To India, With Love, .....

Well, we survived Christmas. The lead-up to the big day was absolute madness. I was working at the airport 4am-9am, and then going from there straight to the jewellery store for a few hours. I think I must have been mentally telling myself just "get thru Christmas, get thru Christmas", as by the time Boxing Day arrived I just crashed and burned. I was so exhausted I didn't even make it to the shower until 2pm.

Christmas Day was nice. We had it here at our house, with just us and Grandma and Grandpa. Your Aunt and Uncle were supposed to be coming for lunch too, along with your two cousins, but they phoned the day before to let us know that they were going to your Aunts families house instead. Yeah, thanks for the notice. We had enough food to feed several small armies, and it was actually more relaxing due to the decrease in people. The girls all had a great time, and were a treat to watch opening their presents. I missed you terribly all day long, as for the majority of the year we'd assumed you'd definitely be here for Christmas. I'm so ready for 2007, as this will definitely be the year we bring you home! Our next court date is supposed to be Jan 9th, so fingers crossed nothing changes that date. If this judge will give us guardianship sometime this month, then we could be heading for India as soon as the end of February.

I have two more weeks left on this early morning shift, and I'm counting the days. I will be SO happy to be off this shift. These hours are just not normal. I've never in my life been a morning person, so this 2am start is taking things to extremes.

We finally seem to be getting over the crud around here. Both Cassie and Molly are feeling a lot better, although Molly is still coughing a little. In true family style, they shared it around the family, and both Georgia and Dad came down with it too. Maddie and I are feeling kinda smart for avoiding it this long, so fingers crossed it continues!

Well baby, time for me to hit the shower, as its only a few short hours till my bedtime. Next time I update this, it'll be 2007 - the year we finally get to bring you home!!!

I love you bunches.

and the humourous...

because its funny......


Its in Georgias brain. (just ask her)


Its time for bed.

G'night all...

This is a much longer story that will need to be expanded upon..for those of you that feel the need to hear the rest of the story, just call me....

A discussion at the kitchen table tonight turned in the direction of body parts, and their importance ..... (and Cass kicked everyones ass)....not to be outdone, my most favourite blonde, Georgia, asked the importance of the "coochie-ass maximus" .....

Ummm....yeah.

For those of you who need the (blonde) translation ..... its your butt!

Welcome to my life.... and I rest my case....

*still chuckling here*

Well, today I got an unexpected day off. The severe storm the weather service had been promising us hit last night, and it didn't disappoint. Extremely high winds, rain that was coming down sideways, power outages, the lot.

Molly and Cassie are still off school sick, and to top it all off Dad got called in late last night, as they were setting up some emergency response center because the storm was so bad. I called the airport after Dad got called in, as we had no idea whether or not he'd be home by morning, and obviously I can't leave the girls here alone. They were very understanding, but I felt so bad, as I know that this morning over there would more than likely be hellish, made all the worse by the fact that there would be less people to help out. We lost electricity around 8pm last night. By that point, the lights had been flicking on an off for around an hour, so I'd had plenty of time to place a few candles strategically around the house. Georgia and Cassie thought the lack of electricity was pretty cool, but Molly and Maddie weren't as impressed. By the time 9.45pm rolled around, and we were still in the dark, we decided to drag blankets downstairs and have a camp-out in the living room. There was NO way Molly and Maddie were going to sleep upstairs in the dark. By the time Dad got home in the wee hours of this morning, Cassie was asleep on one loveseat, and Molly had the other. Maddie and I were sharing the couch, and Georgia had opted for a sleeping bag on the floor. We stayed without electricity until around 6.30am this morning. We were very lucky from a lack of damage standpoint. The woods over the back fence are minus a few trees this morning, but luckily none of them came our way. Other people were not so lucky, with trees coming down on houses and fences - The whole city is pretty much a mess. According to the forecasts, that should be the end of the wind for the rest of the day .... now they're expecting snow down to low levels. Oh yay.

*ok, thats freaky ..... I'd no sooner typed that and down comes hail* .... lol

Time for me to go get tidied up around here ....

I love you bunches!

This photo of Daisy was taken yesterday ... its kinda hard to see it, but her tongue was poking out, and for some reason I found this hysterically funny.

Well todays plans for a relaxing day off went out the window first thing this morning. Both Molly and Cassie are at home today with coughs and colds. There has been all sorts of crud going around ....it just seems to be the time of the year for it. Cass was not one bit disappointed to score a day off ...(in fact she was lining up for it last night before bed), but Molly on the other hand was not impressed. She informed me this morning that she only had a cough and a cold, and her throat ONLY hurt when she swallowed. All day they've been feeling hot then cold, so we broke out the Tylenol cough and cold syrup, and they're doing a little better. I'm not holding my breath on them making it to school tomorrow either. This school is really picky when it comes to kids being at school not feeling good, and they won't hesitate to send them home again.

There is another storm lining up the Pacific Northwest .... low snow levels, and extremely high winds. Of course this happens just in time for me to have to drive in it. Times like this a few days on a tropical island sound particularly nice :o)

We look like we've had snow out in the backyard, due mainly to a little laundry emergency we had yesterday. I went to move laundry over, and all over the door of the washing-machine was this white stuff. Initially I wondered if Dad had bought powdered laundry powder, but that would have just been too easy. Dad had thrown a load of laundry in, and in amongst it was one of the girls "squishy-pillows" ...the end result here was a million pieces of polystyrene, as the pillow developed a hole while in the machine. We shook out as much as we could, and then had to shop-vac the washing machine. After the load had been thru the dryer, that had to be shop-vacced too, and then we used the regular vaccum cleaner on the blow cycle to try and push all the white stuff out of the filter. Even today is still quite a mess. I put a load of towels on earlier, and am about to see how its looking now, as I really do need to wash my uniform before I go to bed tonight. My uniform pants are the ugly blue polyester blend that acts as a dirt magnet on a good day, so the last thing I really need is polystyrene all over them too. Dad said shes been picking the white stuff out of his uniform pockets all day.

There is a new shift bid out at work, and I have my fingers crossed for one particular night shift. This getting up at 2am is kicking my butt, and I've come to the realisation that its probably easier to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, than it is to get up during the wee hours of the morning. The bid is all based on seniority, so I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath. This particular shift would give me more days off thru the week, with the really late nights being Fri and Saturday, which would work well as I can sleep in on the weekends. I should know next week what I ended up with, and I'm not going to be happy if I'm on the same shift I'm on now. The new shift doesnt become active until Jan 13th, but I can get thru the next month one week at a time if I know there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Miss Maddie is asleep on the couch, so I'm hoping that shes not in for getting sick next. I probably should be making the most of the peace right now to change that laundry over, and haul my butt thru the shower. I find its easier to shower at night right now, but have to do it early enough to give my hair the 3 hours it needs to dry. A huge downside to having this much natural curl is if I go to bed with it wet, I wake up with this really bad looking white-woman affro. Not pretty.

I love you bunches .... Less than a month now until our next court date!

I'm off the phone, and I'm still grinning. I got just a minute to talk with Vijay before the conference call really started, and it was wonderful to speak with someone who actually knows you. She told me over and over what a sweet and smart child you are. She told me you do very well in school, and that you are very obedient. Her words were "You only have to tell him once, and there is no question he understands". Hmmmm, maybe you can teach your sisters how to do that! They have been teaching you basic English, and she tells me that you know quite a few words, along with your alphabet and numbers. She said that you ask often when I'm coming for you, and that she reassures you that I'm coming as fast as I can. Because you don't understand the whole "court" thing, she tells you that I'm coming from a long way away, and it takes a long time for me to get a "ticket". She said that you are very excited to meet us, and that she feels you will accept us right away. When the time comes, she wants us to arrive on a Saturday, have Sunday to rest, and then we'll get to meet you on Monday. She believes that you'll want to come with us right away on Monday. For some kids the parents will visit a few times before they take the child with them, but she doesn't think you'll want to do that. Her opinion is that you'll be wanting to stay with us from the start. She thinks you'll only need a few weeks here in the USA before you'll want to start school. Over and over she kept stressing how smart you are, and said that we'll want to have you assessed by the school, as you are in kindergarten now, and will more than likely be ready for first grade. She called you a "non-stop dancer" ... If there is music going, you have to be moving. She also warned me that you are moody. Not the tantrum kind of moody ... more the sniff and pout if things don't go your way. I'm thinking you get that from me.

