Babies and.. Babies

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!

On Baptism and Godparents..

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?

Only a Few More Days...

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!