Our Little Russian Peanut

November is National Adoption Awareness Month and I've seen quite a few blogs "going purple" for November! Floating all across blogland, is a logo created by Elle. I went over to her website and read all about it. So, here I am in blogland with a very, very purple blog (Thanks, Elle!). :-) Happy National Adoption Awareness Month, everyone! Let's hope things keep moving so more and more of us can bring home our kiddos.

**FRUA Rumor Alert! If you are trying to stay away from accreditation rumors in order to maintain some level of sanity, stop reading here! And no, I'm nowhere near sane.**

Speaking of which.... the FRUA chat board is HOPPING with some news. So far, two agencies are reporting that the MOI (Ministry of Internal Affairs) has sent a letter to the MOE (Ministry of Education) telling them that the signatures on the accreditation documents IS valid and acceptable. To recap, rumor has it a lower level official at the MOI signed off on accreditation documents and it was questioned as to whether or not he/she should have the authority to do so. Soooo... that being said, IF those rumors are true then at least 2 agencies are a few weeks away from having their accreditation certificate in hand! As with everything accreditation-rumor-related, take it all with a grain of salt. ANYTHING can happen.

We haven't heard anything from our agency... mums the word until their certificate is in hand, which I can respect. Thankfully, other agencies share news and people post them on FRUA. Otherwise we'd all be very much in the dark. :-)

I don't have much energy to type anything else tonight. I don't know about y'all but it's been a LONG week so far. Maybe it's because the time is changing this weekend or the temperature has gotten colder or because it's dark when you wake up and dark when you get home... not sure what but boy oh boy... I'm ready for that extra hour of sleep this weekend!

Oh and the teenager broke up with the girlfriend (you probably heard me cheering from wherever in the US you are) and has moved on to another... ahhh... to be young again. So far, the new one has met my minimum requirements and scrutiny, which is not easy to do. Maybe this will be a "long-term" relationship and last more than 3 weeks. :-)

Night!
Becky

P.S. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

... and I'm just now posting! Wow! Either I've been busy or lazy. Maybe both?

There are so many adoption things to update you on! None of them earth shattering, but I feel a little bit more at peace with our adoption going n.o.w.h.e.r.e. Let's start with what set me off. For a while now, I've been feeling a bit uncomfortable about the lack of communication coming from our agency. I kind of let it pass and then began to see some people leaving our agency and going to another. Obviously, when you see things like that you start to get worried that other people know something you don't know. Not wanting to be last to know, I decided it was time to give the Russian Program Director a call, introduce myself and find out where things stand.

I didn't learn much more than what I already knew, but it was nice to express my concerns. I explained my frustrations, asked how things were going in our region and things like that. Things aren't moving in Kras, but they aren't standing still if that makes sense. Basically, there isn't a "reason" we aren't getting referrals, we're just waiting for them to come in. He said the same thing our coordinator said a few weeks previously - that we're in a good region, with a shorter "line" and once things start moving, it will be a great region to be in. We talked briefly about accreditation - no big news... still waiting!

After talking to him, my coordinator called and I had a good talk with her as well. I told her some of the same concerns and she was receptive. She encouraged me to call anytime I want a status of things. I told her we were open to be a "pilot" family if/when they open new regions. She said she is really excited about Kras and she had some info to share since she had a chance to talk to the 2 families that completed their adoption.

Some new things I learned about the Krasnoyarsk region:

~ Even though it's the "Kras Region", the city name is actually Abakan which is to the southwest of Krasnoyarsk in the Republic of Khakassia.
~ Abakan is the city they can work in while awaiting accreditation.
~ When flying to Abakan, you can get their directly from Moscow on Vladivostok Air.
~ We'll need an in-country 8 doctor medical which will be about $350 per person.
~ The judge in Abakan is a adoption friendly.
~ They seem to be waiving the 10 days in Abakan but we all know that can change at any given point in time! :-)
~ When the families were there it was "dump water on your neighbor" day and everyone was running around dumping water on each other. No, I couldn't make that up. It's true.

There isn't much info on the Internet about Abakan but I did find a very itsy bitsy Abakan yahoo group that I joined. I haven't had much time to read through the archives and post anything yet, but I will as we get closer.

