driver for the afternoon.  It's around $6 for a ride to the hospital.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it really adds up when you have to make these trips more than once every day.  For instance, today:  had the cab come and get us this morning and take the translator to an internet cafe, then take Tyler and me to the supermarket and on to the hospital. [$7.50]  Then we had the driver come get us at the hospital and take us to the orphanage, wait for us, take us back to the the hospital, wait for us, then bring us back to the apartment. [$33]  So, that's around $40 a day for transportation.  Around $78 per day for transportation and lodging, no food, water, toilet paper, laundry detergent, or internet service included.  Oh, and then there's the hospital room (which is cheap, but is still another expense...).

Enough for tonight.  I'm terribly tired, just want to get this stuff written now while it's still fresh in my mind.

Getting to play with Kolya

Today we finally were able to play with Kolya alone.  He kept stopping to just smile at me and give me more hugs -- how sweet it is!  He and Tyler took turns drawing a picture with tanks and other battle equipment.  Then I showed him a video on the camcorder of one of Tyler's basketball games.  He asked whether David could come tomorrow (no, he'll be in the hospital for 5-7 days).  Then he wanted to wrestle with Tyler and play chase.  Tyler was only too happy to oblige.  They played with a couple of Transformers, and that was just about it.  I explained to Kolya that I don't know when we will be able to take him home with us, but that it will probably be some time in March, now.  This new Interpol background check requirement is a HUGE disappointment, and was a complete surprise on arrival here.  We don't know when David will be able to travel, now.  He certainly can't lift any luggage, and won't be much help on the return trip.  I probably will be returning with them, anyway, since we don't know how long the Interpol check will take, and then I will have to make a second trip here after all.  We just have to see how David's recovery is going next week before we make a final decision on what to do.  God is good, though.  He will take care of everything, and in His own perfect time.

I see that it's 2:15 p.m. at home. It's 10:15 p.m. here.  I'm tired, and my rear is really hurting.  This morning as we were leaving for the hospital, I slipped on the ice on the front steps of the apartment and fell on my tailbone.  And I was being careful, too, because my hands were full.

What an ordeal!

I'm going to make this long story as short as possible...
I have to say that yesterday has to go down as one of the worst, or perhaps just the scariest, days of our lives.  I was awakened at 3:30 a.m.  The bed was shaking because David was shivering with chills that just would not go away.  His lower abdominal pain was even worse than when he had gone to bed around 9, or so.  He shook like that for a little more than an hour, and finally stopped.  He then got really hot, and kicked off the covers.  He felt feverish to me, so we finally took his temperature.  It was 103.7.  He took 2 Tylenol PM's and tried to sleep.  About half an hour later, he told me that if we were at home, he would go to the hospital.  I told him then that he needed to go.  It was 5:00 a.m.  I woke our translator and told her to call the doctor.  At about 5:20 she and a nurse arrived at the apartment to check him out because the hospital wasn't open, yet.  She had no idea what was wrong with him, although he told her it was probably either his appendix or maybe pancreatitis.  She took him to the hospital, along with our translator. 

Around 9:00, our translator returned, saying that she was told that something must be wrong with either David's kidneys or his liver, and that they would be doing an ultrasound to make that determination.  We were discussing the possibility of getting him to the capital for medical treatment, or at least a private hospital here, as the public system is really scary and unreliable.  At 9:40 our translator received a call that David would need surgery, and that we should hurry over to the hospital.  We arrived at 10:00, and he had already been taken in for an emergency appendectomy!  No one could give us any information, and no one spoke to us for an hour.  Finally, a nurse came and took us to the department head's office at 11:00.  When he arrived, it turned out that he had been the surgeon, and that David's appendix had ruptured. 

Our translator insisted that David be moved from the room he had been in earlier to a private room down the hall:  "We will pay," she told them; and he was placed into the new room from the O.R.  David's first question when he arrived in the room was directed at the surgeon, "Have I had my surgery, yet?"  ha!  Apparently, even though they don't gas people here for surgery, it was a pretty good shot.

