The mixed bag that was 2008

The end of a year is always a time to reflect...and I'll do a little of that. But mostly I'm excited to ring in a new year tonight, with the love of my life, with the year of 2009 in front of us. It's full of possibilities, promise, challenges and more twists and turns on this crazy adventure of marriage and companionship.

2008 will always be the year that we look to as the beginning of our forever family. Yes, it was the year of the failed IVF. Yes, it was the year of dark sadness, of facing the demon in the mirror: how far would we be willing to go? Was it time to get off the "trying to get pregnant" train and to twist the dial of the kaleidoscope to "trying to build a family"? Could we pull off an an adoption, financially and emotionally?

Now, many months later, we find ourselves at least a partial way through our Russian adoption. There have been ups and downs, learns and eye-openers, tears and smiles.

But mostly? Mostly there is love...and possibilities. A future that's entirely ours, together. When we got married, we didn't do exactly traditional vows. We said to each other, "I join my life with yours. Wherever you will go, I will go. Whatever you will face, I will face." We've faced things together...and now we dream of where we will go together.

So, here's to 2009, for us and ours, and for you. May it take you on your own adventures and be wonderful.

Giving it a go

Workout clothes are going on. We plan to go to the Y for at least a few minutes of some kind of workout. I'll report back after about the success or failure of our attempt. Stay tuned for an update to this post later tonight.

I'm out of shape. Be prepared. Beware all at the Y.

Update: Our butts are sore. Bicycle seats are small. The good news is that our butts were on bicycle seats, at least for a while! We didn't kill ourselves, which was good, but we've got a start!

Y? Y not?

We've talked about it for months, in a "we-really-should, we-know-we-need-to " kind of way, but today we finally took action: Brian and I joined the Y.

Our decision to do it today was prompted by a promotion that waived the membership/joining fee of $150, a deal that was only good for today, tomorrow and Sunday. We decided if we didn't take advantage of a deal like that we were dumber than we'd care to admit. We'll still have a monthly "dues" payment, but I refuse to feel guilty for stretching (or continuing to stretch) the budget. I mean, if you can't stretch it (ha, ha, get the exercise reference?) for exercise...well, I don't know what the end of that sentence should be.

Wish us luck, encourage us on and remind me that after a few weeks of going we'll be back in that awesome exercise zone and feeling good. Then just don't let me stick one toe outside of that zone, because when I do I get into trouble!

Oh, Santa

Where are you?

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

To all of our friends and family, no matter where you may be tucked tonight: Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, Germany, Australia, New Zealand via England, visting family in Iowa or the Dakotas or watching for Santa from a window somewhere else in this beautiful world, merriest of Christmas greetings. We love you all.

And to Hope, or Jackson, if you're out there already, we pray this is the last Christmas that we're apart. We love you already and can't wait to experience Christmas with you and and see the joy of the season reflected in your sparkling eyes. Веселое рождество.

Goal met...relief ensues

Our registration paperwork arrived safely at our agency on Friday and is tucked away for them to submit to Russia after their offices open again in early 2009. It's a major relief to have met the goal I set in June when we started of having submitted these registration documents by Christmas. We hope to have a region assignment by late January or early February and then will start to do region-specific paperwork.

It was a great end of the week in my adoption world, with two of my friends receiving wonderful news! My pal Alison and her husband were chosen to parent two girls; they will travel to their home state and meet them in January and, if all goes well, bring them home with them! And, my pal Nancy and her husband received a referral on a Russian baby boy whom they will travel to meet in early January.

Congrats to both of them and to their hubbies; can't wait to follow along as you go through this next part of your journeys!

Le Grand Jour d'Apostilles

In an ode to the French, whom we have to thank for the word "apostille", I have entitled this post in French. For those who took Spanish, the title means The Great Day of Apostilles.

Here's part of the Wikipedia definition of apostille: Apostille is also a French word which means a certification. It is commonly used in English to refer to the legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. Documents which have been notarized by a notary public, and certain other documents, and then certified with a conformant apostille are accepted for legal use in all the nations that have signed the Hague Convention.