So what are our next steps? We continue to wait! Thankfully we have the holidays coming up to keep us busy. We're going to give ourselves until the beginning of the year to see what happens with our agency and referrals. We love the agency, that's why we chose them! It's where we want to stay, but we want to bring the little Peanut home too! We'll do whatever we need to do, but no crazy spur of the moment moves for us. We'll take time to think, enjoy each other and Alex (while he still likes us) and on January 1st we'll see where we are headed!

In happy, happy news one of my work friends is in Colombia picking up her son!!! Congratulations to Laura and Andres!! It's so much fun to watch someone go through this process (especially a different country) and see such a happy ending. She'll be in Colombia for 5 weeks and I've made her promise to post while she's there. :-)

Off to bed.... busy 2 work days coming up. Not looking forward to it! Hope everyone is doing well!!!

Atlanta traffic is horrible. That's H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. Horrible. On any given morning, my 42 mile commute can be 45 minutes or it can be 2 hours. It all depends on how well my fellow commuters are driving. In order to pass time in traffic, I listen to my favorite morning show - "The Bert Show" on Q100. It's the only thing that gets me through my commute. Well, that and a large diet coke.

Anyhow, what does this have to do with anything? Well, the morning show is putting together what they call "The Big Thank You". "The Big Thank You" is their campaign to collect 375,000 thank you letters for deployed military personnel. This will ensure that each person has a letter to open on Thanksgiving morning, thanking them for everything they are sacrificing to give us the freedoms we enjoy. I think it's safe to say that no matter what your personal feelings are about the war, (and I don't want to get into that debate) each and every one of us are grateful that these people are there to protect us, especially when it means missing holidays with their families.

I'm going to take 10 minutes out of my day and send a letter. If anyone else would like to participate, please see the guidelines on the q100 website. This would be a great thing for your kids to do as well!

And there is your public service announcement for the day...

In other news, apparently I had a sinus infection. Lots of meds later and I'm feeling pretty good! Went back to work today (stayed home Mon and Tues) and was just a bit tired but I think that's from the meds.

Besides that... nothing new! Alex is going on a school trip this weekend (Williamsburg, VA) so it should be nice and quiet at our house! I SHOULD be using that time to get a lot done. I'll probably just nap. :-)

Another post on Friday... the 3 month anniversary of our dossier being in Krasnoyarsk! Yes, we ARE still adopting... betcha you forgot that was what this blog was "supposed to be" about, huh? Yeah... the wait is killing me too. :-) Hang in there my dear faithful readers... we'll get through this long journey in one piece, I promise! (Where, oh where, did that optimism come from??)

Hugs!
Becky

It's Sunday, 3:10pm EST and we're on our way home from Nashville. Thanks to modern technology (and thanks to my techy geek husband), I am sitting in the passenger seat blogging!! This is, again, a win-win for Keith. I stay occupied so I don't complain about his driving and constantly grab my door handle and gasp when I think we're gonna hit someone. Keith IS a good driver, I'm just a paranoid passenger.

We had a great weekend in Nashville. It didn't go quite as planned, but what ever does?? We were very late leaving Atlanta. Alex's game ran over (they lost, boo hoo) and we were stuck trying to get out of the parking lot for quite some time. We then had to take Alex to a friends 45 minutes away in a different direction. Long story short, we did't leave Atlanta until about 10:45 pm and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. I was feeling a bit under the weather and driving up into the mountains was not fun. By about 12:30, I was ready to stop and spend the night somewhere. My ears kept filling up and the pressure was horrible. I found us a hotel and then proceeded to get us lost finding said hotel room. For an hour. Yes, an hour in east-bumble trying to find a hotel. I had a mini-breakdown. Finally, at 1:30 we laid down to go to sleep and I couldn't sleep because I couldn't breathe. I finally got out of bed at 5:15 and stood in a steamy shower. By 6:00 we were on our way to Nashville again. For anyone counting, that's 4 hours sleep for Keith and no more than 2 for Becky.