The way David tells it is something like this.  When he arrived at the hospital to be checked out, they told him that it was either his kidneys or his liver, most likely.  The doctor could speak some English.  Then he left the room, and when he returned he told David that it was his appendix and that he needed surgery immediately.  David asked, "Choices?"  The surgeon's response was, "No choices."  Then Nurse Ratchet came in with a WWII-era razor and shaved him like a trapper skins a coon.  He describes the O.R. as "primitive."  (For example, when they pricked his finger for blood,they used a needle, and there were no capillary tubes.  They had a long tube with a bulb syringe on top and suctioned the blood!)  Next thing he knew, they were giving him a shot to knock him out, and he lasted just 4 seconds before he was out.

David was very concerned about the possibility of infection, but today when he realized what meds they have him on, he was relieved.  He said he could drink water out of our pond right now and not get any infection!  Whew!  He's still hurting, but they shoot him up pretty regularly, and that helps.  And, he has been cured of appendicitis, of course!  [PHOTOS:  The ambulance; the greeter just inside the hospital door - lol!; David's bedpan (yes - it's a water bottle with a hole cut in the side - more lol!; some piece of hospital equipment in the hallway on the way to David's room]

THIS WEEKEND'S POSTINGS

WHEN I FINALLY GET AROUND TO WRITING ABOUT TODAY (PROBABLY TOMORROW), YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY I DIDN'T GET INTO THAT RIGHT NOW (IT'S 11:40 P.M. OUR TIME).  WE JUST GOT INTERNET SERVICE AT OUR NEW APARTMENT THIS EVENING.  HERE ARE MY JOURNAL ENTRIES FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY.

JANUARY 24, 2010

We just arrived at our apartment in Kolya’s region after a 16 hour train ride. It was a zhivago-esque ride. When we started out from the capital, we were near the end of the train. Some time in the night, we got turned around and were near the front of the train. The train stopped several times -- something like 20 -- in small towns and villages along the way, letting people off and on. I slept fairly well, from about 11:30 p.m to 7:00 a.m., considering the fact that I hung in a small bunk on a jostling 1950’s era train that kept stopping and starting over and over again.
 Tyler, our translator, and I played Go Fish while David went to check out the dining car. After he was gone for an hour, or so, he texted me several times, asking us to please join him. After our game, we finally did. David had already made friends with everybody in that car (about 6-7 people), despite the fact that not one of them spoke English, and he -- of course -- speaks absolutely no Russian. We stayed there for about an hour, or so, before returning to our cabin.

The sights were interesting along the way, although most of our trip was after dark. We left at 4:30 p.m., and within an hour it was dark. What we were most interested in seeing was the scenery as we approached the region. That actually was pretty cool to see. There were some hills that we had to climb, and the train was slow-going in those areas.

At one place, about two hours from the city in the region where we will stay, there was a row of what looked like farm houses, perpendicular to the railroad tracks. It was 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and some of the houses had fresh fireplace smoke curling above them, while others were apparently still cold. Snow covered the road into the houses, and had not been driven on. It made me want to be in one of those houses with the fresh smoke, just waking up to a newly built fire and hot coffee. Serene. Relaxed.

The rest of our train experience included getting to see a man shoveling heating coal into an orifice between train cars, and our walking between the cars. Walking between the cars could have been pretty scary if we had not expected it. The floors were moving at differing angles, and we had to step across them without falling. It was also cold enough in that “outside” area to see our breathing.

