I love it when I have a new blog to follow! :) Our friends who are traveling to India in 2!!!!!! days now, have started a blog to document their travels. Can't wait to hear all about their journey! Check it out - bringinghomeraina.blogspot.com. So I've felt very boring and not worth blogging lately. I know, I know.. must have been some darn chilly days in hell recently! I must have some updates, so here are a few random things that are somewhat new in our lives...
Maya's most favorite topic of conversation and most fun activity is 'buckling'. Buckling her baby doll (that she "borrowed" from her friend O) into baby doll's stroller (that she also "borrowed" from her friend O). I wake up at 3 am and hear from the monitor.. "buckle baby.. baby buckle.. daddy buckle.. buckle.. labba buckle.. buckle baby". So this must mean that she is even DREAMING about buckling! Cute yes. Monotonous.. well.. a little bit. ;)
We made a visit to the in-laws a couple wks ago. I haven't been out there in a few years (not intentional - just the way things happened to work out due to the fertility drugs/doc appmts, medical issues, maya's adoption), and Maya had never been there.. so it was a very nice trip. Maya fell in love with Granddad's tractor - she is scared to death of the vacuum, but loves the horrendously loud tractor. ?? I had almost forgotten how amazingly beautiful it is in upstate NY! Sadly, we only stayed a few days. We are hoping to make it out there for at least a week next summer. We're planning a long drive at some point so that we can bring out the boat. We didn't realize when we moved west, how there is just NO water for boating in a desert region. Shocking isn't it?
The black coloring that I had accidentally dumped too much of into our backyard pond/water feature a couple of months ago (to kill the algae prob).. has finally faded away to the point of our being able to see our fish very well. Yay! I had thought we had maybe 12.. but now I see that we have maybe 20.. plus lord knows how many baby fish and mosquito fish (mosquito fish are actual fish that eat mosquito larvae). We also are not having a mosquito problem in our backyard so far this summer. Hm. Maybe our neighbors were right and it WAS our pond. I guess that the fish are working better than the mosquito 'blocks' that supposedly kill all of the larvae. Or.. could be that it is due to the fact that the developers who are working on what was once open space behind us.. finally drained the huge lake/pond/swamp that had been stagnating for the past 2 years.
Anyhow, let me say again that I'm most excited about my fish pond. :))
Maya's baptism is coming up in less than 2 wks! And, so fun, one of my best friends and one of Aj's best friends will both be traveling to be there - so it should be a grande time! {oh - and of COURSE we are excited about seeing all of our family.. didn't mean to leave that out!}
The IRS is our friend. yay! :)
Big Love has gotten quite good lately. {HBO} Anyone else out there who refuses to leave the house on Monday nights in order to not miss it?
Still have not rec'd our completed HomeStudy in order to ship it off to Secretary of State for apostilling. Hoping it gets here soon.. I'm in 'checking the mailbox twice per day' mode. We are SOO looking forward to getting a referral! And since there have been many boy as well as girl referrals lately, we are SOO looking forward to finding out if Maya will have a brother or a sister!
and of course we are just realizing that we will have two toddlers soon. Hide everything!
My mom is still going thru chemo. I think she might be at the 1/2-way point as of this week. Or - we hope it's the 1/2-way point. Will know more in early October. She's doing ok.. holding her own. Not a fun time. And Dad is going to have knee replacement surgery in early September. Much needed tho - hope the recovery isn't too long. Don't you wish that you could just transport yourself occasionally to the days when you were a kid and your parents were big and strong and somewhat superhuman?