The rest of the ride to Nashville was great, we found CHI and attended part of the class. At the class we met Carey and Norman! Love them (thanks guys, for carting us around all day!)! Unfortunately, Rachel and Troy weren't able to meet up with us, so Carey, Norman, Keith and I decided to go meet Rachel and Troy! Carey showed us some great video and pictures of their little girl. It was so exciting to watch and boy is she a little cutie.

After that, we (Carey, Norman, Keith and I) headed to lunch to meet Carrie and Michael and Adrienne, Jim and Owen at Chili's. These are friends that I have been talking to for months. Adrienne's blog was the first one I had ever read. It was her blog that started me blogging and it's her strength that I go back to each time I wonder why I'm doing this and wondering if I'll make it through in one piece. Carrie is in the same boat we are, but much further ahead in the wait process. We were "the waiters" at the table. It's so refreshing to talk to someone that is in the middle of the wait, facing all of the unknowns we are now faced with. Thankfully, we sat next to each other so we had lots of time to talk about things.

The husbands were great! They realized us girls had lots to talk about so they became fast friends and talked sports and more sports. Every one in a while, they'd pop into the adoption talk (mostly reminding us to have patience) and then back to sports talks. I loved being able to meet everyone and their signifcant others! And then there was Owen......

WHAT A CUTIE! :-) He was so well mannered and so happy go lucky. He's definitely figuring those little legs of his out again and wants to go, go, go! It is so obviously how much he loves his mommy and daddy. He's signing like Iliya and I love watching that - they are so smart!

After lunch we got back to the hotel and were out cold. I woke up sick - this is no longer a cold. Blech. We were supposed to go to PF Chang's for dinner and I just couldn't even make it out of bed. Instead we ordered room service and watched Ratatouille! What a cute movie. Well, I missed the end cause I fell asleep (I have to take advantage of the moments I can breathe).

We woke up this morning and met Rachel and Troy for a breakfast of yummmy bagels. Rachel and I had some time to chat which was so nice! We've emailed so much over the past 4 months that it was just like meeting an old friend. I was worried I wasn't going to get my "Rachel-time"! Troy is just as sweet as I thought he'd be and they are just the cutest couple. We talked dogs... we love our four legged kids!

And here we are - back in Atlanta and time for me to call it a day. I'm heading straight for the couch. My ears have finally cleared but now it hurts to swallow. Keith offered to drill a hole in my head to relieve some sinus pressure. I decided to pass on that sweet offer.

A special thanks to all Carey, Carrie, Adrienne and Rachel for being such good friends during this time. I hope we are all able to meet up again (under healthy circumstances, of course!) - maybe even with all of our little ones in tow.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Becky

P.S. My plan to wear neutrals in the picture backfired. Since I was sick, I had no color in my face so now I'm a washed out mess. I'm just gonna stay BEHIND the camera from now on. :-)

Tomorrow is Friday... and we're off to Nashville! I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now. First, it's a weekend away. Second, it's Nashville and I love Nashville. Third, and the most important reason, I get to meet some blogging friends in real life! We'll be having lunch with Rachel and Troy, Carey and Norman, Carrie and Michael and Adrienne, Jim and the infamous Owen! We're hoping Brandy and Coby will be able to join us also. They just returned from meeting their little boy.

On Saturday morning we'll be going to our agency's office for a seminar. I'm not too sure what it's about, but I'm sure it will be good. There are quite a few of us going, so it should be fun regardless. It will be nice to be able to talk to people from the agency face to face and maybe even get some answers to some questions we have.

Of course, prior to heading to Nashville we have an exciting night of FOOTBALL! I know that's a shocker! I find myself really getting into this football thing. Alex had a JV game tonight and instead of wincing every time Alex is on the field and saying a silent prayer, I'm yelling things like "HIT HIM", "GET HIM, ALEX", "AWESOME! NICE HIT!". Alex had an awesome tackle tonight - 2 of our guys were trying to bring down the ball carrier and Alex came out of nowhere and mowed all three of them over. Ahhhh... to be a proud step-mom. (Note to all: I really am a caring, kind person. I just happen to love contact sports.)

Here are some action shots of Alex (#16). He typically plays safety and every once in a while plays QB.