She feels that 5 days in India is the perfect amount of time, as you will be anxious to get on the plane to come back here to America and see your new home and meet your sisters. Vijay explained that you'll be sad the first few days as you will be missing everyone in India, but she believes that you'll settle in very quickly here. She stressed that where you are living is not typical of an orphange, in that it is not an institution. The caregivers give you lots of love and affection, and its like a huge family. There are 22 kids in your adoption house right now, and 23 in the other adoption house.

The phone call was over way too fast. The other mother on the line had lots of questions too, and Vijay tried to answer all questions pertaining to both her little girl and to you too. At the end of the conversation she asked if there was anything that she wanted me to pass on to you. I asked her to reassure you that we'll be there as fast as we can, and to give you a big kiss and a huge cuddle from me, and to tell you that we love you so much.

I hope you know how loved you are. Vijay feels that things are moving more quickly in the courts now, and shes hopeful that we're just a few short weeks away from guardianship.

I love you bunches.

Its 8.44am, and we're supposed to be having a conference call with Vijay at 9.00am. I have Maddie set up in front of the GameCube in the hopes that she'll stay quiet while I'm on the phone. She thinks this is a blast, as usually she's not allowed to play it so early in the day.

I have so many questions for Vijay. I'm sitting here watching the kitchen clock resisting the urge to change the battery in it ... its moving so slowly. We were supposed to have this call last week, but it didn't happen. If it doesn't happen today, I'm not going to be happy.

I've checked and rechecked the dial tone on the phone....

And now I need to pee.

Its come to my attention that I didn't have an email address linked to the diary here. Today I got to playing with Google, (more than anything thanks to a compulsory upgrade from Blogger), so I now have myself a new Gmail account. Anyone who reads this and wants to contact me for whatever reason can now email me at toindiawithlove@gmail.com

They also have this really cool feature to personalise the homepage, so after playing with that today too, I now have everything from local news and weather, thru to thoughts for the day, and even a "Bonehead of the Day" column. Nothing like a giggle first thing in the morning to get the day started, eh? The weather part of it is probably a waste of time, as at this time of the year the only weather we have is rain .... the only question is what kind of rain its going to be. Will it be scattered showers? Intermittant showers? Freezing rain? Torrential rain? ...Yup, you get the picture. This is a fabulous place to live if you're a fish or a duck ...haha.

Dad put the Christmas lights up out the front, and it looks really good. I have Tues/Wed off, so will do some decorating on the inside, and get the girls stockings hung up too. We were going to go ahead and buy you a stocking, but instead decided to wait and let you choose your own for next year. Having said that, I'm sure Santa will still bring you some gifts that will wait until we have you home. Hopefully Vijay will have some positive news when we talk on Wednesday.

I love you bunches.

We were hoping for the chance to speak with Vijay last week, but due to Lisa being sick, it didn't happen. We're aiming for this Wednesday at 9am. We still have no news on the court front, but my good friend Sue (Baby K's Mum) got some potentially very good news off the Delhi court website. They had a hearing on Dec 2nd, and while the way the order is written is kinda cryptic, its looking like there is a very strong chance they got guardianship!!!!! Now the countdown is on for our agency to confirm this. Hopefully we'll be next!

In some ways the days have been going so fast, yet its hard to sit here and actually say just what we've been doing. This 4am shift has me going to be pretty early, so the 2nd half of each day seems short. By the time your sisters get home from school and we get homework/dinner/bathtime/storytime etc done, its time for me to go to bed too.

We had parent teacher conferences for the girls a couple of weeks ago. Everyone is doing very well, and both Molly and Cassies teachers asked after you. Your sisters have told everyone you're coming, so we now have even more people counting down the days until you can come home. This judge in India is still being a butt, and its looking like it'll be 2007 before you'll be here. The nerve-wracking part here is that there will be a new judge in the new year, so we're back to not knowing what we're dealing with. Rumour has it the new judge is very pro-adoption, but then again, thats what everyone said about this one. One upside though, is that Lisa is going to start having bi-weekly conference calls with the families that are still waiting and Vijay. As far as I know, there are four families all waiting on guardianship. I already know one family (Baby K's Mommy and Daddy and big sister). At this point I think we're aiming for Wednesday at 9am.

We had a double discount day at work, and got quite a bit of Christmas shopping done. Of course, the girls will change their minds a hundred times between now and Christmas, so we'll probably hold off on sending letters to Santa for another couple of weeks, as we don't want a repeat of last year where Santa got several updated letters as the girls thought of different things. Your sisters are the perfect consumers ...if its seen on TV, its needed in this house. I splashed out on a new laptop, as our desktop died some time ago, and our other laptop is dead more often than not these days. We got a smoking deal, with a laptop that was already on clearance, minus my 15% employee coupon, and then 20% double discount. My kind of shopping!!!

Its already feeling weird heading into Christmas knowing that you're not going to be here. Back when we first found out about you, we never imagined we'd be this far into the year without you. I'm going to go ahead and buy you a stocking anyway, and we'll put some treats in it for when you do arrive.

I miss you so much. I'm trying so hard to stay positive here. While I know that we're very lucky that you're in an orphanage that cares for you well, its just so hard having you so far away. We have some photos and treats headed your way for you to share with all your friends there at the orphanage, which I hope at least makes the waiting a little bit easier for you. I just hope that now that you know you have a family, that you somehow know and believe just how much you are loved. As your sisters would say ..... I love you bigger than the ocean.

Me and Dianne from Tampa. Dianne was there for a different class. Shes a ramp lead, and has been working in the airline industry for 27 years. We met at the hotel and hit if off instantly. This lady is so sweet, and just has some hysterical airport stories. I'll be visiting her in Florida for sure, and can't wait to catch up with her again. Out of all the people I met in Arizona, this lady gets the award for the funniest. Just give her a drink or two, and shes unstoppable!

Willie, Tina and me!

Group photo of everyone that survived training! This was taken on our last day....in the classroom we lived in for three weeks. My desk is the one with the huge bag of M&M's on it. For those of you who read this and haven't met me yet, I'm the blonde in the middle in the blue shirt.

Working at the airport is still entertaining. Now that the weather is turning to crap (the forecast is a predictable rain, rain, and more rain ....), I'm starting to experience a few delayed flights and not so happy customers. Yesterday they were so bad we actually had to call the police. One passenger was yelling and threatening Linda to the point we all thought she was going to get physical. I got yelled at twice by the same passenger. Apparently our line was not moving fast enough for his liking. The first time around, I listened to him up to the point that he was starting to get in my face, and then pretty much tuned him out. Living with all these kids has its advantage when it comes to tuning out background noise. About 15mins later, he was back. I'm still not sure what his problem was, as he was already checked-in. I think he just found it nescessary to stand there and critique our customer service skills. Given I couldn't say half of what I wanted and still stay employed, I threw him to the mercy of the other passengers. In a voice a little louder than it needed to be, I helpfully pointed out that every time he came up there to yell at me, it forced me to stop working so I could pay attention to him. I innocently asked him where in the line he was, and of course, he told me he was already checked in. Upon hearing that, the other passengers all took over, and all we could hear were comments of "Dude, if you're checked in, get out of the line", and a few people muttering under their breath about what a jerk he was. I even had a few people apologise for his behaviour. By the time we got down to the gate, this guy actually apologised for being such an ass ..... Yeah, thanks, and you got that right.

This 4am shift is taking some getting used to. I love how busy it is in the mornings once I get to work ..the hard part is getting out of bed. Once my feet hit the floor I'm good to go, but hearing that alarm go off at 2am isn't so flash.

Its nice to be out of training. I met some really awesome people down there that I'll definitely be staying in touch with. I'll put up some photos that we took down there the last day. I need to make a few calls on my days off to see how everyone else is doing now that we're officially done with training and working in the real world.

Now we need to plan some trips and take advantage of these flight benefits!

Molly, Maddie and Cassie .... and Georgia and my other two "daughters", Ash and Allie.

Here are the girls all carving pumpkins. Dad and I were laughing so hard at their antics, and they all had a great time!

Well baby, your sisters had a great time for Halloween this year. We decorated the house and carved pumpkins too. (actually everyone but Maddie carved... she just drew all over hers). Molly was not too impressed with the "pumpkin-guts", and insisted on gloves before she'd put her hands in there to scrape it out. It was pretty cute!! I took a bunch of photos, so will put those up here too. Georgias two best friends (my "other" daughters) came here to hand out candy, while Dad, Cassie, Molly, Maddie and I braved the cold and went trick or treating. It was FREEZING out there!! We were tough and stayed out nearly 2 hours, and the girls scored enough candy to get us thru to next Halloween. This year Maddie was a unicorn, Molly a witch, and Cassie a vampire. We saw some really cool costumes for boys as we were walking around, and can't wait until next year to take you trick or treating for the first time!!

