To India, With Love, .....

Within the next couple of days I'm going to be changing this blog so that only invited readers can access it. Please, if you want to be able to contine to check in with how Rashids adoption is going, send me an email at toindiawithlove@gmail.com Please let me know how I know you, or what your interest is in this diary...

Thanks,
Jo

We did get heard in India for the 29th, and we've been adjourned to 12th Feb for Final Orders!

All going well, this is the end of the road before guardianship!! It feels like we've had every type of hearing imagineable, from evidence, to misc. argument, to formality, to final evidence .... to be waiting for that magic Final Orders hearing is pretty nerve-wracking.

In the time that we've been waiting, this is the 3rd judge thats been appointed, and we already know that he's only there on an interim basis. We need this judge to stay put for at least the next two weeks, and hopefully even longer than that, as we're in touch with other families also waiting, one of whom has a date in early March.

I'm going to have to find some stratagies for saving my sanity in order to get thru the next two weeks!! We've seen first-hand how unpredictable the Indian courts can be, and we know better than to take anything for granted. Having said that though, I'm sporting this really goofy grin, and would be lying if I said that my hopes weren't right up there for good news!

Baby boy, its looking like we'll have you here for your birthday!!!

Well, its 7.25pm on January 28th here, which means its 8.55am on the 29th in Delhi.

Heres hoping this judge got up on the right side of the bed this morning...

Its going to be a looooooooooong night!

I heard from our agency this morning with some great news!! We have another court date on Jan 29th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Given that the last we'd heard was that the delay on the 9th had the potential to push us back as far as March, this is very exciting stuff!!

After th 29th we'll have one more date for Final Orders, but it should be within days of our next court date. Theres a strong chance that we'll have you home late February or early March.

I'm doing the happy dance here!!! (actually its more like the happy butt-wiggle, cause it hurts to much to move my upper body).

This just HAS to happen this time! Any more delays and I think I'm going to have to fly to India and kick some ...... well, you know.

I know I've said it before wee man, but we are SO close now!! I cant wait to hold you, love on you, and bring you home where you belong.

I love you!

Well, the results are in, and my spleen is looking just fine ..... which is good news!!

The not so good news (and the cause of the pain I've been in for the last week) - I fractured 3 ribs.

Yup, the 6th, 7th and 8th ribs on my left side are not looking so peachy. Dr's order are lots of rest, help myself to the pain meds, and to take a deep breath and hold it for 15 seconds at least once an hour, to alleviate the risk of pneumonia and clotting.

At least now I know I'm not a weenie.

I'm still waiting for the results of yesterdays scan ...

The day got off to a rough start - Nothing to eat or drink for 4 hours before the scan, which was at 9.35am. I'm a person who NEEDS a morning coffee (or 2 or 3), so this was not good news. What I did get instead, was the most disgusting stuff EVER to drink an hour beforehand. It was berry flavoured, and all thick and slimey. I'm trying to choke it down, while leaning over the sink gagging and heaving. Maddie found it pretty entertaining, but it was no fun from my side. We got down there only to be told that I needed to drink one more bottle!! I told them there was just no way I could do it ..... if they were going to make me, then more than likely it would mean I was going to hurl up the bottle I'd already had. Instead they gave me some lemonade with the contrast in it, and while it was a little bitter it tasted a lot better than the snot-like stuff I'd had to drink first. They also started an IV for a different kind of contrast, and that stuff made me feel like I had tinkled all over myself. Made your entire body realllllly hot. Very weird sensation. According to the lady who did the scan, they wanted to rule out torn muscles or a fractured spleen. I'm hopeful that its nothing too major, as they let me go home right afterwards, and I figure if it was anything spectacular they would have said something. Its still pretty early in the day, so if I havent heard from my Dr by lunchtime I'll give her a call and see whats going on.