And then, there were the bathrooms. If you’ve ever used a porta-potty during Mardi Gras, you were lucky. If you’ve ever hovered over a hole in an outhouse over the water on a Panamanian island, you’re much closer to this experience. This is the experience in which you -- as a woman -- are thinking, “If I don’t think about it too much, just about getting the job done, I’ll be okay. Just don’t touch anything. The floor is totally wet. I wonder what that is on the floor. No, it’s better not to think about it. Whatever it is, it’s now on the bottom of my boots. I’ve been working out, so that’s good. My quads are very strong. I can do this. Assume the position. Don’t touch that handle. I’ll use this hand to hold my clothes out of the way, and the other to hold the paper and just steady myself. I am so glad I brought my own paper. That entire roll was wet. It was probably on the floor before I walked in here. OMG that smell! Don’t touch that handle! What’s that? Oh, no! My leg touched it! OMG, my leg touched it! Ewww -- I dropped my paper! I’d rather drip dry than touch that roll. My quads are shaking, now. Oh, crap. Just forget it. Did my hair touch the wall? Did I touch my hair to the wall? It’s okay. The wall is -- well, it’s better than touching anything else. As long as it wasn’t one of my hands, it’s okay. Now, I have to stand up and move away from the toilet without my clothes touching it. Good. That’s good. Pants up. The sink is full of -- water? I am not ABOUT to touch that sink to wash my hands here. I’ll use some of my antibacterial cleaner when I get back to the room. I guess I have to touch the door lock and handle. It’ll be okay -- I get to clean my hands in just a minute. Whew! I feel much better, now. I just won’t drink any more water until we get to the city. I hope I don’t need to go to the bathroom in the night. I am sooo thirsty.”
. . .
I spent over two hours on the phone with AT&T trying to get my at&t network coverage worked out. Turns out they all lied. After I told one idiot which country we were in, about 30 minutes later she asked me, “Are you somewhere in Europe?“ We have no coverage here. We can purchase additional coverage at a rate of $20 per MB! The bottom line is that we can’t watch the Vikings vs. Saints game online, even though we’ve already paid $25 to NFL.com to do so. Wonderful. Hopefully, we can watch the game on a taped version on their website when we get internet service (supposedly tomorrow). Meantime, I guess we will get some sleep tonight after all. The game starts at 1:30 a.m. our time. We were willing to stay up or get up in the night to watch, but, alas, that just won’t be an issue.


Monday, January 25, 2010

From 1:30 a.m. until a little after 5:00 a.m., I only slept very intermittently. I kept waking up and going to NFL.com on my phone to check the scores for the Saints game. I CAN’T BELIEVE THE SAINTS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!! Wow! What a game that was! I can’t wait to watch it. An OVERTIME win by a field goal, after a game-saving interception of Brett Favre’s pass in field goal range, when there had only been seven seconds left in the game!
 After running around all day gathering up additional documentation that the orphanage director required -- today -- we finally were allowed to see Kolya around 3:00. Tyler and I went with our translator to the orphanage. The director, our translator, 2 people from the inspector’s office, and I were sitting in the director’s office while she gave a little background information about Kolya to them. None of that was translated for me. Our translator filled me in somewhat on that tonight after we ate supper. The director asked me what I would do if I were to be divorced from David. I told her I guessed that I would go to work full time instead of just part time. She asked if I would take the boys back to their orphanages. I told her that, of course, I would not.

After a while, a caretaker finally brought Kolya in. He looks just the same, growing at the same rate, and just a cutie. He had great big hugs for me and shook hands with Tyler, then he asked where dad was. David had left us earlier, taking a cab back to the apartment because he has a bad lower abdominal pain that he is afraid is appendicitis. The director asked Kolya repeatedly to tell her the truth about whether he was sure he wanted to be adopted and go to America, because it was an irreversible decision -- forever. She then asked me to do the same: make sure he understands that he can’t return to the orphanage, and that adoption is for life. Then she asked him how does he feel about leaving his caretaker, and his country. He told her he can call them. He understands and says that he still wants to be adopted. After about 45 minutes, we had to leave because the orphanage was having a teachers’ meeting, and it was already late when we arrived there. Of course, we were so late because we were fulfilling extra documentation requirements that she had decided we needed to take care of. We leave tomorrow morning at 9:30 to go see Kolya for a private visit, a visit that should be longer.
 The biggest problem we have now in completing the adoption is -- of course -- a new requirement that we undergo an Interpol background check. No one seems to know exactly how long that takes, because it is a requirement that was just passed into law last summer, and just started being enforced last week for the first time. We are our facilitator’s first Interpol clearance couple, so she just doesn’t know what to tell us, yet. Some say 14 days extra, some say 17, and someone else said that it could be 40 days, or so. Without that clearance, we can’t even get a court date, so I may end up having to make two trips after all.