Finally life is settling back into a routine, even if its a crazy one!! Now that I'm back home again, I plan to update this a lot more often, as I've found that the longer I put it off, the harder it is to do, espescially with as much that goes on in our house. To keep it easier, I'm going to put up a couple of different posts to let everyone know what we've been up to. An adoption update of course, will be at the top of the list!

We got another court date on October 30th, which should have been great news. This Judge however, is still in no hurry at all to push thru any international cases. He gave us a date for a Final Hearing ... unfortunately not until 9th January 2007. The part that really bites here, is that rumour has it this judge will be out of office at the end of this year. If the next judge is pro-adoption, he could very well move quickly, and we'd have guardianship in the New Year ... If the next judge is anti-adoption, we could be waiting a while yet. I was pretty bummed to see the date ... It was very early morning, and I was checking the causelist before I had to leave for work. Initially I was pissed ... and then I was sad, and had a wee cry all to myself, and then I gave myself a bit of a pep-talk. I know that this WILL happen ... I just hate the thought of you over there waiting for us. I knew that frustration would be a part of this process ... I just hadn't counted on SO much frustration.

In the meantime, we just about have a parcel ready to send over to you and all your friends in the orphanage. We got a bunch of colouring books and pencils, along with all sorts of other goodies. We even took advantage of the fact that there was candy all over every store for Halloween, and bought some HUGE bags of lollipops for you all.

I'm still checking the court lists every day in the hope that something wonderful will happen and our name will slide in there again. The chances are slim, but as we've seen with this court so far, anything is possible.

I love you...

Life last night was stressful ...but in a different kind of way. Never mind the training, the tests, or the adoption stress ...this was something new. Apparently right up there with all the current political worries like North Korea and missles, Iraq, Iran, Bird Flu etc ...is VEGEMITE! I have officially heard it all! Kim Jong Il is lining up the West Coast ...but nearly as important, Vegemite is now banned from the USA. For the Americans who read this who are all scratching their heads right now and wondering what vegemite is ...this is like being banned forever from Mac and Cheese...or peanut butter ...or pumpkin pie. We're talking about something that everyone from my end of the planet has enjoyed since childhood.

I spent last night frantic, searching online for some scource of legal vegemite... (being the law abiding girl that I am) ... with no luck at all. This morning, I placed a few calls, and am now the proud owner of 10 travel tubes of the brown stuff! (albeit somewhat "brown" market" ... (and NO, I don't want to talk about how much it cost me). Meanwhile, Sue is phoning every Indian Market/English/Aussie store in the greater Portland Metro Area. This is damage control, Down Under style.... and my credit card might never be the same. I mean, I'm away from home, I have a child hundreds of miles away, I'm stressed with tests, and I'm PMS'ing.... Need I say more... other than "Just give me my frigin VEGEMITE!"!

This is the kinda news that makes me want to pack up my pumpkin pieless life and move back to where real news matters.

Well baby, here I am back in Arizona for my last week of training. I'll be very happy to have this week over and done with. I'm with a really great group of people ... I'm just ready to be able to put away the suitcase and stay home for a while. It is so hard being away from your sisters ... I'm just not used to it. There's still no good news to report on the guardianship front. I know that Vijay and the other orphanage directors are pushing the High Court to make this District Judge speed up, but we haven't had any updates as to how that is going. I'm also hearing rumours to the effect that the current judge will be finishing in December, and that there will be a new judge come January. I really don't know how I feel about this. On the upside, there's always that chance that the new judge will be very favourable towards international adoptions, and will push things thru fast ... Of course, there is also too, the risk that the new judge will move just as slowly as this one, and of course, with them not being familiar with our case, delay things even further. If something doesn't happen soon, I think we're going to take Vijay up on her offer to come visit. It'll be early December when my flight benefits kick in for other airlines, so maybe after Christmas I'll come see you if we haven't had good news by then. I don't know how on earth I'll ever leave you there if it comes to that, but we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

Well baby, I have a test bright and early in the morning... Probably time for me to hit the pillows and study a little before sleep.

I love you so much!

Still no sign of us on that list, but good news in that one more family has been showing up a lot, and its looking like they'll get guardianship today!! Its positive to see or hear anything of anyone with a European sounding name making the list. I still havent heard from Lisa as to whether or not we're allowed to send you some things while we wait. I emailed her again, so hopefully today will bring news on that front too. I'm feeling really frustrated right now, as day after day goes past with no sign of our names on that docket. We thought we'd have you here months ago, and now I find myself just assuming it'll be after Christmas at the rate things are moving. I hope I'm wrong .... I really do.

Well baby, I'm in Arizona, so I should be reading over my books in preperation for todays test. I'm feeling distracted the last couple of days ... there is just so much going on right now. I'm worried about Mike, and as a result of that I'm worried about Mum ... I'm worried about how Adam and Kell are doing with the twins, seen as Mum isn't there to help them right now. I'm missing you, and so frustrated with this judge that words just don't describe it. I'm missing your sisters and feeling pretty homesick. I need a swift kick in the you-know-where, and a high dose of some positive energy. Maybe I'll swing past the store tonight and buy some bubbles ..... Weird as it sounds, blowing bubbles is super-therapeautic for me.

As Maddie would put it .... I love you bigger than the ocean.

Well baby, I've spent the last few days showing your photos to anyone and everyone, and of course, they all said you're gorgeous! I had a good week working at the airport, and it felt good to be actually able to do various things on the computer. Before training if someone wanted to change seats or add bags, I had to wait for someone else ... Now its no problem!! I joked with my boss that they'd taught us just enough to be dangerous. He must have thought I was doing ok though, as he gave me my own sign-in name and password for the computer. As always, the entertainment value at the airport was second-to-none. I've always been a people-watcher, and now I'm working in the ultimate environment for it.

Having being at the airport from 4am-12.30pm this week, I'm enjoying a lazy morning before heading off to work at the jewelry store today. I start at 12.30pm, and will hopefully be home around 9.30pm. Tomorrow its back to Arizona for another week. Next weekend, I'm going to be lazy.

I emailed Lisa to thank her for the photos, and she let me know that you now know you have a family!! Thats awesome news!! Shes going to ask Vijays permission to give me an address so that we can send you some things while we're waiting. Hopefully I'll hear back from her early next week. We're still no further ahead with the waiting game. The High Court is now involved, so hopefully they'll give this judge a short amount of time to get things caught up.

Uncle Mike is still hanging in there, although things are still touch and go. They made the decision to disconnect his feeding tube, as they believe the 2nd stroke was just too damaging. Its a waiting game now. He had one good day where he tried to talk, and was showing signs of interacting with everyone, but by yesterday he was back to being very unresponsive. His heart is not looking good, and theres concern that he has pnuemonia on top of it all. I'll be calling Mum again tomorrow night from Arizona for another update.

Well baby, its time for me to get thru the shower and look like I'm going to work again today! It'll be a change to wear something other than a white shirt and black pants! Dad is going to take the girls to Costco, as we're in dire need of some groceries.

Hopefully within the next couple of weeks you'll be getting mail from us. Lots of photos, letters, pictures from the girls, and if Vijay will allow it, a few treats too.

I love you bunches.

Look what arrived today!!! I got email from Lisa, and these pics were in it. Shes mailing us the originals. Because things are moving so slowly, the High Court is now involved, and she hopes to have good news for us soon. You're now 46" tall and weigh 42lbs! In the last year you've grown 7 inches, and put on 9lbs!! I can't wait to see how fast you grow once we have you home.

Sweet boy, I miss you so much!!