We did get a good giggle here last night though. Dad got home from work, and went to use the bathroom. When he came out, he called out for me to come see the sink in there. I was expecting a flood of some sort, but nope .... not even close. Somebody had taken a blue feltpen and decorated my white sink with blue swirls and lines. Instantly I guessed it must have been Maddie, so I came back out to the kitchen and asked all the girls if there was anything anyone wanted to tell me about the sink. Blank faces stared back. Sooo, I got a little more specific, and asked Maddie if there was anything she wanted to tell me. She looked at me with the straightest face and announced that she had coloured it blue. By now I'm struggling to stay stern, as she just looks so damn cute as shes telling me all about her art work. In my best Mummy-voice I asked her why on earth she would do that!! Pointed out that she KNOWS better, and that we only draw on paper!! By now Dad was back in the kitchen, and all the big girls are looking a little worried, because they just know theres going to be trouble. Without skipping a beat, Maddie grins and says "Well, I think it looks kinda cool". I kept my composure right up until everyone else (including Dad) starting snorting and trying hard not to laugh. That child is very lucky that she has cute on her side!! I made her clean it up, and it washed off very easily, and then we had another wee chat about what its ok to draw on.

Well I'm going to do my best to have somewhat of a tidy-up around here. I can clean anything at waist level or higher ... I just can't bend over, or get my arms above my head. I also emailed our agency today to see if they had ANY news at all, so hopefully I'll hear back from them at some point too.

Will update again as soon as I have any news.

Its been 6 days since I went tits-up down the stairs, and I'm still in pain. Not just a little stiff and sore ..... I'm talking pain. I went back to the Dr today, and shes thinking that I may have torn some muscle in my back. She was also a little concerned about some swelling that I have in the front, so has me going first thing in the morning for a CT scan to rule out damage to my spleen. We don't do things by halves in this family.

I start physical therapy this week too. She gave me a referral, but wants me to hold off until after the scan, so we know exactly what we're dealing with. Dad is feeling like he should have been a Doctor. This last week I keep telling him its just bruising and swelling, and hes been arguing that he thinks its much more than that. He loves it when he's right. Hes taking some time off in the morning to drive me down to the Radiology place, as its 40 mins from here, and I do ok driving just so long as I dont have to turn to the left (my body screams at me) ... its probably best that I just sit in the passengers seat and be chauffered.

I still can't believe I fell down the stairs. I already told your Grandpa (who works for a major construction company) that he can start looking around for a 7 bedroom 4000sq ft ranch. He got a laugh out of that. Seriously though, after this, our next house will be all on one level. (and preferably on a tropical island somewhere). Dreams are free, right?

Will update as soon as I have any news at all, be it me complaining about how sore I am, or complaining about how slowly your adoption is moving.

Love you bunches.

Miss Molly gets the hero of the year award. I took a bad tumble down the stairs, and she was just incredible. She got a huge fright, but still managed to keep it together and go get the phone for me. Dad was at work, and everyone else was still sleeping. I got up to let the dog out, as she was barking downstairs. I still don't know what I slid on (given my accident-prone history, probably NOTHING), but I do know that I didn't stop falling until I was at the bottom of the stairs and couldn't fall any further. I knocked the wind right out of myself. Poor Molly, only a couple of steps behind me, was at my side in seconds. She kept asking if I was ok, and being unable to breathe, and therefore unable to talk, I gave her a thumbs up and my best attempt at a reassuring smile. It felt like forever before I get a breath in, and then when I did, it sounded so weird.

I tried Dad on his work line, and no reply. His cell phone... still no reply. Work line again ... Nothing. The furtherest I could get myself was onto my hands and knees, and then I got stuck. Couldnt move from there. There I am in my satiny shiny robe, butt-naked underneath, and I'm stranded. I phoned the main line for Dads work, and asked the receptionist to send Dad home right away. Molly was keeping an eye out the window for Dad, and let me know that our neighbour was outside shovelling snow off his driveway. Now, for as much as I like our neighour, I really didn't want him seeing my naked ass hanging out the back of my robe, so I suggested we give Dad just a couple more minutes. Luckily he arrived right after that. He managed to get me to the couch, and by then I was so sore I wasn't sure what hurt worse ... my back or my front. He decided a trip the ER was in store, so off we went.