Our apartment here is very nice, except they still do not have internet service connected for us, and we ran out of hot water after only one shower tonight. Our translator was the lucky one with a whole shower. I told her that I get to wash my hair and shave tomorrow night -- my turn! We have two bedrooms and a large foldout sofa in the den, and the kitchen and bathroom floors are heated, so that part is pretty nice.

It is 5:00 p.m. here, 9:00 a.m. at home.  It was 20 below last night, we were told.  Not sure whether that's accurate, although that probably was the wind chill factor.  We leave tomorrow evening for the region where Kolya lives, and arrive there on Sunday morning.  The forecast for our destination is calling for a high of 4 degrees, and a low of -6!  Not above single digits all week.  I also saw that it was sunny and 77 degrees at home yesterday - grrrr!

I had to go to the SDA today to pick up my national permission to go to the region to "meet" Kolya.  When I returned to the apartment, David and Tyler were gone, so I was locked out.  Luckily our facilitator's hubby had the cell number to call him.  David finally answered and said he and Tyler were at the underground shopping mall, so I walked down the street and met them.  David wanted to walk around and take Tyler to the park, so we walked several blocks. He thought he knew where it was, but didn't.  We finally gave up.  By the time we got back to the apartment, my face was frozen, and my toes were worse! 

I read a posting today from a friend with the hosting program.  They've been trying to complete their Russian adoption for almost 10 years!  Yesterday, it was granted!  Hurray for them.  The girl is now 16 years old, and is finally an official member of the family that they get to bring home for good.  We are so blessed to have had such a simple and speedy process, so far, without glitches.

Now, I'm starving, so I'm going to go figure out a way to make some mac n cheese with what I have to work with! 

Trip to Eastern Europe

We made it!  We left Tuesday at 12:45 p.m., went to Washington Dulles, then Munich (8 hour flight), and finally arrived here in the city on Wednesday at 4:35.p.m.  Of course, we are 9 hours ahead, here.  It is cooold here.  It was 12 below last night when we were at the grocery store.  weather.com lied -- it was colder than they said it would be.  Where we're going this weekend it is currently snowing heavily, supposed to continue snowing heavily, and be 25 below zero - yikes!  I just hope it doesn't keep trains from coming to town.

We had our appointment at the SDA today at 11.  They showed us Kolya's file, which had two pictures of him.  In one, he looked to be about 6 years old, and the other was from about age 8.  What a cutie!  Our appointment lasted just about 15-20 minutes, and we return there tomorrow at 3:00 to get our permission to go to the orphanage. 

Our apartment is much nicer than we expected, and is $65 per night.  We did have to pay to get sheets for the hide-a-bed for Tyler but even that was only $30 total.  We have wireless internet service.  Too bad we can't do everything from here!  We have hot water that stays hot all times of day, the power hasn't gone out at all, there are extra blankets, a microwave (no oven!), and a coffee pot.  It's set up much like a motel room without room service.

We went to an underground shopping mall to have lunch today.  It was nice, and Tyler finally ate some food here.  It was of course a Happy Meal at McDonald's!  Our facilitator ate with us, as well as a nice girl from the west coast who just adopted a little girl.  They are going back to the States on Saturday. 
We also went into an old (c. 1750) church to have a look.  It looked very much like those in Italy, but with onion domes outside.  It was designed by an Italian guy.  David went out to the store late this afternoon, while Tyler and I tried to get a nap.  I did fall asleep, but it wasn't exactly undisturbed.  I had one dream that woke me up:  we were going somewhere in a car, and we ran out of gas.  It had been my responsibility to fill up the tank, and I thought I had, but evidently had not.  That was it -- woke up startled.