Its nice to be home. I missed everyone terribly. The last week was really busy. We were in class from 8am until 5pm each day, and then back to the motel for dinner and study. For as hard as it was being away from your sisters, I actually had a pretty good week. The first couple of days was really hard for me. Uncle Mike was still not looking too flash, and Trish and Auntie Treacy flew to New Zealand to be with him. Auntie Judy went over the next day. He was still really unresponsive, and we were all told to prepare for the worst. I got to talk to everyone on the phone, except for Kirsty, as she wasn't up to talking to anyone. He had another bleed in his brain, and gave everyone a good scare. It seems everyone is taking turns being with him , so he's not alone day or night. In class, I was checking my phone all the time, hoping there wouldn't be a text message with any terrible news. Your Uncle Mike is a fighter ...he's defying all odds and hanging in there for all he's worth. Everyone says that there is no doubt that he knows they're all there. Trish told me that so long as he has something to hold on to, he's doing ok ... They bought him a toy dolphin, so he has something in his hand all the time. Its so hard being so far away ... I miss them all so much. I knew when I moved here that there would be change back home, as I know nothing stays the same. What I hadn't counted on was the loss. In the time I've lived here, I've lost both Nana and Grandma, and now Uncle Mike is hanging on tight. He's a stubborn man, and I'm sure thats helping him a lot right now.

Despite my issues with concentration this week, I actually did OK. Every day there's a test, and you need 85% or better for the entire week to stay in the class. I'm pretty happy to report that I didn't miss a question all week, and finished up with 100%. I was a little worried on Friday, as we had our final test and were given an hour and a half for it. I was out of there in under 25mins, and then spent the next half hour stressing that maybe I'd missed something really huge, to be done so fast. It was a huge relief to get those results and see a good score. Our class is so diverse, and for the most part a really great group of people. The majority of the people there really want this job, so are trying so hard. I found myself really enjoying the company of two ladies in particular, Gail and Willy. Both are just awesome, and are trying so hard. Its amazing how you can spend just a few minutes with a person, and just know that they are such good people, and both of these ladies are. Willy is a kick in the pants ... you'd love her. She's been so nervous all week, and is doing really well. I'm hoping Gail will find more confidence in week 2. She knows what shes doing, but had a bad experience due to one of the other ladies being pretty distracting towards the end. She was pretty upset by the whole thing, and all I could do was give her a big hug. I'll be doing all I can to help her thru week two. Our teacher is awesome. Again, one of lifes sweet people. She explained things in a way that kept it easy to understand, despite the fact that the course content is in fact confusing. We learned so much in one short week, and we still have so far to go. I'm looking forward to getting to the airport this week, and putting it all into action.

D got a job and starts next week. I'd run an ad, and interviewed a lady today who will be helping out with childcare over the next while. Her name is Vanessa, and shes very sweet. She works part time as a clown, and when she arrived today she bought balloons for the girls. She went to the Art Institute, and is big into Arts and Crafts, so she'll fit in just fine around here. She starts Monday, so we'll see how it all goes.

Still no new news on the court front. I've been checking the lists daily, as we have big hopes that guardianship will happen this week or next. I heard from another waiting Mum who got pictures of her little girl, so have emailed Lisa asking if she has any new photos of you for us. If we're going to have you here in time for Christmas, this needs to happen this coming week. I still don't even know if you know about us, and yet there is not a second in the day that you're not on my mind. If this airline flew direct to India, I'd be coming to visit. I know I keep saying it over and over, but it won't be long now....

I love you bunches.

Here they are, Uncle Adam and Auntie Kelly,
together with Taj and Sy. Soooooo precious!!

A huge congratulations to Uncle Adam and Auntie Kellie ..... We have twins!!!!! Sy Michael, and Taj Max. I can't wait to get my hands on them!! At last we have some more boys in the family!
Sy is on the left, and Taj on the right.

We better get good news from this judge soon, because I'm desperately in need of something to smile about.

This week has been one that I want to go back and start over....

The twins aren't here yet ... Poor Adam and Kell got to the hospital for their scheduled C-section, only to be told that the Dr wanted to wait another week...

Uncle Mike back home has had a really bad stroke, and things are not looking good at all. Mum and Auntie Treacy flew out last night to be with him, and Auntie Jude was flying out this morning. Kirsty and Kenneth are with him, and I feel like I'm stuck a million miles away ... He really is too young to be going thru this. I wish I could be there.

Tomorrow I leave for Arizona. I have the cough and cold from hell, and there are so many places I'd rather by flying off to.

Its official ..I'm in a funk.

I'm going to be doing my best to kick ass this week at training. This is precisely WHY I wanted this job. Its going to be a reminder to me all week long... Cheap airfares home when I need to go there.

This week will be you for you, Mike....

And I am so ready for some good news.

Last week was a bit of a blur... I was working at the airport 10am-2pm, which meant I had enough time in the morning to get up and get your sisters out the door to school, then had to race to get myself ready so I could be out the door myself by 9am. I got home just in time for them to arrive home and then starts the crazy homework time of the day. Our house is the house that all the kids in the neighbourhood come to, to hang out and play. I'm going to have the girls tell everyone that they can't play until 4.15pm, as it was getting crazy last week trying to get their homework done, with the doorbell going every 2 minutes. 4.15 gives everyone enough time for snack and then homework, and then the rest of the afternoon is their own. I was joking with Dad that what we need on the front of this house is a revolving door.

The for sale sign is still up next door, but so far I think they've only had one person come look at the house. I havent seen D much this week, but shes watching Maddie for me tomorrow and Tuesday morning, so will get to catch up with her then.

Today we're off to yet another picnic for Dads work. We only had one a few weeks ago, but they had a tonne of hotdogs and hamburger patties left over, so we're having another one today. It'll be early to bed for me tonight when we get home, as I have to be out the door by 3am for work. The upside is I'll be home for the day by 9.30am, so I'll get to hang out with Maddie all day. I'm not sure how I'm going to get to sleep so early .. the first couple of nights will be a challenge, but something tells me that by Wednesday night I'll be falling into bed and going straight to sleep. I'm off to Arizona next Sunday for training, so the early mornings there will feel like a huge sleep in after this week!! The next 6wks are going to be rough, but after that things should calm down some. Once the training period is over, I'll be working part time. It seems everyone down there trades shifts so that the part-timers come in for just a couple of long days a week, instead of 5 short days a week.

Well baby, I'm going to get moving here so I can get this house picked up and looking good... I'm aiming to have nothing to do when we get home other than dinner and bath your sisters... Dad will be home around 7pm, and I'll be heading to bed soon after that.

The court lists are still moving along quite nicely ... Maybe this week will be the week our names show up!!

I love you bunches.

I feel like a slacker for not updating this in nearly a week, but this last week was nuts!! I worked Tues,Wed,Thurs at the airport, and Wed and Thurs night at the jewellery store ... between work, and the first week of the girls being back at school, by Friday I was wiped out!

Work at the airport went really well .... I'm working with a great bunch of people, and they've all been really helpful. There is just SO much to learn! I got to spend a lot of time at the check-in counter, as well as at the boarding gate. Come Thursday I got to spend time down in baggage claim, which was really interesting. I have a feeling thats where the most challenging customers will be ....Theres no such thing as a happy camper when someone arrived on a flight only to find out that their bags have gone elsewhere.

Luckily the jewellery store was pretty quiet both nights. I actually spent some time on Thurs night making myself little flashcards of all the airport and airline city codes, in between the very few customers we had. Our first day of training, they test us first thing, and the score we get counts towards our first weeks overall score... If you don't have 85% or more by the end of the week, then its Bye-bye.

I was supposed to be leaving today for training in Arizona, but it seems that while I was enrolled in the class, no one got around to confirming that I was going, so they gave my spot away. I now leave on the 25th. I'm happy that it gives me a couple more weeks to study, as well as work at the airport and learn more before I go to training. I'm working there this week Mon - Fri from 10am -2pm. Next week they're talking of me doing the 4.30am-8.30am shift ....Eeeeek! That means I'd need to be out the door by 3.30am!! The downside to me not leaving for another couple of weeks is Dads schedule. This week he has Tues-Fri off, so it would have been a good week for me to be gone. The week I'm actually going, he's going to be working mainly thru the week, so that means finding childcare for Maddie. Our neighbour, D, had offered to help out, but I'm not sure just how thats going to work out. Her and M had a ripping fight last week, and M hasn't been home since. Yesterday a for sale sign went up out the front of their house. I spoke with D, and shes saying she'll still do it, but realistically she needs to be looking for a full-time job. I'm just a little worried that a couple of week into training, shes going to be letting us know that she can't do it anymore. The best news would be that M is moving back home, and that stupid for sale sign is coming down, but its hard to say whats going to happen. We have other neighbours that would help out, but the challenge is finding someone who can be here by 6.30am to get the kids up and off to school. I plan on spending some time this week coming up with a backup plan.

Well baby, I need to be houseworking here.... I have laundry coming out my you-know-where, and I'm not going to have much time this week to do it. My goal is to have this house show-room perfect by the end of today, so I can spend my time off thru the week just hanging out with the girls...