Isn't he just a cutie?? I told Keith tonight that each time I see him on the field I feel like he has grown even more! He's becoming more and more adult (and more and more like a teenager). His mom would be so happy of the man he's becoming. As much as she drove me crazy from time to time, I miss her and it breaks my heart knowing how much of Alex's life she will miss. I can only hope that she's up there somewhere working some magic in Alex's life.

Anyhow, I need to call it a night. Fighting the flu and I CANNOT be sick this weekend. Oh, and for those of you that care, I've packed all neutral colors for this weekend. I want to be sure I match everyone in the picture, unlike when we met Melissa and Nathan for the first time. :-)

Like Debbie, I was asked if I would like to read Mishka: An Adoption Tale and then post a review on my blog. I received it this weekend and loved it. I was home alone when the package came (and who doesn't LOVE getting mail other than bills!). I wanted to read the book, but for some reason reading a kid's book just isn't the same unless you read it out loud. Well, who was I going to read it to? In walks Callie the kitten. Yes, I sat on my kitchen floor with a kitten in my lap reading out loud. :-) Believe it or not, she sat still and whatever causes this kitten to sit still gets 5 stars in my book!

Anyhow, Mishka: An Adoption Tale, was a great read. The author, Adrienne Ehlert Bashista, does such a great job describing the process of adoption and allowing the Mishka (Russian for bear) feel the same emotions the child goes through. Adrienne has another book When I Met You: A Story of Russian Adoption. I haven't had a chance to read it, but I will definitely be buying it.

Mishka is such a light hearted book. It shows that the fear, the excitement, the anticipation and, ultimately, that happiness that a child feels when going through an adoption is natural and okay! What small child wouldn't love to know that this sweet little bear knows how he/she feels? It also talks about the parents feelings, letting the child know how hard the time between trips was for the parents too. I will definitely be getting my little Peanut a "mishka" of some sort to hold on to between trips 1 and 2.

This would be a great purchase for you and your little one!

Details:
Website: http://www.drtpress.com/
If you pre-order Mishka now (it's not available until November 1st) you'll get 10% off AND free shipping! Also, 5% of all proceeds from books purchased through this site will go to adoption charities.

Have a great rest of your week!
Becky

Well, kids... it's was 5 years ago today (actually right about this time of day too!) that I was standing behind the closed church door with my daddy waiting for it to be my turn to walk down the aisle. I wasn't sure I was going to make it (it was a long aisle and I was really nervous!) The doors opened and I think my dad and I bolted down. I couldn't do that slow walk thing, plus my dad was cracking jokes the whole time trying to get me to chill out. "Don't trip", "Left, right, left"... I love my dad. Keith was waiting at the end with a smile on his face and Alex was to his right. That was all I needed to see!

We had a great ceremony (although a tidbit too long for my liking), headed to Piedmont park for some pictures and then to Park Tavern for a very hot reception. Yes it was October, but it had to be somewhere around 90 degrees. The walls to the reception room were all glass and the sun was setting. Hot. Very Hot. We had a blast and it was over before we knew it!

I'm going to blog-lift (similar to scrap-lift for you scrapbookers or copy for you non-scrapbookers) Rachel's post about her and Troy.

10 Things You May or May Not Know About Keith and I:

1. We met in 1998, over the phone. We both worked for the same company. He was one of those guys that you just knew you liked from the get go. I think we talked on the phone for at least a year before we met in real life.
2. The first time I knew I was going to meet Keith in person, I was a nervous wreck. I had this "picture" of him in my head and had no clue what to expect. I was like one of those gopher things and kept popping my head out of my cube to catch a glimpse without getting caught... boy he was cute! :-)
3. The first time we ever went out (and still barely knew each other) I managed to spill an entire Killian's Red draft beer alllll over him. Yes, girls, that is the true way to a guys heart.
4. Keith is a pure optimist, a dreamer. I am a total pessimist, sometimes a Debbie-Downer.
5. Keith collects trucks (you read that right). Unrestored early Ford F-100s. Someday, in his spare time, he'll restore them. (Hmmm... was there pessimism in that sentence?)
6. We love to go on road trips and house-hunting. Back in the day, when we had time (where did it all go)?, we would just hop in the car and go wherever we wanted. On a sunny day in early spring you would definitely find us driving through every road around the lake dreaming about the house we'll one day own.
7. We LOVE naps. A successful weekend includes a big fat nap. We're not talking an hour - usually 4. See #8 for the reason why.
8. Keith owns his own company and works wayyyy too hard. Alex has declared him "insane". 4 hours of sleep is in the norm. 6 hours is a good day. Thus, the naps. (No, I don't need a nap, but why would I not support my husband if he wants to take one?! hehehehehe...)
9. We're handy. I've cut down bushes with a chainsaw and love powertools. Keith can fix pretty much everything. He's the Bob Villa of our house. We love HGTV and do-it-yourself projects and have been known to start something before we finish the 1st. Next up? Kitchen counters.
10. Alex is the light in our lives. We parent so well together. Keith is calm, cool and relaxed. I am.... not. We make good-cop, bad-cop seem like an art. (of course, the teenage years may be a different story! Let's hope not.) We're so excited for the little Peanut because we know, together, we can give this little one a loving home and even raise him relatively well. :-)