I have to go figure out some supper that Tyler will eat, then make him take a bath.  I told him we could watch a movie on the computer afterward.  Time to go!

LEAVING DAY!

We are at the airport in New Orleans waiting for our flight!  Check-in went very smoothly and quickly.  We go to Washington Dulles, first, then connect to Munich (an 8-hour flight), and finally move on to our destination.  Our bags are checked all the way through, so that's nice. 

We should be able to see Kolya on Monday - yea!  I was up until almost 3 a.m. last night and the night before, so I am exhausted!  I'm trying not to be too anxious.  So far, I'm doing o.k.  I actually felt a lot better about things yesterday because I had stayed up so late and gotten all our clothes packed.  Last night was just the extra stuff, and then making sure the bags weren't too heavy.  There is a 50 pound limit.  I made the decision to not bring the granola bars and tuna I had picked up for the trip.  My bag (shared with Kolya) was 45 pounds, Tyler's (shared with snack foods and gifts) was 45 pounds.  David's turned out to be 49 pounds - ha!

Please pray for our safety, and for the adoption to go smoothly and painlessly.  Please pray for Tyler, too.  He's feeling tense and anxious.  Right now he's playing his Didj, evidently trying to run the batteries down before we even  leave the country - lol!  David's looking for food (what else is new?).  Plane just pulled up to the gate, but we don't actully leave for another hour.  I guess I should go, now, so I can get some lunch, too.

Packing up!

Well, it's coming down to the wire, here.  I've been packing all day today, and -- oh, yeah -- it's no longer today, it's TOMORROW!  1:15 a.m., and I'm headed upstairs to get Tyler's stuff out of the closet to pack.  I've done pretty well, so far.  I'm starting to calm down a bit -- I guess those prayers I've been asking for (for peace!) are working.  It helps that all my clothes, toiletries, and most of the medicines I'm taking are now packed, and all of Kolya's things are packed.  I still have some odds and ends to take care of, like iPod charging and such.  Also, I haven't yet packed our snack foods -- those can get heavy quickly.

I'm exhausted, so I'm going to cut this short and get to a stopping point so that I can get to bed.  I have to take Ruthie to the groomer tomorrow this morning, then take her to a sweet friend who volunteered to keep her for us while we're gone.

I feel sooo much better than I did this morning!  Not so overwhelmed.  God is good.

Time crunch!

Julie sent a text that the baby's room is painted, now.  The nursery is well on its way to being done!  I can't wait to see it!  And I can't wait to see my girls.  We had so much fun when they were here over New Year's!

I'm feeling the time crunch in a heavy-duty way, now.  I have a mile-long list of things that have to be taken care of before I can leave the country for a month.  David and Tyler will return before I do, so that helps.  There are just so many details on my own list!  Getting the dog boarded, paying up all the bills, going to the bank, packing for 3 people (one of whom will start out completely naked, so we're talking about basics, here -- the child needs EVERYTHING from scratch), getting Rosetta Stone software onto my laptop, downloading Skype, making sure I have all the cords for everything from iPods to camcorder and cell phone, Tylenol (& etc.), getting prescriptions for motion sickness and Montezuma's Revenge, and filling out the embassy paperwork, not to mention the everyday stuff like getting Tyler to tennis and school and basketball, making lunches, doing homework, and studying for his Friday tests.  Did I mention that I am also flying to Texas Friday (returning Saturday) for Julie's baby shower?  When David comes to the airport to get me, he's taking us directly to the Superdome for the Saints' playoff game.  Oh, and did I also forget to mention that David is in Atlanta this week until Friday?  That means that I also have to feed the horses and dogs twice a day...

Yikes!  Gotta run!
Blessings to all!

Busy times!