I love you bunches, and I miss you sooooo much!!! Our names have to show up on that judges docket within the next couple of week if there is any chance we're going to have you here in time for Christmas....

What a day! The girls all survived their first day of school, and all seemed to have a good time. Georgia got lost a couple of times at her new school, but all in all had a good day. Molly arrived home looking wiped out after her first ever "full" day of school, and happily announced that she'd made four new friends. Cassie of course had a lovely day ..but then every day is lovely in Cassies world. Being the ever protective sister, Cassie escorted Molly and one of Molly's friends to class this morning. Molly got up countless times last night asking how many more hours until school started...it was pretty cute.

I survived my first day at the airport...it was a lot of fun. There is so much to learn!! I got a book today for pre-training, and apparently training in Arizona consists of a test first thing on Monday based on this book. Our test score counts towards our overall test score, and you need a cumulative 85 to pass. If at the end of the first week you're not cutting it, you don't come back. Now I see why these classes start so big and end so small. One of my first challenges is memorising every airport code for the centers we fly too, as well as memorising every airline code for the airlines we're affiliated with. Some are very easy, and yet others make no sense at all. The girls thought it pretty funny that I had homework tonight too. The lady that I followed around today confirmed what we all already know. I'm a magnet for freaks. Shes been doing this 20 years, and said she had more weirdos in her line today than she had in the past 10 years put together. Lucky me!! There was the lady with no shoes who showed up 2 hours after her flight was supposed to have left ..I say supposed to have, because she had a suitcase, but no receipt, confirmation code, or clue as to which airline she was even flying. An hour later she was back insisting she must be flying our airline, as she'd been to every other counter and no one had heard of her...Ummmm yeah...we can't find you on the computer either. At the time she finally said goodbye, she was torn between needing to smoke or pee, and then complained that she wasn't allowed to smoke in the bathrooms. She was an eye-opener! Everyone that I'm working with seems really nice. This is a very senior station, so theres lots of experienced people there. A couple of people today saw me in my white shirt and asked if I was the supervisor ...Ummm...not even close!!!

Well babe, I need to go eat and get some sleep. Tomorrow I'm at the airport 10am-2pm, and then at Freddies from 4.20pm-9.30pm ..and then the same on Thurs. Its a couple of long days coming up!!

Our magazine fundraising stepped up today!!! We went from $16 to a whopping $64!! A huge thank you to Angie, and also to Audreys Mum for their orders!!

Love you heaps!!

Well, the last week around here has been nuts! We did some back to school shopping, as the girls start back again tomorrow. Even as late as tonight we were out finding shoes for everyone. Dad hasn't been feeling too flash, as he got gout in his finger AND his knee. He finally gave in and went to the Doctor, and the medicine is helping him alot. Your sisters are all very excited for school. We had open days earlier in the week, and got to see their new classrooms and meet their new teachers. Their teachers this year all seem really nice. Tomorrow will be a hectic day, as we need to have Georgia on the bus by 6.50am, then Cassie and Molly on the bus by 7.55am ... then I'm out the door around 8.30am as its my first day at the airport, and Dad has a meeting at 9am just for half an hour, so Angie is going to watch Maddie. All going well I'll be home by 2.30pm, in plenty of time to get the girls off the bus and hear all about their first days. I'm hoping tomorrow at work I'll get to learn more about what to expect next week in Arizona. All I know at this stage is that I fly out on Sunday. I have no clue where I'm staying, or what day I get to come home again. I dont even know yet what time I leave! I also want to know more about flight benefits, and how long I have to be employed before I can get some flights on other airlines... I have our India trip in mind here! Still no news on the guardianship front, but thats no surprise... we're thinking it'll be another couple of weeks before we hear anything.

On the fundraising front, our magazine sales are still sitting at $16, and Kylie from NY sent a check for a whopping $50!!!!!! We need to cram our next garage sale in here before the weather turns to rain for the next 9 months. This time we're taking the prices off everything that didn't sell last time, and letting people know that we just want donations. In other words it will be a case of they take whatever they want, and give us as much as they want towards your orphanage. Hopefully we'll raise a few hundred dollars that way.

Your twin cousins are due to be born in Australia on Sept 18th! Not long to wait now! Adam and Kellie didn't find out what flavour the babies are, so that will be a surprise for everyone. Speaking of cousins, little Emma had a bad reaction to her 6mth shots, and ended up in hospital. Trish emailed me, but I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. She said Emma was fine now, but I'm sure that was really stressful for everyone.

Well baby, its early here, but we all have early starts tomorrow, so I'm not far out of bed. I'm just waiting on Molly to fall asleep, as shes already been up twice asking how many more hours until school. Shes very excited!! Even for as long as summer break is, this one has flown, and yet dragged by all at once. I'm not ready for summer to be over in the respect that I love having your sisters home with me .. I miss them when they're at school! Its dragged by in the respect that we thought you'd have you here by now, and we don't. We're getting mighty close though!!

Love you bunches!!

Well, the court date was for some sort of evidence hearing, which apparently is pretty normal (according to our agency, there's only about 1 in 10 families don't get an evidence hearing), and it should be our last court date before guardianship. They don't require any more from us .. just more information regarding the child. (the frustration factor here comes from the fact that any and all info they need can more than likely be found right in the file). How long before our next court date is anyones guess, but it "should" be within the next month.

Meanwhile, the wait continues for the families that have been waiting to travel. Under "normal" conditions (if there is such a thing), the time from guardianship to travel is right around a month. It takes this long to get the paperwork from the courts, and then to get the childs passport application processed. Right now though, its more like two months. That means if we get guardianship before the end of September, we could be travelling as far out as the end of November. Of course, there is that outside chance that things will get back to "normal" between now and then.

I'll be thrilled if we have you here for Christmas.

In the meantime, we're keeping busy getting the girls organised to start back at school next week, and also planning our next garage sale. Our link to our magazine fundraiser at the very top of the page has so far made us $16 .. (special thanks to Mik and Teresa for their magazine orders!)

Well baby, its your little sisters 4th birthday today, so we're off to make cupcakes and open pressies!

We're on the Judges causelist for the 30th August. After what happened (or didn't happen) when we made the list on July 31st, we're not getting our hopes up too much. Its great to see our name on there, and maybe this time we'll get really lucky and get guardianship!!! The 30th is also Maddies birthday, so that would be an awesome way to celebrate!

We had the birthday party here in Sunday for Molly and Maddie. I don't know for sure how many kids we had, but there were a LOT. I think Molly invited half the city. Everyone had a great time, and the yard looked like an outdoor version of Chuckie Cheese's. The big pool, 2 little pools, the swing-set, the trampoline, the swingball set, balls, balloons, you name it, it was all there. I'm just glad the weather was great, as there were way too many people for them to have all fit in the house! They got some awesome pressies ... they were very very spoiled. I took some photos, and will add them tomorrow, as I have to head to work here pretty soon. I'm working my least favourite shift today, which is the 12.30-9.30pm, closing by myself. I'm looking forward to this airline job, and never having to work todays dreaded shift again ..haha. Of course, if I were to get a phone call today telling us we had guardianship, the shift would look instantly better!!

Fingers crossed for good news today or tomorrow!

With a little cropping and enlarging, we have this close-up of you. You're looking more grown up, and even more gorgeous!

Here you are looking happy with gum in your mouth. I've heard that its excting for all the kids when someone Mum and Dad finally come, as it means they'll all get treats. I was a little bothered by the pink shirt with "Pink Rose" written on the front, but as Dad helpfully pointed out, you can't read English yet. You're growing too fast. I love the way you have your hand on the knee of the little boy next to you - Other families have told me that the "Ayah" (Auntie) is very affectionate with you. I know that Eli and Shivani were super excited when their parents could finally come. It won't be long now till it's us.

This one broke my heart. I'm guessing this was as you were saying goodbye to Eli, and I can see the little guy behind you has his hands over his face too.

Here you are with some of your friends. The "Ayah" is at the end, holding baby Karishma, next to you is a little guy wearing the shirt we're used to seeing you in. Behind you is a little guy called Babbu, and then in the blue stripes is Eli (Chotu), who is now living an hour and half from here. The lady in the pink and blue is Vijay, the orphanage director, and beside her is Isaac, Eli's new brother. I dont yet know the names of the other children in this photo, but plan to find out while we're there.

"The Adoption House" ... This building has been home to you for the last 2 and a half years. You and the other kids live in number 347, which if you look really closely you can just see the door, 2 storeys up from the striped canopy.

