Our Little Russian Peanut

As it turns out, blogger saved the beginning of the "lost post", so I'll attempt to finish it!




How many orphanages are in Iz? Good question, one I don't have a good answer to! From what I can tell, there are 3 major cities in the Udmurt Republic: Izhevsk, Votkinsk and Glasov. We aren't quite sure which part of the Udmurt Republic will be going to. I've read quite a bit about all 3 areas and it seems as though the children are in great hands! That was an encouraging tidbit to find.

Merry Christmas - from our family to yours...

Once the holiday craziness settles down, I'll actually post something of substance. Maybe even tomorrow night! We had my family over for dinner tonight and so tomorrow it will be just the 3 of us. It's our first Christmas morning together - so it will definitely be memorable. This is Alex's first Christmas without his mom. I'm sure he's so sad inside, but on the outside he's nothing more than a 15 year old boy who's dying to open presents. My Christmas wish is for him to not hurt and for him to just be able to be a "kid". Hopefully I can help make that come true!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Much love -

Becky (and Keith and Alex)

Well, I had a LONG post typed up. I mean long and FULL of information.

Then I hit save. And it didn't seem to want to do that.

Then I hit Publish Post. And it freaking logged me out.

Then I lost my post. My really long post that was FULL of information.

So now I'm going to bed because Blogger won't play nice.

Tomorrow, after I'm done fighting with everyone at the mall since I haven't finished, I mean started, my Christmas shopping I will attempt to be witty and re-type my post.

Goodnight to all!

I just can't not tell you what's going on. I was trying to wait until I had lots more info but I'll just give you what I know. It's not THAT exciting (like a referral or something), but it is exciting none-the-less. And no, it's not accreditation. And no, we didn't switch agencies. So what could possibly be left??

We're moving to a new region - Izhevsk!! We received a call from our agency asking us if we would be willing to switch to a new region - one caveat - we'd have to increase our age range to be up to 3 years old vs. the 2 years old we originally requested. Oh and another caveat - they needed to know that day. Oh and one more - region paperwork had to be completed, notarized, apostilled and to the agency by Thursday morning. Talk about an instant panic attack!

I called Keith and talked to him. I honestly can't remember what he said - if anything. :-) He was absolutely fine with the age range increase (it was something we had been considering anyway). I called my sister and she listened to me rant but didn't really know what kind of advice. Then I called Rachel and she listened to me rant. And weigh the pros and cons. And rant.

Why would we move our dossier out of Krasnoyarsk? Great question and I'm not sure I have a really good answer except that it felt right. We were told we'd most likely travel at the end of January, beginning of February. Rumor has it the time between trips 1 and 2 is..... drum roll please.... 1 month. That was kind of the clincher for me. Now comes the disclaimer: This is international adoption. Anything said is subject to change at any millisecond. Any pattern is subject to change at any time. Any region is subject to make their own rules at any given point in time. And with that in the back of our minds, we decided to be adventurous and change regions. Those of you that know me, know that I don't have an adventurous bone in my body.

Last night I completed all of the region docs. Today my coordinator reviewed them and - yep - I had a mistake. Keith was on the complete other side of town. We ended up meeting at the bank, getting everything notarized and headed to the Secretary of States office to get the docs apostilled. Low and behold, the notary didn't notarize 2 of our docs. I thought I might lose it right then and there. Keith calmly told me to sit down and he'd be right back. Back the bank he went and I sat and read US Weekly. Thank goodness. By the time he was back I was calm, cool and collected. He took the docs from my hands and sent them to St. Louis!

I so hope we made the right decision. I woke up around 4 this morning in a panic. "What if my child is 3? Do I need a crib? A high chair? I need to learn Russian because my child might speak it! Will a month between trips be enough time to pull things together?" And on and on and on the mind went. Thankfully, I think I'm out of panic attacks.

So, that's my news... As the disclaimer says, anything can happen, but this is what is happening right this very second!

P.S. Now that I posted this, you all had better look at the next post down and check out my crazy cat. :-)

Like the 1 red bow that's left? Or the lack of ornaments on the front? Yes, that is Callie - the Cat That Stole Xmas - in my Charlie Brown tree. :-) (I promise the tree WAS pretty after it was decorated.)

Stay tuned for some exciting changes in our adoption world. I'd post about it now, but I just can't steal the limelight from the crazy cat.