So it just hit me today that we could potentially receive a referral within the next month. The NEXT MONTH!! That is mere DAYS from now! ACK! Yes, very exciting! I'm working like mad on completing the dossier, and we are so close that occasionally I feel the need to just jump up and down like a small child who needs to urinate. ;) I just want to yell.. 'Come ONNNNNN!!' Hm.. it is quite possible that I could soon become annoying. (if you already think i'm annoying, you are probably right, but please keep it to yourself.. haha!) I'm now trying to be very helpful to my friends who owe us letters, etc.. by Mapquesting the nearest FedEx dropoffs for them, referring them to our notaries, etc. How dare they have busy lives and cannot drop everything for us!! Ok so maybe I AM already annoying. Haa.. seriously I do understand their delays and hope they read this and recognize my most sincere public apology if I have nagged them! :) Just waiting for 3 outstanding items before shipping everything to Sec of State(s).. and then it is complete. Well, complete on my end. Our agency has to do some other things with it before it goes to India.. but at least that completes our input for the time being. So if the referral came through in August.. depending on the crazy judge situation in India, we could be traveling sometime b/t February and April of 2008. And you never know.. maybe even earlier than that!! ..but we'll try not to think of best-case scenerios.. better to prep for a long wait. We were super-lucky with our first adoption, I just can't imagine that we would be so incredibly lucky the 2nd time. I know another family who had a great 1st experience and then waited - I think maybe it was ~1 year after referral for their 2nd child due to India holdups. That would be soo heart-breaking, I pray that doesn't happen. Anyhow, I think this is really hitting me now b/c we have friends who are traveling within the next couple of weeks to pick up their sweet little baby. Even Maya's nanny is getting a little anxious. She wanted to know if I had thought about how different life was going to be, and how much busier I will be soon. I think she is trying to say 'start expecting to clean your own house instead of having me do it every week'. ;))) LOL! Yesterday we visited some friends of ours who have a 4-month old baby and a 2 1/2 yr old boy. They had a little doll baby and stroller that Maya immediately latched on to. Luckily, they were currently not 'into' that toy - so Maya got to borrow it! Good thing, as she screamed every time she had to leave it for even a minute after that point (which is new for her). Yipes. So maybe she is getting some good prep for the new brother or sister she will soon have!
Ooo .. aaaah .. Maya's Baptism/Christening invites arrived last night. They are so pretty! I have such a 'thing' for stationary. If my handwriting was not so horrid, I would actually wish that people still hand-wrote letters - just so that I could purchase and use stationary. Thank god, however, for the internet/email/blogging so that people rarely need to read my writing. Her invites are printed on a 5x7 insert with a vellum jacket (see photo). Now that I'm compiling all of these items, you would think that I would begin working on her lifebook/scrapbook/etcetcetc. I have a cabinet FULL of items to put together!
On the subject of Godparents.. I sure hope that Maya's Godparents always keep a special bond with her throughout her life. Much unlike one of MY Godparents. Just one. Here's an example of our relationship: I needed his address to send an invite for Maya's Baptism to his family (he is a close relation btw). Anyhow, I knew that if I sent him an email request he would probably not reply. Been down that road before. So I sent an email to my dad and sister and asked if they could track it down (they work with him). Dad sends a msg back and tells me to send him an email. So I think.. ok.. why not. So I do. I simply asked for his mailing address. I get this reply.. and I quote:
"Why???"
Hm. Let us ponder that reply. Does he think I am going to send a door-to-door salesperson to visit him? A Jehovah's Witness group to try and convert him? Am I in the process of working out a covert operation involving his home location? Has he been watching too many Soprano's episodes and is afraid of a hit? I give up... too many possibilities, not enough time.
In other news.. had a visit from FedEx today and rec'd the first apostille from one of the Secretary of States. One down.. god knows how many to go. I guess we'll be including the FedEx guy on our Xmas list again this year!
Update: Just rec'd a msg from my sister saying that he just told her that he "..was thinking the email had something to do with a different email from a different person.." and that he "..probably just pissed Amy off without meaning to." Was that an apology?
until our good friends travel to India to pick up their beautiful little angel!! We are so excited for them.. it has been a long, painful wait for that frustrating judge to ok their case. Anyhow.. they live very close to us, and we are so looking forward to our kids being buddies! Yay!!!!!!!! I am just so very happy that they are so close to bringing their family together. :))) In our journey.. we have been plodding along through the Dossier steps. Still FedEx'ing our lives around the country and still waiting on people to help us out with their pieces. The Dossier doesn't seem like it should take so long.. but it seems to drag on forever. Happily, our physician did not share the (ignorant) attitude of her assistant.. and she had her document notarized within 24 hours. See? Was that REALLY so difficult??? Obviously not. psh. And.. omg.. the police dept has also completed our notarized letters! WOW! What service! I almost feel good about my tax payments these days. ;)
And the latest in Maya updates...