I am happy to say that the offices of the Secretary of State in both Kansas and Missouri provide apostilles fairly painlessly - for a fee, of course! We know from experience as today's part of the adoption journey took us to Topeka for apostilling of the bulk of our Russia registration documents and then to downtown Kansas City for the apostilling of our Missouri marriage certificates (we were very glad to discover that while the capitol of Missouri is Jefferson City, a satellite office of the Secretary of State provides the aspostilling service, saving us the wait of mailing our certs to Jeff City or the time of driving to and from Jeff City - though my aunt and uncle would have loved to have had us visit!).

Now all of our Russia registration documents are ready to be FedExed to our agency tomorrow...to arrive Friday, which means...drum roll, please...that we will have submitted our initial paperwork before Christmas, which has been our goal since June! We can celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year knowing that we've done all we can to this point (assuming, of course, that all of our docs are OK, which they should be, because they've been checked by our agency twice). We can tuck ourselves in and wait for the gift of a region assignment - when we'll know to which part of Russia we've been "assigned". As soon as we know, you'll know.

Our other news: the mice are now upstairs, in our master bedroom closet. *#&@*!&!&!(@_#_

Our dancing doggie elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Spit-polishing documents

We're still on track to get our registration documents to our agency prior them closing for Christmas - and getting those registration documents submitted by Christmas has been my goal since we started this crazy adventure!

Since receiving our coveted I171-H approval form (Brian finally pointed out that the paper had "Form - I171H" in really, really small font at the very bottom left corner of the page) I've been polishing our basic Russia registration paperwork - documents with titles like "Parent Post-Placement Agreement" and "Consular Registration." Our social worker's office had notarized some documents, but my trusty "personal" notary (my co-hort in MarCom crime, Susan) placed her official seal (well, stamp) on the rest of the documents yesterday.

Our adoption consultant is checking those docs one more time - I scanned them all and e-mailed them to her - and then we hope tomorrow is the Great Apostille Day - we have to get our marriage certificate copies apostilled in Missouri and the rest of our docs in Kansas, so we're hoping to hit the building in downtown KC and then making the trip to Topeka for the balance. Fingers crossed! Then I could FedEx the entire package to the agency...we have until Friday to get the documents there before they close for the holidays.

Otherwise...it's freakin' cold! Today we're getting snow; we're supposed to get 2 to 5 inches. I wish I could stay tucked at home!

Caught another mouse in the closet overnight, so apparently our previous little friend had at least one friend of his (or her) own.

It came! It came!

The US federal government ROCKS!

They have determined that Brian and I are "able to furnish proper care to an orphan or orphans...." Hooray! Today we received our "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition." We learned that news today when we received our coveted I-171H form from them.

So...now what's next? Now I put the polishing touches on our registration documents and submit them to our agency, who then sends them to their agency in Russia. Then we get a region assignment...and do more paperwork!

My plan all along has been to get that registration paperwork in Russia by Christmas. I might not be able to pull that off exactly, but I shouldn't be far off, if all goes well! Wish me luck!

Contact from the feds, but kind of frustrating

OK, so I had an envelope in the mail today from the I-so-wanted-to-hear-from Department of Homeland Security. You might remember we're awaiting an important piece of paper before we can move forward with the adoption. First thought: hooray. Second thought. Hmmm...this envelope is thin.

For some reason, they are requesting ANOTHER copy of our home study, which we sent with our original application. It's not that it's that big of a deal - I have other notarized copies I can send - it's just that I have to send them something I've already sent them, something they already should have.

But, it's an easy fix, so tomorrow I'll FedEx the additional copy and hope that this appeases them and we get our answer from them soon!

Requiem: For a mouse

Is it bad that I feel such glee that we came down this morning to find a...how shall I put this delicately...a really dead mouse. Dead. Like with little x's over his eyes...not that I got close enough to see the little x's. I was too busy dancing a jig!

Our little rodent met his (or her?) maker in a trap in the closet. Now, of course, everything in there still needs to be washed, but I'm feeling a sense of victory. I know, God's creature and all. But have I told you that I. Hate. Mice?

So, one down...and here's to hoping that he (or she?) doesn't have a posse or a family or a crew waiting in the wings. Or the closet.