Hurry Up and Wait

I feel like this is going to take forever. Remember when I said I was finished? I have been finished for such a long time (okay, just a couple of months) and was waiting on a couple of things outside my control. Now I am just waiting on almost everything, but it still feels like it is going to take forever.

One thing this is teaching me is the geography of the former Soviet bloc. I can identify all the flags (mostly because of the Olympics) and Chase is very interested in all of the Russian winter athletes. He squints at them and says, "does he know my baby sister?" Very cute. He also likes to shout "USA!USA!" at the television.

I got a letter in the mail today from a sheriff where we once lived that congratulated me for not being a felon. I felt appreciated for the good life choices I have made thus far. And for paying that speeding ticket I got in 1996.

Most exciting Word document of my life

Today I was settling in for a little naptime Tivo catch-up (found Kevin and Kitty's trip to the high school reunion kind of silly) and email check when what to my wondering eyes should appear but OUR HOMESTUDY! So what if it was just a draft and kind of grammatically incorrect? So what if I graduated from a college I didn't attend? All of these things are totally fixable, and puts us just a little closer to our baby.

The big missing part? My letters of recommendation from friends (not family. They were very clear on that). So now I am going to start sending pleading emails and cajoling phone calls.

Since this afternoon I have become somewhat obsessed with getting a new car that has a bench second row so that all three kids can sit in carseats in my armreach. Charlie has done a whole heap of eye rolling tonight.

Background check, check!

I have all the background checks from every county we have lived in since we were 18 COMPLETED. Between the two of us, this totals fourteen documents. Because we're awesome. And because Charlie makes us move all the time.

I bought the boys a book about a kid who is getting adopted from a Russian orphanage:














Chase told me the other day that he thinks we should go get his baby sister after tennis on Friday. And that maybe Coach Spencer, the tennis pro, could watch Graham while we are gone.

Chris J...Notary Extraordinaire!

I just got back from a visit with my friend Bonnie. I just love Bonnie, and she is pregnant with her first baby, which is very exciting. Also exciting: her husband is a notary, so he redid the papers that the other notary messed up. He was fast and efficient, two qualities that I just love in a person.

A Little Good Luck from the Golden State

This morning Margot, our UPS lady, called and asked what time I would be home today. She had an overnight envelope for me. Guess where it was from? The county Charlie was born in. Guess what was in it? FIVE BIRTH CERTIFICATES! Hooray! See, yesterday I found a service that charged me a mere $96 to expedite the process. Bargain. So today I got them and it was worth the money to prove that Charlie lives. I promptly took them and overnighted them to the California Secretary of State to apostille them. Keep your fingers crossed that our California good luck holds out.

Too big for my britches

So, it turns out I was arrogant about how quickly I got my things together for the dossier. The state of California is fast becoming the bane of my existance. See, many of you know how I feel about California...the cost of living, the traffic, the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi...but my sweet husband was born there. Therefore, I am waiting for copies of his birth certificate. I had checked it off my list because I had sent away for them, but hadn't actually received them. Rookie mistake, apparently.

When I realized the error of my ways, I went about looking into the birth certificates. I checked my bank account and discovered they had cashed the check I sent for the FIVE copies I needed three weeks ago. I then looked at their website to see how long "processing" took. EIGHTEEN WEEKS!!! Are you kidding me? In eighteen weeks, I will already be 30. So I will literally be able to say I grew very, very old waiting for the stupid birth certificates. When I called the office, the recording said they had been furloughed. Does that mean forever? Is there no one I can talk to? For whatever reason, I picture one little washed out hippie guy manually typing each birth certificate request that comes into the third most populus state in America. No wonder California is bankrupt.

Moral of the story: 1. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. 2. No one likes a braggart. And that was me.

Getting Going...

So, Charlie and I decided that we don't have enough people in this family, and have started down the road of adoption. Chase and Graham can't possibly understand it, but they seem all on board when we talk about "your baby sister from Russia". Chase likes to put toys in her room so she will have them, and insists on calling her Rosie. I have no idea why.

We have completely hit the ground running. The woman at our agency told us that it took many families two to three months to complete their first dossier (basically a whole bunch of papers that the Russian government uses to determine what baby we get). Charlie said that it totally depends on which Mica (i.e. Varsity or 7th grade B-team) showed up to complete it on how long it would take. It took me about 32 hours to get the whole thing together, we are now waiting on the social worker to complete her FOUR TO SIX WEEK process. Grr. I took Charlie's comment as a personal challenge, and it drives me crazy that I can't make it go any faster.

Today I had a doctor's appointment for my home study physical. I went to a new doctor (because I hadn't started seeing a family practice person since we moved to Indiana) who was very nice and told me that I am fit as a fiddle and that I needed a Hepatitis A and B immunization series if I was going to be hanging around in Russia. Now my arm is killing me, but it did give me a whole new sense of empathy for the boys getting their pig flu shots tomorrow.

We got a very nice email from our agency today detailing the other families' progress. It seems like it should be about 12-18 months until we get home with our new baby, who will be born sometime after April, 2009, so she won't be an artificial twin with Graham.

We are really excited about this, and it has been nice how people have responded. I was eating lunch in a cafe on our courthouse square filling out a form for our house deed, and the waitress asked what my "court business" was (I did not make that up. She really said "court business", but more like "court bizness") and I told her. She said "Oh, I have been to Russia four times because my friend adopted two kids that I traveled with her for!" So she fixed herself a sandwich and sat down to visit. Our church has a lot of adopted kids (okay, not a lot, but it seems like a lot) and those moms have been very sweet offering their wisdom.