Latest in her series of instant laugh provokers: Yelling "BOO!" ~ Riding on Dad's back and yelling 'Go horsey!' while hitting him in the head {ok this could be catagorized under 'Actions that prompt instant laughs from mom'!}
Latest in her series of intent activities: belts of any kind, but especially the kind that click together like her car seat, highchair seat, the dog's collar..
Latest actions that prompt instant laughs from mom: Pretending to be a dog (or does she think she IS a dog?) by wearing our lab's collar, crawling on the floor, and woofing. {hopefully this does not lead to future therapy sessions.. LOL} ~ Losing her pants. This is not intentional (yet).. she is just so darn skinny that most of her pants are too big. Some of them simply slip down to her ankles over time. She came around the corner the other day.. just before she got around it I heard a surprised little "uh oh!".. and then she shuffles around the corner with this big toothy grin on her face and her shorts at her ankles. Priceless.
Big excitement: Seeing her pretty Baptism dress hanging up - always inspires 'ooooooooo's and wide eyes
Major interests in life: Poo. Her bear poos, her Elmo poos, even her car poos. Unfortunately, SHE still refuses to poo. sigh.
Unfortunate interests: Still she is hitting. Hitting me in the face, hitting her bear, hitting herself. Owies are of high interest. Sometimes she smacks to express frustration, sometimes to be funny. I will be SO happy when this stage is over. Any recommendations on how to handle this are always appreciated. So far I have begun the 'If you hit, you must sit'.. and making her have a time out on the stair with me. We also, of course, explain that hands are not for hitting, etc. I need to order that book 'Hands Are Not For HItting' - maybe it would help.
And a new one.. she has figured out that she can remove her diaper. She has only done it once and looked very surprised by it.. but it led to nice wet spots in her crib during naptime. Obviously, even if it is warm in her room at naptime, she will have pants on. I'm sure it is only a matter of time until she learns the complete strip, but we'll hope it is a bit further into the future!
This mom will be attending the Manic Mommies Escape weekend in RI! I'm hoping that a friend will join me, as I can't imagine enjoying this girl (cocktails) weekend on my own.. ;) I'm currently trying to talk a couple of my friends into it, and hope they decide to join. It isn't easy for us moms to get away, but we have to do (cocktails) it on rare occasion!! I'm also going to be marketing my Adoption and Birth Story DVDs while there - so if you do make it, look for me at the boutique! If any of you moms might be interested, check out www.manicmommies.com for all of the details. They have some (cocktails) fun speakers/comedy/etc (cocktails) planned.. plus the hotel looks quite nice! They actually have a great parenting podcast, which I have been listening to for quite some time. It is entertaining and informative. I highly suggest it for all of you ipod-using-moms! Anyhow, if anyone reading is planning to attend, let me know! {did i mention cocktails??}
People often ask me what the most difficult part of the adoption process is - besides the obvious difficulty of waiting for your child. Funny that I had forgotten this.. but something happened today that also happened with our first adoption process. The dossier!! Not that the dossier is, in itself, a horrible nightmare. No - it's the PEOPLE that you are working with that make it a nightmare. Noo.. not the agency reps.. but the people who have to have their signature notarized!! Seriously, if you were helping someone to bring home an orphaned child and build their family - would you NOT be willing to do anything that you can to help both the child and the family?? Ok obviously not everyone feels this way. Last time it was the local police dept. I haven't contacted them yet, so could be the same this time (lets hope not - they delayed us almost 2 months last time). Today it was my doctor's office. Not my doctor - if she was this rude I would not be a patient. Here is how it played out: I arrive at the office and approach the desk. A somewhat bored-looking person is there to help me. I tell her "We are adopting a child, and I have a document that my doctor needs to sign and have notarized for me". She replies: "I'm sorry, we don't have a notary anymore" I reply: "No problem, I'm sure we can figure something out. Could you please get this form and my message to her?" I hold out our document to her. She replies: "I'M SORRY but we do not have a notary" and refuses to take the document from my hand. I reply: "Ok, well I would be happy to make arrangements and meet her at my local bank which is ~2 blocks away, or anyplace that she finds convenient" She replies: "I'm sorry, we don't have a notary so we can't help you".. and pushes the document back to me Me: "No problem - just have her call me and work it out" Her: "I don't know what you are going to do, but we can't help you" and again pushes the document to me Me: "Well, we cannot adopt our child without this form notarized. Could you please just have her call me?" Her: "I guess I can ask her, but she is out until Thursday and she can't help you" Me: "I can wait - please have her call me" Her: "Well, I will tell her, but we can't help you" Me: "PLEASE have her simply call me" She then took the form, put a post-it on it with my phone # - no note or words - and bid me farewell.
