The Official End of the Paperchase!

Well, this was what my kitchen table looked like on Sunday as I put our dossier in order: the originals with five copies. I was in a foul mood...aggravated beyond words that it took this long to get everything in order. As soon as I thought all was in order it turned out that something was amiss and had to be fixed. Once we got the I171h I had to have it apostilled. I sent it Fed Ex and paid the extra money for it to be expedited, but it still took them three days! Uuuugghhh!

Okay, so at least it is on its way in the Fed Ex plane to our agency in California. God willing...everything will be approved, translated in a week, and sent to Kaz where it will spend the last days of its life :-) Once again, God willing, we will be in Kazakhstan by November or December the latest. Please pray for us.

Humdrum

Well, my blogfriend, Muriel, motivated me to write! My students had the word humdrum as one of their vocabulary words this week - that is how things feel right now. Work has preocupied my mind and been a blessing. During the summer I really started to think I was losing my mind :-)

I am so happy that another friend in blogland is home with her beautiful daughter! They are as happy as can be and I feel blessed to have watched their journey unfold. Another blogfriend recently arrived and has her daughter - hooray!!! Lisa definately deserves the joy she is experiencing right now. She went through many ups and downs throughout this journey! God bless you and your dauhghter, Lisa...she is a sweet angel.

It seems that people travel in waves. Sometimes it seems lik everyone is traveling and other times it feels like nothing is happening out there in Adoption World. We are all just sitting in the waiting room trying to occupy ourselves :-)

I am getting pretty nervous about the finances. It really will hit hard for us both to be without a paycheck for such an extended period of time. My hubby is worried about work since unlike me he cannot get a sub :-) He works for a small company and they will surly feel his absence. I am praying for a few things right now: an expedited LOI, our son to be in a good region, and for the waiting period to be waved by the judge when we are there.

I am also worried about our cat! Seems crazy, right? She is a spoiled kitty and we will be leaving her behind for longer than she has EVER been without us. My MIL will be here to feed her, etc...but she is used to being with us ever second when we are home. Poor baby! She'll probably be soooo mad at us when we come home - and when I arrive with a baby in tow she'll really be upset - lol.

So, not much to report. I just remembered one other person scheduled to travel soon. I'm going to go check her blog and see if she left yet. I hope everyone has a great weekend and gets some good news in the coming week!!!

A Long Week

This was the first full week back to work - back to school and I am pooped! It was a good week though. I have really great students and get to work with a terrific teacher for the third year in a row. I co-teach in her regular education language arts class. Last night was back-to-school night and the parents whizzed through their child's schedule like professional speed daters, but I think it is an important time for them to see our faces and our enthusiasm for the subject we teach, our co-teaching assignment, and their child's success. I admit, however, to being taken back whenever we get that single parent who approaches us to inquire about why their child is in a "special ed class" with two teachers. We just politely explain that we are both teachers in the class and support the students so all their needs are met. The parent usually accepts that response.

Regarding our adoption we are in phase two of the waiting stage. We are waiting to get back a few documents that are being apostilled and then we an finally get our dossier to our agency for translation. From there, anyone guess is as good as ours as to how long it will take to get our LOI. One friend, Lisa, using our agency, got hers back in record time - one month! Another friend and client, Tammy, got hers in nine weeks and one day. At this time we anticipate traveling in November. We are praying and trying to stay optimistic.

I hope everyone had a great week! I want to wish Lisa good luck as she begins her flight to Kaz tonight! You are in my prayers Lisa! I can't wait to see your little girl! Stop by her blog to wish her luck :-)

TAGGED!

I've been tagged by Melissa and Suz! Okay here it is...

Four jobs I have had in my life: Cashier, Dental Assistant, Director of Early Childhood at YMCA and Teacher :-)

Four Movies I have watched over and over: Beaches, Forrest Gump, Mr. Holland's Opus and Jerry MaGuire

Four places I have lived: Staten Island (North Shore), Long Island (Hamptons, South Setauket, Miller Place, Lake Grove, Rocky Point), back to Staten Island (South Shore) and now New Jersey (Woodbridge)

Four TV shows I love to watch: Dr. Phil, 7th Heaven, Court TV (everything!), and Parco PI

Four places I have been on vacation: Cancun, Paradise Island, New Hampshire, and Italy

Four of my favorite foods: Pizza, Coffee Ice Cream, Filet Mignon, and Sweet Potato Bisquits


Four places I would rather be right now: In Kazakhstan getting our son, New Hampshire, anywhere with my best friends Denise and MOM (my-other-mother) and Norway


Four people who will respond : Muriel, Sarah, Lisa and Tammy...because they have all been TAGGED!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly contain my joy...we got our I171h approval today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Lord for answering our prayers! Thank you to my friends at CPAK for their powerful prayers! So, our dossier will be off to our agency for a thorough checking over and then to be translated. After that...the next wait begins again: Waiting for the LOI. Oh my goodness - I can't believe it... I am going to be a mother before the New Year!

DEE - CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?! I WISH YOU WERE STILL NEXT DOOR SO I COULD RUN OVER WITH THIS NEWS!

Back to School

Well, the new school year begins for me tomorrow! I have to admit that I am dreading it sooo much right now. Hearing this you may think that I do not like my job, but that is not true. However, teaching is an emotionally draining profession (especially middle school aged students with learning disabilities) and I don't feel up to the challenge. I am so drained emotionally from this adoption that I feel like I have nothing left to give. I pray that God will help restore my energy for this new year.

My mind is preoccupied with our adoption journey. The questions are constantly stirring around my mind. I am also dreading the bombardment of questions I will be asked by every single teacher who knows we are adopting: "So, what's new? When will you travel?" UUGGGH! I feel like tape recording a message and just hitting play every time I get questioned. Or better yet, perhaps I should post an e-mail to the entire school with an update that there IS NO update :-(

So, that is all I have to share right now. I pray that we get our I171h this week. I also hope that all of you out in blogland will get good news this week!

Updated Montage

I made an updated version of my motivational montage. Why? Well, these are the beautiful faces of children adopted from Kazakhstan whose parents used our agency. There has been very negative energy surrounding our agency and affecting all the clients recently, so I made this to cheer myself up. One day soon...our baby will be home too.

Edit video online at onetruemedia.com