Am i on candid camera?

The good news is thomas turned 3 years old on Sunday & we had a wonderful celebration. Greg used his birthday money to buy thomas a dream car - it's electric & halarious to watch him ride around!
Yesterday i had to laugh after i started to cry..it was one of those days where you're just thinking "what in the world is going on!" I felt like i was back in my old social worker days talking on the phone, putting out fires, calling here, calling there.. for over a week i've been trying to get my brother's high blood pressure medication dosage corrected. I thought it was all taken care of until i called the home where my brother lives & was told that that hadn't received the new dosage...i call the pharmacy, they say they didn't receive it from the doctor's office, called the the doctor's office, they said they faxed it...i was irate as my brother still wasn't on the right dosage of medication & it's been a week! I finally got it taken care of but it made me so upset. Then i was on the phone with Direct TV trying to take care of an issue for an former client of mine that is now my friend..she lives in a nursing home..i was on the phone on & off for several hours & each time i was getting somewhere i got disconnected!!! I had to laugh, it was such a joke! Then i found out that my neice is having a NO CHildren wedding in Santa Barbara which sounds beautiful but i will have 2 little ones by then & i cannot leave them here..so in a dilemna over what to do there. And the worst probably was a document that i had been waiting for came in the mail - it had a mistake on it so it was unusable & so it will take a few more days to obtain a corrected copy. All of this while thomas wouldn't go down for a nap & while he was into everything...i was running around with one hand on the phone & the other on a geotrax remote control. I still haven't receive the document from immigration i'm waiting for & the adoption fees just went up.

RELIEF!

I had my face to face appointment with the homeland security (immigration) people this morning..my sister & I waited over an hour & then it took 1 minute to ask for what i needed & to get the wonderful reply of "we'll mail it out next week." I couldn't have been happier as we need a document from them in order to get a court date in Siberia. In our whole process we haven't had anything like this where we couldn't obtain a document. I was so nervous..i had visions of security having to come over because i would be so upset trying to get this document. The nice thing about waiting over an hour is that your nerves are pretty much shot by that time so i no longer felt nervous but was just thrilled to see a live person ask me what i needed.

I was telling my sister how much i realize that we humans rely on other humans to get things done & sometimes things go real smooth when our helpers are efficient & pleasant & how others can let things slip thru the cracks. When you're in a situation where you're depending on another person for something as crucial as an addition to your family, you feel vulnerable & so grateful when you feel like they really care. This is one of the reasons i make an attempt to help those in need - because it feels aweful to be in need & not get the help you need. Of course, God is our greatest help but i believe He expects us to take care of one another.

Paper chasin

This is a pic of my niece Gennean & thomas giving a thumbs up because we made it back from trip #1 safely! She came to pick us up a SJ airport & she along with the SJ airport were wonderful to see! Even though we've been back since early November, i love to look at these pictures to remember it was real!

in adoption, you'll often hear of the paper chase.. we have been done with our documents for awhile now until i got word that the court needs 2 documents + another document that i thought would be here by now. So that threw me in a tail spin..actually i collected my thoughts & got down to business...making calls, reviewing documents, etc. I worked in social services for 6 years before i quit to be with my little thomas & thru this adoption, i've kept those skills so sharp! I've learned new skills in new areas that i'm thankful for too. Anyway...i've been trying to contact the immigration office for a document that i need - we cannot get a court date until i obtain that document. Well, no one at the local immigration office responded to any of my contact...i sent 2 e-mails, 1 urgent & i even faxed a request thinking it would fall into someones hands..so finally i figured out how to make an appointment & i go tomorrow. Greg reminded me that everything for us has going extremely smooth so this can be our 1 snafoo..is that a word? So this paper chasin idea is when you literally feel like you are chasing paper everywhere...that's what i've been doing this week. Now, the good news is that a couple who had their 1st trip the same time as our received a court date yesterday. If we had all of our documents together i'd imagine we'd be next but this is going to hold us up i think. I wouldn't mind so much if they were documents that were new that i needed but 2 of them are documents i already sent in that they're asking for another original which means, another notary & then going to Sacramento to get it apostilled (state seal). Hmmmmm...all good things worth the wait & work.

Good things!

Well the good news is that several other families from our agency have gotten court dates! They had traveled before us to meet their child. We are so happy for them because this means they can go & pick up their child pending a successful court date of course. It also means that we'll get our turn next..& the way it's moving, it's looking like March. Greg thinks February but i don't think so. Another blessing is that there were 2 documents that the Russian court said that we don't need & that's wonderful news because our agency was having trouble getting them! - so big relief on the paperwork front. Greg & I will begin to do our lab work here & then we bring the lab results to Moscow - we'll be doing a series of medicals there. This is a new way of doing the health portion implemented a few months ago.

I guess now is a good time to get thomas's room ready for his little brother. I've put it off not wanting to have to stare at an empty crib for too long but i feel like "A" is in reach now & it's just a matter of weeks now. Thomas will have to share his little room...what an adventure this will be in itself. I only know how to have 1 son, now i will have 2 little ones & that means double the fun - double the trains, cars, trucks & playdough stuck to my floor. By the way, i did make a call to get my carpets clean as i wrote in an earlier post that dirty carpets upset me so much. My focus now will be to prepare the house & keep learning my Russian.

My focus has also been to try & plan another fundraiser but i've come up with no great ideas yet. Thanks to my friends who came along side of me in my distress & put the word out that we're still needing contributions..when i go to the mailbox & receive loving letters & checks from people i don't even know (& those i do know), it gives me such hope that we're not alone. I know that one day soon i'll be cooking dinner & setting a place for "A" & this will all makes sense!

eeeesh!

i wrote a whole bunch & then some how erased it or something... :(

The 1st time i saw him

I was thinking back to our 1st trip to meet "A" & love looking at the pics to remind me it was all real. I still cannot post "A"'s picure until the adoption is final. This is Greg loving up little "A" - I cannot wait until i can show everyone his sweet little face. I saw his little face for the 1st time in the referral picture the adoption agency sent us via e-mail...he looked so much like our Thomas - that made me want to cry. When we got to the orpahange (just took 1 hour from our hotel) we got out of the van & it was freezing..we walked into the orphanage & i was just taking steps..not absorbing the hugeness of the experience but just kept moving. We got in & had to put blue booties over our feet & then we continued to walk to this big playroom...thomas had fallen asleep so we carried him in. I walked in & saw across a big empty room a caregiver & a little tiny boy standing near her leg. He wasn't moving but just standing their as if he were waiting..i'm sure he's too small to really understand that he was meeting his parents for the 1st time but we understood that we were meeting our son & there was never a doubt since we had first been told that we were matched with a little boy from Siberia, that he wasn't ours. That moment was so full of emotion, so beautiful... & then when we tried to set thomas down he woke up!! So we had our moment & then it became brother meeting brother & that was amazing...especially when we got to feed "A" his snack & we let thomas feed him..

..so at that 1st meeting "A" who had been a mystery for so long became a reality..we finally knew who we had been working so hard for. Through all the garage sales, the dance, the letter we sent out & the spa party, we didn't know who we were doing it all for, we were going on pure faith. How wonderful to know now who God prepared for us. It's so humbling to be given a child to adopt, to be trusted with a little life..to be allowed to take him home with us, to be able to give him a new life. Now we're just waiting for that court date which again, we'll have to live on faith that we'll go back soon to bring him home.