The Dr there was really nice. First thing he offered me was something for the pain, and some anti-inflammatories. Two needles in my butt later, and I was feeling ok. Morphine is a wonderful thing. By the time they got me to X-ray, I was at least able to move around a little. Luckily there is nothing broken or cracked. Just a bunch of pulled muscles, and some really impressive bruising. I now have the next week off work, and some pain meds to keep me company. He also gave me some muscle relaxers that make it feel like I don't even belong in my body, which works for me, as my body is somewhere it hurts to be right now. Now on top of the soreness, I'm all stiff as well. The bruising is really starting to come out now, so I'm hoping I'm over the worst of it.

Still no positive news on the adoption front. It seems this delay with the new judge arriving on our court date could push us back as far as March. Obviously we're hoping for something a lot sooner. I'm still checking the court lists every day, just on the off-chance this judge should squeeze us onto the docket. So far, he hasn't.

Well, time for me to go lay my bruised butt back down on the couch. Luckily Dad doesnt have to be back at work until Monday, so I get to have some rest. The girls have all been so wonderful at fetching and carrying for me. As soon as I'm better, I'm going to take them somewhere as a treat, just as a huge thank you for being so good.

I miss you bunches ... and love you even more than that.

Still no news ... not even a lousy crumb of information from our agency. It appears the consensus among those of us waiting (based on info from THEIR agencies/orphanage) is that there is in fact a new judge. Rumour also has it that he got there and there were so many cases, he just assigned new dates for all of them. Of course, we have no idea what the new dates might be, because we have no news...

The following is stolen from my good friend Sues blog .. and she borrowed it from Lemony Snicket. It pretty much sums up how I feel every time someone tries to fill me full of the "no news is good news" line....

Of all the ridiculous expressions people use–and people use a great many ridiculous expressions–one of the most ridiculous is “No news is good news.” “No news is good news” simply means that if you don’t hear from someone, everything is probably fine, and you can see at once why this expression makes such little sense, because everything being fine is only one of many, many reasons why someone may not contact you. Perhaps they are tied up. Maybe they are surrounded by fierce weasels, or perhaps they are wedged tightly between two refrigerators and cannot get themselves out. The expression might as welll be changed to “No news is bad news,” except that people may not be able to contact you because they have just been crowned king or are competing in a gymnastics tournament. The point is that there is no way to know why someone has not contacted you, until they contact you and explain themselves. For this reason, the sensible expression would be “No news is no news,” except that it is so obvious it is hardly an expression at all.

I rest my case. ......
At least until tomorrow.

Still no update on the court website, but we now have a possible explanation as to why not.

An internet friend, who is also in the process of adopting a little boy from Delhi via a different orphanage and agency, phoned them last night to see if there were any updates. Its seriously looking like once again, there is a NEW judge. Unbelievable. According to what she was told, there were so many cases for that day, he didn't hear any of them and just reassigned new dates for the lot. Now we're back to not knowing a damn thing .... and just when we thought we were so close to the finish line too. This will be our THIRD judge since we started this a year ago, and every time they seem to take forever to "get acquainted" with their new job. I'm going to be walking on broken glass until we get any news at all.

This is not at all what we expected ..... but then again, if there is one thing I should be learning thru all of this, its to expect the unexpected.

I'm bummed.

But I still love you bunches!

The court website has still not been updated, and I'm drilling holes in the refresh button on my computer while I wait for something (anything) to happen. When it has been updated, you get this lovely screen with all important information. When it hasn't, you get this horrid screen with a bright orange box in the middle that says "No Daily Orders Available For the Selected Court Of District & Sessions Judge in Tis Hazari"

NOT VERY PRETTY!

We're back on the court list for Jan 9th. As I write this, its coming up on 6am, Jan 9th in Delhi, so chances are I'll be up at the butt-crack of dawn checking the Daily Orders for any news at all. We're listed under "Final Arguments", which means there is a slim chance the judge will issue a guardianship order. More likely what will happen is we'll get one more court date, within the next couple of weeks, and be awarded guardianship then. Once they update that list though, we'll know exactly whats happening. My good friend Sue made the ORDER list yesterday, and like me, shes waiting for that Daily Orders list to be updated!

If we get guardianship within the next couple of weeks, we could be travelling as soon as February! Keep everything crossed for good news!!

2007 is off to a great start!