Well, I've played with blogger all I possibly can. If someone can tell me what size I need to make the picture to the right so it fits in the box, I will love you forever and ever. I like the new header - bright and cheery. See that piece of mail in the mailbox?? I'm fairly certain that's my future referral. Unfortunately, the envelope says "do not open yet, but be patient little one!"

A Callie, "The Cat Who Stole Christmas", update... only 3 silver bows remain on the tree. We've lost quite a few ornaments and the tree is tipped slightly to the right. We've decided to not put anything back up until Xmas Eve. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures! She's quite the crack-up! I would say it's good training for having a toddler, but I'm hoping my toddler won't fly head first into the top of my tree.

I was thinking today about my adoption ups and downs and what it is that keeps me going when the going gets tough. There is definitely one thing that keeps me motivated and it's reading everyone's blogs and the comments y'all leave! There are so many people that have traveled on 1st trips and 2nd trips over the past month - more than I've seen since I started blogging! Also reading about families first holidays together and birthdays is so uplifting. It shows that somewhere there is light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of the end of the tunnel... the Marlowe's are on their way home with their baby boy! Chris and Danica are on their way to Moscow with their girls and Ryan and Amy are nearing the end of their trip. How exciting is that? I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting but I just read they're blog updates so their at the front of my mind.

2008 will bring great things... I feel it and I'm ready for it! :-) Now I just need to survive work for the month so I can actually get to January.

This weekend should be fun and crazy. Tomorrow I'll have the wonderful opportunity of meeting Laura's little boy, Mateo. For those that don't know, Laura and I "met" on the GA International adoption yahoo group because I posted something about our company building a daycare. Turns out, we both work for the same company and she is only 2 floors above me! We became fast friends and have kept each other from going nuts a time or two (or three). Saturday night we'll be headed to an Xmas party at one of Keith's customer's house. Sunday is breakfast with my family and Alex will be headed to a Sweet 16 party. And then comes Monday....

On to more news (which I forgot I had!). We received an email Bright Horizons, the company that will be providing daycare services at the center being built at work. WE'RE IN! We have secured a spot in the toddler room for whenever the Peanut comes home. I work 45 miles from home (which can take 45 mins or an hour and a half depending on the day). Alex's school is about 20 miles from the house and 20 miles from work. We tried to decide if it would be better to put the Peanut in daycare near the house or near work. Work has won - at least for the first year. I would just feel so much better knowing I can go take a peek whenever I want. It will also help when trying to get to Alex's games. The company thought there was going to be so much demand for the daycare and would have to do a lottery system. Apparently not! I'm definitely not complaining... of course, my wallet will be complaining eventually.

Alright - I think I've jumped from topic to topic and y'all are probably dizzy now!
Have a great night and a great weekend!
Becky

... just haven't had much to post about. I'm exhausted so this is gonna be a short, bulleted update.

• The Wilsons received their referral! They are going to the same region as us, so this should be exciting to watch (also means that there is an ounce of movement!)
• Laura and Andres are finally home from Colombia with their son Mateo!
• Still no accreditation and not really any rumors on FRUA, which is never a good thing.
• Alex's football team made it to the 3rd round of the playoffs and then lost a tough game to a good team. He was ready for it to be over, but was disappointed that they didn't make it to the Georgia Dome for the semi-finals. That was Friday night. Saturday he was at the swim meet. Yea... we don't waste time around here. :-)
• Alex swam GREAT at the swim meet. Beat his last years times... I'm so proud!
• Work is work. Had 2 days worth of meetings that really wiped me out. Also had our Holiday Dinner last night so that was exhausting!
• The Christmas tree is decorated and it's become Callie, the kittens, favorite thing to "play with". She likes to climb onto our entertainment unit and dive into the tree. I'm totally not kidding. We come home at the end of the day and find bows and Christmas balls missing from the oddest part of the tree. Last night we came home to a gaping hole in the tree (it's artificial) - she had unhooked 4 sets of branches. Gotta love it!
• I've got most of Alex's Christmas shopping done. Still need to (need to interject - Keith just picked Callie out from the middle of the tree again. I can't help but to laugh out loud) Anyhoo... still need to shop for Keith.
• Can you believe I asked for a can opener for Christmas? How boring am I? Oh, and the Black and Decker Scumbuster. See what I do with my spare time? :-)

Alrighty... night night for me!

Edited to Add: Yep - my header is a disaster, but I'm too tired to figure out why it's blurry. I'm trying to wade my way through HTML on not enough sleep. Y'all get the jist of what it's supposed to look like through the blur :-)

Becky