Ok, with one garage sale down, and one to go, we're launching a new fundraiser as summer comes to an end. There is a link above, under the India With Love title at the top of the page. It is still our goal to make a substantial cash donation to the orphanage when we travel to bring Ben home. We feel its very important that we do all we can to enable the orphanage to continue to provide for all of the children who are still there awaiting a family to call their own.

Its for magazine subscriptions, and for every one sold, we receive 40% of the order. If anyone has any friends/family/neighbours etc who enjoy magazines, please send out an email on our behalf letting them know of our site. Unfortunately at this time they can only fulfill orders from here within the USA.

http://www.magfundraising.com/indiawithlove (for whatever reason, the link won't post here, so either refer to above under "My Fundraising Link" at the very top of the page, or copy and paste will work!)


We'll be updating regularly to let everyone know how much we've raised!

I saw the following poem on an adoption website, with no author listed. I think its beautiful.

Once there were two women who never knew each other...
One you do not remember, the other you call mother.
Two different lives, shaped to make your one...
One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.
The first gave you life and the second taught you haw to live it...
The first gave you a need for the love and the second was there to fill it
One gave you a nationality, and the other gave you a name...
One gave you a seed of talent, and the other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions, and the other calmed your fears...
One saw your first sweet smile and the other dried your tears.
One gave you up, it's all that she could do...
The other prayed for a child and God led her straight to you.
And now you ask me through the fears,
The age old question unanswered throughout the years...
Heredity or environment,
Which am I a product of...
Neither my darling, neither...
Just two different kinds of love.

Well, Miss Maddie is feeling a lot better. Daddy took her to the doctor first thing Sunday morning, and sure enough she has another UTI. Given shes gone nearly four years with no problems, and this is her 2nd one in 2 months, its pretty concerning. They're referring her to a pediatric urologist. The concern is that the little valves at the top of her bladder aren't closing all the way, allowing the urine to backwash into her kidneys. Its good to see her brighter again, as Sunday she was VERY sick. High fever, and she even threw up during the night Sunday night. By yesterday morning she was a lot brighter, so the antibiotics are doing as they should.

We rescheduled the party for this coming Sunday. In the meantime we have 2 huge cakes that we either need to eat or give away. I think the kids are voting for eating them.

Sunday night I went with Sue, Allan and the boys into Portland to take a quick peek at the India Festival. Daddy stayed here with Maddie. The festival was awesome, and I picked up an outfit to bring with me to India. Sue and I were spotting all of the little boys, and trying to decide how big you'd be. Sue thinks that you're a lot smaller than I think you are, so I'm excited to see who is right. The courts are moving again this week, but still no sign of our names on the Daily Causelists.

I got a cool phone call this morning from US Airways, formally offering me a job!!!!! I leave for Arizona on Sept 10th, to start my training. Its very exciting stuff! Its six weeks training in total, a week in Arizona, a week back here in Portland, back to Arizona for a week, etc. Its going to be really hard being away from your sisters for a week at a time, but as Dad keeps saying, "Just keep your eyes on the prize" ... This job is going to mean that we can take some really cool vacations, and also fly back to Australia too!! For a family our size, airfares get pretty expensive. This way we can get seriously cheap flights, and have spending money for doing fun stuff once we get there. This is an awesome opportunity for all of us!

Well baby, your sisters are arguing over a card game they're playing, so best I go referee here.

I love you bunches!

The photo's from Chotu's (Eli) Mum and Dad arrived on Friday. WOW!!!! At first we all did the "is that really him", and decided yes, its definitely you. You look so much bigger. I can't believe how beautiful you are .... In your referral photo you looked so cute ..In these you just look outright gorgeous. You're wearing a pink shirt, and it has "Pink Rose" written on across the front of it. Dad and I are both glad that you can't read English yet ...haha. It was amazing to see Chotu in the photo with you, and to see how much he's grown and changed since he came home in April. In just four months, he's gained 6pounds and grown an inch. They also included some photos of the Orphanage, taken from the outside. I got a bunch of copies of the photos at work yesterday, so we have some to share around and send around. With my desktop not working, I have no way of scanning them, so will try and find someone today who can scan them and then email them back to me.

We were originally going to have a birthday party here today for your sisters. I got home from work last night though, and Maddie hadn't been feeling good all day and was running a fever. She was feeling pretty rough last night, so we made the decision to phone around and postpone the party until next Sunday. I hope I didnt forget to tell anyone... I guess we'll know if someone arrives today at 2pm. We're now just waiting for the urgent doctor to open so we can take her down and get her checked out. We're not convinced that its not another UTI. For as long as we keep Motrin or Tylenol in her, the fever is fine, but as soon as the medicine wears off, shes burning again. As it stands right now, we have two huge birthday cakes that won't last until next week, so we'll more than likely drop one down to Dads work today.

The India festival is happening in downtown Portland tonight, and it would be great to be able to go. Sue and Allan are heading down, but we'll have to wait and see how Maddie is feeling. If she's still not feeling good, then we'll just save that for next year.

Hopefully we'll see the courts back in action this coming week. It seems they took the whole week off last week with it being Independence Day. Even if we don't get heard, it would just be great to see them moving again.

Well baby, I'm gonna go hang out with your little sister. I'll be posting those photos just as soon as I find someone to scan them!

Actually, if I'm to be completely honest, they were VERY cool! I had no idea that owls and other birds live in them, as apparently they're very cool inside. Special thanks here to John, my super-speedy shuttle driver (and psuedo tour-guide) for risking a ticket and pulling the bus over so I could take these pics!

I need a t-shirt.... Something along the lines of "I went all the way to Arizona, and all I got was photo's of these stoooopid catcus!"

Here I am, at 6.17pm, and it feels like it should be bed time! It was one early start to the day this morning. The alarm was set for 2.30am, and we were out the door by 3.30am to head for the airport. It seems everyone has been heeding the warnings to get there early, as I've never seen the place so busy! Travelling without luggage though has its huge advantages, and I got to skip the huge lines in favour of the automated check-in kiosk.

On the way down I got to sit beside this really neat old gentleman. He was from Arizona, and pointed out all sorts of landmarks on the way down, including his 160 acre ranch just outside of the city. On the other side of him was a lovely lady who was originally from Delhi, who now lives in Santa Barbara. She still has family in Delhi, and was excited to hear that we're visiting there soon to bring you home. She was last there in 2002, and gave me some great tips on things to do while we're there.

Upon arrival in Arizona, I had to phone for a shuttle to take me to the Corporate Center. My first call got me a voicemail suggesting I take some bus to somewhere then go somewhere else which would take me right across the road from the corporate center.... yeaaahhh, I dont think so. I hung up and called back, and this really nice man answered and let me know that he'd meet me at Door 22 just as soon as he could get there. Phoenix airport is HUGE!! I was standing outside door 2 at that point, and was clueless as to where Door 22 would be. I headed back in, and decided to try upstairs. I'm looking around for any door at this point... all I can see is counters and people. First door I found just happened to be Door 22, so that was a big bonus!

At the Corporate Center is was really busy! My morning consisted of filling out a bunch more paperwork, and then heading for a medical. The medical was really thorough .... Eyesight test, hearing test, drug screen, the whole deal. I also had to do 20 squats, squat for 60 seconds, and then carry a 70lb suitcase 25ft using one hand, and then again carrying it like it was a box. After the medical it was off for uniform fittings. After uniform fittings came enrolling for travel benefits, and right after that was getting my photo taken for my ID badge. Next it was back in to go over MORE paperwork, and finally fingerprints. By this point I was sure that I was going to miss my flight back to Portland and get to spend another 4 hours in Arizona, but I JUST made it.

Security at the airports is nuts. Leaving Portland I got the full screening, wand and all. Leaving Phoenix I caught the eye of some weedy little security dude who put me in this new electronic box that puffs air on you and tests for explosive residue. I was holding my skirt tight for that one!! Even after that, I still got hauled aside and got the wand treatment yet again. I suppose I should feel special. There I was running late for my flight, trying to do my strappy shoes back up, while not flash boobs and ass to the entire airport. Today was a reminder as to why I don't often wear skirts OR heels...

I snoozed a little on the flight back, ...Not enough to actually feel refreshed .. Just enough to make me want more sleep. It will be one very early night in this house tonight!

Still no updates on court dates. The 15th there is Independence Day, and I believe the 16th is a holiday too (I just can't pronounce or spell it). Things aren't looking good for guardianship this week.