..literally, the nest is empty. Our little birdie-baby friends have grown up, taken flight, and left their cozy little nest above our front door. Sniff..sniff. No more waking up Maya and saying 'Good morning birdies!' .. and no more wishing the birdies 'good night' at the end of the day. No more scaring years off of their lives by climbing a ladder to peer into the nest. :) I miss them already! The photo to the left is of the last baby, just before I frightened him into taking his first flight and forever leaving the nest. oops.
This past weekend we took a road trip to Tiny Town. Very cute little place - a bunch of 'tiny' buildings/houses/etc.. and a little train you can ride around the area. Maya, loving her trains, had the time of her life! In other news.. my nephew is flying here tomorrow to visit for a week. Should be fun - he is 16.. so I'm anticipating a lot of begging for car drives! I'm also anticipating some learnings.. as I can always count on my nephews to bring me up-to-speed on the latest slang expressions, etc. It's often scary.. but it's probably a good thing that they keep us educated. When did I become old anyway???
I've begun planning Maya's christening. It is going to take place in early August, back in my hometown. I want my parents to be there.. and my mom can't travel right now due to the chemo. Soo.. the party comes to them! Today I received the dress that I ordered for Maya - OMG! It is seriously THE most beautiful thing I have seen for a little girl. She tried it on.. and even she was a bit overwhelmed. :) Portraits will be taken prior to the baptism! Hopefully I can get her to stand still long enough. She definitely can't run in this dress.. I need to try getting it shortened a little. I can foresee some tragic outbursts if she can't walk. I also just ordered the invites for the event. CRIMINY! A bit more pricey than I had anticipated. Oh well. It's a once-in-a-lifetime event right? Thank goodness the guest list is tiny. yipes. I guess that's it for today - happy Monday!
Maya's most favorite topic of conversation and most fun activity is 'buckling'. Buckling her baby doll (that she "borrowed" from her friend O) into baby doll's stroller (that she also "borrowed" from her friend O). I wake up at 3 am and hear from the monitor.. "buckle baby.. baby buckle.. daddy buckle.. buckle.. labba buckle.. buckle baby". So this must mean that she is even DREAMING about buckling! Cute yes. Monotonous.. well.. a little bit. ;)
We made a visit to the in-laws a couple wks ago. I haven't been out there in a few years (not intentional - just the way things happened to work out due to the fertility drugs/doc appmts, medical issues, maya's adoption), and Maya had never been there.. so it was a very nice trip. Maya fell in love with Granddad's tractor - she is scared to death of the vacuum, but loves the horrendously loud tractor. ?? I had almost forgotten how amazingly beautiful it is in upstate NY! Sadly, we only stayed a few days. We are hoping to make it out there for at least a week next summer. We're planning a long drive at some point so that we can bring out the boat. We didn't realize when we moved west, how there is just NO water for boating in a desert region. Shocking isn't it?
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