Wow -- I've been so busy lately I just haven't had time to sit down and blog.  Tyler finished up school on the 17th, and we went to Texas that day for Randi's graduation on the 18th. We had Christmas with the family on the 20th, came back home on the 21st.  Wrapped more gifts on the 22nd, and we went out for a nice dinner for my birthday on the 23rd.  Our neighbors had their annual Christmas open house on the 24th, and I made my now-famous pecan pie to take to Jennifer's for Christmas, which was -- of course -- the next day.  Tyler didn't come down on Christmas morning until 5 - ha!  Far better than the 2:30 a.m. show-up last year!  Santa was good to us again this time.  We exhanged our gifts at home in the morning (we started at 7, not at 5!), then we ate waffles, and I made some bread pudding to take to Jennifer and Brian's for that evening.  It was really nice. We got home late that night.  The next couple of days I wrapped up the rest of the Christmas gifts and put away all the packaging and wrapping paper.

Randi and Zack arrived on the 30th in anticipation of our now-famous (infamous?) 2nd Annual New Year's Eve Bash.  Jacque, Mark, Becca, and Julea came over early in the day on New Year's Eve, and we exchanged gifts with them.  Then Julie and David arrived, and we did yet another gift exchange.  Finally, Brian and Jennifer came over, our neighbors (Gary and Ann) came, then later on Dana, Jacob, Lindy, Mama, and Daddy showed up, and we proceeded to party into the wee hours of January 1.  We had a great time!  I am so blessed with a wonderful and close family.  The food was awesome -- and FUN (you had to be there...)!  Brian treated us to a beautiful fireworks display (LOVE fireworks).  We had music and a warming fire on the pool deck, and even a bonfire on the back 40.  We didn't burn anything down -- it was so much fun!  We've decided that it just needs to be an annual ("anal") event -- ha! 

Most folks stayed here and then left on the 2nd.  I took Julie and David out for lunch on Sunday, while Zack took Randi out for a birthday lunch on the Tchefuncta River.  We celebrated her birthday with an ice cream sandwich cake at church on Sunday, and a sopapilla cheesecake later that night.  We watched the DVR-version of the Cowboys' ROMPING of the Eagles -- woohoo!

Randi had another PT school interview on Monday, so she and Zack left at 5:00 a.m. to drive to San Antonio for that.  Tyler went back to school on Monday, and we tried to get back to routine.  I spent the whole day on my knees scrubbing the kitchen floor with ammonia - ha!  Tyler had a basketball game that night.  I spent all day Tuesday taking down Christmas and putting all that stuff back in the attic.  Wednesday, I worked at clearing my desk - whew! Tyler had tennis after school, then a basketball game after that.  I worked most of the day on Thursday getting pictures for the photo book to show the judge about our home life.  Friday, school was cancelled because it was supposed to be icy, then we went to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party that night.  I received on Friday the information from the agency regarding documents we need for the American embassy appointment, so I spent time looking through that and filling out a couple of forms. 

Finally, I'm caught up to today, Saturday.  Tyler had basketball pictures this morning, and now I'm trying to figure out what to have for lunch after I get the blog updated.  Tyler was asked to tryout for allstars, but we won't be around for the allstar game, so we declined.  He will miss his last game AND the playoffs.  Coach isn't happy about missing "the big guy in the middle."  Tyler's the tallest kid on the team, so he plays center, and blocks many, many shots!  He's doing great, and I hope he continues to be interested in basketball because David and I love basketball -- you just HAVE to love an indoor sport.  Weather is just a non-factor!  Coach wants Tyler to do a 13-week training program that they offer for the kids, I guess in the off-season.  Then he asked what other sports Tyler plays -huh?  David said, "All of them."  He plays basketball, football, baseball, soccer, golf, and tennis.  (If we could just get him to drop soccer... We aren't big fans.)  Soccer and football are his favorites.  He probably has the most talent for golf.

I'm getting anxious about our trip.  David packed his suitcase yesterday!  He has to go to Atlanta for a few days next week, and returns on Friday afternoon.  I will start packing later today, but Julie's baby shower is next Friday night, so I have to fly to Texas on Friday, then come back Saturday for the Saints' playoff game that afternoon.  Obviously, I'll be needing some of the same things in both suitcases, so I can't pack everything for the big trip, yet.  So much to do, so little time.  Isn't that always the case?