Today is also a special day .... It's my Grandads birthday. I wish you could have met him... He was an amazing man. I'm sure he's up there keeping a close watch over you until we can be there with you!

Love you so much!

Well, I'm thinking I picked the safest possible time to fly to Arizona. Security at the airports will be beyond great. Its going to mean a super-early start on Monday though ... Initially I thought I'd just be at the airport an hour before my flight, which would have meant leaving the house around 4am. Now it looks like I'll need two hours before my flight, which means I'll probably have to be up around 2am, to be out the door by around 3am. On top of that my original plan of just taking some hairspray, make up, etc and getting prettied up at the airport once I arrive is down the dunny. No creams or liquids allowed on the planes.

All of the talk here is about airplane and airport security ... I'm a lot more concerned with the news that India may be subject to attacks on Independence Day (the 15th).

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/11/terror/main1885198.shtml

Reading this sort of thing just makes the waiting even harder. While I know that more than likely you'll be no where near anything major if anything happens, the fact that I'm so far away and can't be there with you to protect you makes me insane.

I love you bunches.

What a day its been here! I woke up this morning, and the desktop computer was showing this bright blue screen with "Fatal Error" and a whole bunch of other stuff on it. I messed with it, and looked up the error message online, but couldnt find a way to fix it. I have no idea where the original discs are, but its looking like I need to search them out and start over....

I also got a phone call today from the airlines. I only filled out the background papers and Dad dropped them back at the airport last night. The lady I spoke to was really nice, and asked me if I could go to Arizona for a day next week! I fly out on Monday morning at 5.30am (ick!). Its for some pre-employment thing, and apparently they'll do a physical, take my fingerprints, measurements for uniforms, photo for ID badge and all that happy stuff. There was no mention as to how soon they can send me for training, but I hope its really soon so I can have all of that out of the way before we come get you! She said that flight benefits become active 2 weeks after date of hire, so its looking like theres a really strong chance we'll be saving a few thousand on airfares to India! I just don't know how smart it is flying standby out of India, so probably a good thing to have the money saved just in case we find ourselves needing to buy tickets. I can't believe I'm going to Arizona for the DAY. Monday will be one very early start, as I'll need to be away from here by 4am at the latest. I was really honest with them about your adoption, and they said the only place they can see us running into trouble is if the call comes to come and get you, the same time they need to send me for training. I debated not turning the paperwork in until we knew more, but have come to the conclusion that no one can tell me anything, so just went ahead with the job thing. Obviously if we get the call letting us know we can come and get you, then there's no question as to where I'll be going!! The training period is six weeks in total, where I'll be working full-time hours. A week in Arizona, then a week at the airport here, then back to Arizona for another week, etc. After the six weeks I get to cut it back to part time hours and can start swapping shifts etc to make things work with Dads schedule. Pretty exciting stuff, eh?!

The picnic was awesome. The highlight for sure was getting to meet Chotu. I knew that he was your friend, because in photos and video that we've seen, he's been right beside you. In the photo of you dancing, hes standing right beside you, and obviously he found something really funny, as he has his head in his hands in one pic. He remembers you, and he missed you. His Mum and Dad told him you were coming here too, and he was asking them today if you would be at the picnic. He was very excited to meet "Rashids mommy" ... and he adored your sisters. To start with he was a little unsure as to who I was, and then when I showed him your photo he just grinned and said over and over "Rashid, Rashid, Rashid!!!!". Shivani was there with him ... The way that she has picked up the English lanugage is amazing ... In 4 short months, she even has a semi-American accent. She reassured me that you'd really like it here. Chotu and Shivani's Mum and Dad are going to try and be at the airport when we bring you home. They're counting down the days too, and Chotu espescially can't wait to see you again. Their Mum has photos of you that she took while they were in India, and she also has video. She promised to send it to us, and I can't wait to see it. She told me that you were super handsome (but I knew that already). She was also surprised to hear that you were only 5 years old ..She thought that you were a lot older (like 7 or 8 years old) just by the way you carried yourself.

I wish you could have been there today. You have this huge extended family of brothers and sisters from India, all living so close to here. People were asking about you, and everyone was wishing us good luck. Even Lisa said she hoped that there would be some good news for us really soon.

Its got to be good news soon. Everyone there reckons it will be really soon ... So many people told me "Its soon, I can just feel it".

Lets hope they're right.

Next year ... we'll ALL be at the picnic!

Well, today won't ever make it onto the list of "great days". The judge only heard two cases ...neither of which was ours. We're back to waiting. On the upside, he approved the two he did hear, so things are rolling again which is good. (good=great news for two other families).

My pimple problem got worse. Its not a pimple at all ...its a spider bite. By this afternoon it was so swollen and sore I gave into the girls at work and dragged my sorry ass to the doctor. It turns out the doctors visit was a good thing ...he said if I'd left it another day then it would have been antibiotics via IV. Apparently its absessed (which probably explains why it hurts so much), so I got a prescription for antibiotics, and then got to go back to work. I'm sure it'll feel a lot better tomorrow. I'm still trying to work out when I got bitten. I had the "pimple" before I went to bed last night, so I'm sure it didn't happen in my sleep. One of the girls at work today felt the need to tell me that statistically the average person will swallow 9 spiders while sleeping in their lifetime. I really hope that I'm not statistically average, because thats just gross. Anyway, if its not better tomorrow, then I have strict instructions to head back to the doctor where they will try to drain it. I'm a wimp with needles ...Draining is NOT an option...it WILL feel all better tomorrow.

Maybe the good news will come next week. I have most of the week off, so the odds are I'll be within an arms length of the phone.

Tomorrow we're off to a picnic that the adoption agency is throwing. I'm going down with Sue and Allan, and I think Dad and your sisters are going to travel back from the beach and then meet us there. It should be a good day. It will be a great chance to meet some other families who have been through all of this. I was hoping we'd have you home in time for this picnic, but rest assured I'll be taking your photos and showing you off to anyone who'll listen.

I miss you sweet boy .... and I love you bunches.

I have no idea how I'm supposed to concentrate at work today. Lisa is expecting to talk with Vijay today, and we're all hoping that there will be good news. Today has the potential to be very very long. It also has the potential to be very memorable if the news is good.

I'd really rather not even be going to work today. Today would be a good day to be curled up on the couch with my book. Add to that I have a pimple problem ... at least I think its a pimple. Its behind my ear and its huge. (Me digging at it probably made it worse ..) ... Now its all swollen, 10 times more sore, and I'm afraid to dig at it for fear that if that sucker finally blows, I'm likely to lose half my head.

Daddy took the girls to the beach. I could be having a day to myself here, but its off to work I go.

Hopefully today will be THE day!

Well, everyone seems surprised that we made it onto the judges docket, and no one had any news. We do know that the judge is now approving domestic adoption cases, which is a good start. We also know that the next round of orphange cases are due to be heard Thurs/Fri this week, which could also be good news. I didnt think to ask if that was Thurs/Fri our time, or India time.... As it stands right now, all of our cases are scheduled to be heard one after the other. Of course, as we've come to learn, schedules don't mean a whole lot within the Indian court system. It would be just our luck that our case got put in with the domestic cases by mistake.

These next few days should bring us SOME news .... we just have no clue what its going to be. Fingers crossed everyone, and lots of positive thoughts - We want this little boy of ours HOME.

Its 6.40am, and I've been up for an hour. This is what being nosy gets you...

Yesterday I was poking around on the Delhi court website, just as I've done every few days since the start of July. On it there are causelists and daily judgements for the various judges, and until yesterday the judge that has our case hasn't had anything show up. (more than likely because he hasn't been seeing any cases). I was surprised to see that yesterday, he actually had some cases to see ... sooooo, I'm scanning down the list, and there we are!!! Now in a perfect world, this would mean that we now have guardianship, but this is the Indian court system we're talking about, so we don't know what it means for now. I called Lisa, and she said that Vijay had tried to call her yesterday morning, but that Lisa had gotten in too late to get the call. Lisa is calling Vijay back this morning, and will call me if there's any news. Its positive that our name was there, but what we don't know at this stage is whether or not the judge even made it that far down the docket ... and if he did, whether or not he granted us guardianship or deferred us to a different day. Hopefully today brings us some news!!

The house is so quiet this morning, as all of your sisters are still sleeping. I'm thinking I'm going to take my book (and the phone of course) back to bed and make the most of the peace until the girls are awake.

I'll update this as soon as I hear from Lisa!