Happy Anniversary to us! In today's day and age, 5 years is a milestone. I look forward to many more good years. We've been through so much together - there is nothing we can't make it through and knowing that is so comforting.

Well, I slept from 11:00 last night until just about 1:00 today (see, my husband does loves me!). I think I may have needed it! We're heading to one of Keith's customers and then to....... a football game! Where else would we go on our anniversary?!?! :-) We don't have any big anniversary plans, but I think we'll go to dinner at the Melting Pot tomorrow night. Nope, not alone, but with Alex and his friend Blake (our second child). I think, when you celebrate an anniversary and have a step-child, you're almost celebrating the anniversary of a family. Alex seems just as excited about it as we do, so why not share it together?

I leave you with some pictures... don't laugh at my hair. I wasn't a big fan either. :-)



I hope everyone has a great weekend! GO SPARTANS!

Hugs -
Becky

A big...................

I was going through my daily blogs and came across Debbie's post. Please go check it out - it made me get all choked up (and maybe a tear or two fell)!

Hugs!
Becky

P.S. I think this is my shortest post. EVER.

We have a very sleepy household so this is going to be a quick post! I think I'll bullet it!

• Good adoption news! The first 2 couples (the pilot families) have had their court dates and all went well! They even had their 10 days waived. My coordinator said not to expect the 10 days to be waived in the future - it was a rarity and not expected. What does this mean for us?? In theory, it means that referrals should start moving! Our coordinator wasn't able to give us an exact time frame but she seemed hopeful that things will start trickling in and those waiting the longest should start seeing some action.
• Accreditation - no news yet! It sounds like our agency is in a good position to receive their accreditation certificate but so far.... nuttin'.
• I was in Las Vegas last week for work - first time there! It was... ummm... interesting! :-) I was there for 5 days which is a LOT of time in sin city. Two days would have been good. I learned how to play blackjack at a table ($5 table) and played a lot of video poker. It was fun spending time with some co-workers (not so fun to spend time with other co-workers) but I was very, very ready to be home!
• Mini-milestone #2 (or is it #3?) is coming up! Next weekend we head to Nashville for CHI's Pre-Adopt II class. I'm not sure what we're going to learn, but I'm sure it will be helpful regardless. I'll also get to meet some of my best blogging buddies! I'm going to need to dedicate a few scrapbook pages just for my visits with my blogging friends!
• My darling step-son has a girlfriend.... ugh... enough said. I'm not ready for this. Nope, nope, nope. Not at all. I promise I will let him play video games each and every night for hours and hours and hours if he would just go back to thinking girls are "icky". Let's just say I just ordered an audiobook on how to raise a teenager - when to say yes and how to say no. I need the "how to say no" part. Of course, if you ask him, all I ever say is no! Melissa, Adrienne, Carey and the rest of you with little boys... cherish the "girls are gross" part of your boys lives. The girlfriend thing is not easy. Now, if you got to hand pick the girlfriend......
• My 5 year anniversary is Friday! More on that on Friday.
• My cousin is due with her first child on Thursday!! Checking my email constantly for the good news!

That's about all I have the energy for... hope everyone is having a fabulous, fabulous week! It's only Monday kids... we have a long week ahead of us!

Hugs - Becky!