Due to this not working when I went to post yesterday, I need to back up a couple of days here.

Firstly, no "new" news on the adoption front. Hopefully it won't be long now until we hear whether or not the High Court is going to make this judge speed up. Fingers crossed for luck!!

Ok .... I had to work Wed/Thurs, and then I'm scheduled again tomorrow. Last week, I got a call back from the airline. Unfortunately it came while I was working, so they left me voicemail. I spent Thurs/Fri last week playing phone tag with no luck, and left a message advising them I had Monday and Tuesday of this week off, and that I'd love to hear from them then. Well, Wednesday afternoon I'm at work, and I see I've missed a call. First break I get, I clear my messages, and its them wondering if I'm available to come in for an interview this week!! I called back, confirmed Friday 9am, and then went onto panic mode! Presentation is pretty big in the airline industry, and I'm a wreck!! Its been ages since I had a haircut (although as curly as mine is, its pretty hard to tell), and my nails are trashed. I spent my lunch break getting my nails all prettied up, and then called a client who also happens to be a hairdresser, and she made me an appointment for 8pm that day right after work. Yesterday I worked a 12.30-9.30pm, and spent my lunch break trying to find something to wear. I settled on a nice light grey jacket, and decided to go with black pants and a cute black top underneath.

I was awake at 6am unable to sleep at all. By this time I was quite convinced there wasn't one question they could ask me that I'd answered at least 100 times in my mind overnight. A peaceful morning coffee, and a nice hot shower, and I was feeling pretty good about things. Being awake that early meant I could actually take my time with my hair and makeup (which was a nice change from the usual hectic mornings around here), and even Daddy said I looked "Hot" ...haha.

The interview itself went REALLY well. The man I interviewed with was just lovely. We chatted for close to an hour. He wound things up by letting me know that while they're not technically supposed to be hiring right now, they are short staffed and trying to create a position, and that just as soon as that happened, they'd like to offer it to ME!! Woooooohooooo!! He sent me home with a bunch of paper to fill out (although its a walk in the park compared to the paperwork we had to do for your adoption), and asked that I get it back to him as soon as possible. Its just forms for background checks that short of thing. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited!! One of the coolest things about this job is the flight benefits. Free domestic flights for all of us, and for international flights he said to budget around 10% of the airfare. He wasn't sure if flight benefits became active after 30 days or 90 days from date of hire, but was leaning towards the 30 days. There is a training period where I'll need to go to Arizona for a week at a time, so I'm desperately hoping that they need someone fast, and I can get my training out of the way before we come get you. I told him all about you, and that we didn't know yet when we'd get to leave to bring you home, and he was very reassuring that they would work with me on that one. Pretty cool, eh?

Well baby, I'm off to work again tomorrow, so should probably go do some laundry so I have something to wear! I love you bunches!!

So I can relax...

I'm home from work, and I didn't lose the whole diary ...it's working again tonight.

Fingers crossed and wish me luck ... I'm interviewing with the airline at 9am tomorrow...

Which ...is a short 9 hours from now....

On that note, G'night, and will write more tomorrow!

I had to work yesterday, and here I am sitting at the computer trying to post today, and the page is going crazy ....

Am I the only one having problems??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=demRHgul2Zk

I swear there's been more than a couple of times where I'm starting to think that adoption hormones outweigh pregnancy hormones...

This however, is so special....

I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream
Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in
And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be
When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could evercause this love to lose its hold
When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in

Ok, we have an update ..... kinda.

The new judge was appointed at the start of July, and told all Orphanage Directors that he wanted to take some time to get acquainted with his new job before he started issuing any adoption approvals. Here we are, three weeks into the month, and he's still not seen or approved any cases. Sooooooo, on Monday, Vijay and all the other orphanage directors are going to petition the High Court on behalf of all of their adoption cases. The High Court will then force the judge into hearing all of the adoption cases within a set period of time. The mystery for now though, is just how much time the High Court will give this judge.

This happened just last year too, and there were around 250 kids stranded because of exactly this sort of thing. The first judge didn't think adoptions were a priority, so didn't sign any cases. The next judge disagreed with adoption law, and refused to sign cases until the laws were changed ....The High Court got involved, and gave the judge three weeks to sign all cases (and because there were so many, it actually ended up taking 6wks). I'm really hoping that this time around, the High Court sticks with a relatively small number .... 3 weeks again would be great!

In the meantime, Vijay has said that she is willing to have families come visit their children during this waiting time. I wish I had the money to do this, but we really only have enough for one trip over. The other dilemma that I have is I know that there's no way I could meet you, and then leave you in India to return to the USA and wait for all of the legal stuff to be completed. If we don't get good news within the next couple of weeks though, its something that we'll definitely consider. I just feel its so important that once you meet us, you are able to see that you will be with us forever. I don't want to you to ever equate me with someone more who may abandon you in your life, and I worry that a visit may do that. Its a decision we'll make once we have a better idea of just what the wait is going to look like.

I emailed Lisa back and asked her if you knew about us yet, but I haven't heard back from her today. I was under the impression that you wouldn't know about us until guardianship was granted, but if Vijay is offering to let us come and visit, then I'm thinking there's a chance you may know already. I asked Lisa that if you did know, would it be ok to send you some photo's and letters and pictures from your sisters. Hopefully I'll hear back from her within the next couple of days.

Well baby boy, your Mum is buggered today. A long day at work, and an even longer one tomorrow as we have a big diamond show on. I'm looking forward to having the weekend off to play in the pool with your sisters. Hopefully next week will bring us good news, and a more definite timeframe. I got asked at work today by four different people if we had you here with us yet, and I told them soon .... very very soon. There are just so many people counting down until the day that you're here with us forever.

I love you bunches, sweet boy!

Sisterly love...

At the parade today, Maddie wasn't too sure about all of the loud noises. I managed to peel her off me long enough to take this photo, and she leaped right into Molly's arms.... I thought it was pretty cute. See what you have to look forward to?

Maddie waiting on the ride to start... She was a little worried until it got going.

As soon as the ride was over, she was lining up to go again...

Molly waiting on the ride to start....

As you can see, the tooth fairy is living at our house right now... she lost BOTH of her front teeth. I keep asking her if she wants corn on the cob - For some reason I find it a lot funnier than she does...haha

Molly, Maddie and Sarah on the "parachute ride"

Molly and Maddie, sitting on the side of the road waiting on the parade to start...

No news again this week. Lisa is back in the office on Monday, so hopefully next week we'll at least get an update as to whats happening in India. The best news would be that this new judge has finally worked out what he should be doing, and has actually started approving cases.

In the meantime, let me try to catch you up with what's been happening around here...

This weekend is Harvest Days weekend here in town. They do a big parade, which I took Molly and Maddie to go see this morning. The scored a tonne of candy, and have been on a sugar-high ever since. We stopped by the carnival on the way home, and they each got to go on a couple of rides, which they thought was pretty cool. I took some pictures, which I will add to here as well. We didn't stay as long as we usually do, as things got really expensive since last year. Of course, we did splurge a little and bought some cotton candy (or candy floss as I call it, much to the amusement of your sisters), on the way out. Their favourite ride was the "parachute ride" ... a cute little merry-go-round that lifted them up in the air a little way ... I thought Maddies eyes were going to come out of her head they got so wide when it first started.

Poor Dad has been working his butt off with all thats going on in town. We really haven't seen him much the last couple of days, and it'll be another couple of days before hes home other than just to sleep. He didn't get home until late last night, had to be back at 6am, is due to work until midnight (which means he'll be home by 1am if he's lucky), and is due back again at 6am tomorrow. He's going to be very tired by the time his days off roll around, and even then he only gets two days, and then its back to work for six more days for him. I'm thinking I'm going to have to take a photo of him and put it on here, as we're all forgetting what he looks like!

Well baby, I'm going to go add those photo's for you... Hopefully Monday brings good news!

This is the living room....

(I can't wait to have you here and be snuggled up on the couch)

As you can see, there are three couches in this room .. inevetibly we ALL end up on ONE couch, which is a squeeze, but lots of fun.

Our kitchen....

This is your new house.... It was taken a couple of months ago. Its prettier this time of the year now that the leaves are back on the trees, and the garden in the front has lots of bright flowers in it.

Tucker and Cassie. He's not acutally supposed to be on the porch swing ..... I'm sure in his mind he's still an 8lb lap dog.

This is your puppy, Tucker, smiling nicely for the camera!

Georgia and Cassie .... being their usual goof-ball selves...