FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to get an ulcer today waiting for this call!!! The "bad" part is we didn't get our first choice of court dates so we are going a week later than we had hoped for. The "good" news is that we got our court date for May 27!!!!! I will have to miss the last week of school....oh well, not too upset about that. What I am sad about is that we will miss Travis' kindergarten graduation. So, I guess the grandparent's will have to video tape it for us!! There were pros and cons to each week, so one of the good things is that we will "spring" him from the orphanage on his first birthday!! I can't think of any more wonderful gift we could ask for than that! Another positive is that I only have to have a sub for three days since Monday is Memorial Day and Thursday is the last day of school and Daryle will only miss 4 days of work instead of 5, so in the end it seems to be working out ok.

Now I am off to make some plane reservations!!! YIPEE!!!

Surprise Shower

Oh my gosh, today after school my teammates (the other second grade teachers I teach with) threw a surprise baby shower for me. I was so shocked!! I got a lot of cute clothes, two swim suits (you need those here in AZ!!), bath towels, diapers, all the accesories, hats, books, gift cards, etc., etc., etc. It was so nice! I still have most of the "big" things saved from Travis but I was needing some new things here and there. Everything will come in handy for sure. I guess Connor won't have to wear all hand-me-downs after all! LOL I feel so lucky and blessed to work with such kind and generous people! Thanks you guys!!

No news on the court date. We did have a minor heart attack/meltdown this afternoon regarding the VISA situation, but in the end I think it has worked out, maybe even for the better. It isn't good when you come home to a voicemail and an urgent e-mail...all that time I was having fun at the shower!! Oh well, like I said, it all worked out and it ok for now.

Due to the VISA issue I did talk with my agency in Tuscon this afternoon as well. She is hoping we might hear some news after midnight....gee I hope so!! Sleep?? Don't think I will be getting much of that tonight. Every time I wake up I know I will be running to the computer to check and then if there is a date of course I will have to schedule our flights!! I am running on pure overload tonight. Next post: good news!

A better day!

Phew, today things went like a charm! Daryle's fingerprints were in the mail, the medicals were ready and I got it all off in the overnight UPS mail and it should arrive to our agency by 10:30 in the morning. Yeah!! (I even refrained from making any snide comments to the girl in the front office, however, I did warn Travis before we went in that Mommy might get upset with a lady in there because yesterday she made me very mad. Thank goodness I didn't need to cause a scene!) My next stop was the bank. Just so you know, it is VERY hard for me to find "new" money. So, I have to make the teller look over each and every bill. The last time I got in "trouble" because the bills had fold marks in the middle....they looked great to me and we poured over each and every one that time too! I have half the money I need for our next trip. I will have to go back Thursday or Friday and see if they have more. If not then I will have to go around bank to bank and round up some serious cash! Let's hope I don't have to do too much of that. I finally feel like I can breath a sigh of relief. I am a bit concerned about our VISA's, but I am putting my faith on the line and praying that it is going on schedule. There really is not a way for me to check on that just yet.

Maybe tomorrow I will have news, if not tomorrow then Thursday for sure!

Feeling Stressed Out

Ok, this is one of "those" days where it is all catching up to me. I took a half day off of work to get our VISA's in order and now Travis is sick so we have a dr appointment in a little bit. We need our VISA's right away, so I had to pay extra for that but the good news is we got dual entry VISA's that are good for 90 days. That is a little cheaper than if we had to do single entry VISA's twice. We ended up using a different company than we used the last time, they are cheaper and much more accommodating. I will let you know what I think of them when we get everything back on time. Right now we are hoping and praying for court to be next week, Wed or Thurs.!!! That is why we need to get these VISA's done ASAP. Now we need to wait for the confirmation of the dates before we can schedule the plane tickets, we don't want to have to pay penalties for changing the dates. We could be leaving as early as Sunday, or maybe Monday, it depends on when court ends up being scheduled for. Of course, there is always a chance court will be the following week, whatever it is it will all work out in the end. It is so amazing to think we could be seeing and holding Connor again in just a week!! I wonder if he has more teeth, how much he has grown, and if he is doing anything new yet. I get so excited just thinking about seeing him again!

Let me vent about the VISA application for a minute. I feel like I might as well have sent a blood sample and a lock of my hair along with all of the other crazy things they wanted to know about us! Where did you go to college? What did you study? Who was your employer before the one you have now? Who was your supervisor of that job? What dates did you work there? Address? Phone number? What are your parent's full names? (I was shocked they didn't ask about siblings too!) What countries have you traveled to in the last 10 years? Have you had a Russian VISA before? Do you have special training in firearms? What??!!?? It took me some time to do this not once, but twice, one for me and one for Daryle. Not to mention we filled all of this out when we got our VISA's in March too. Sigh... well, it is done now and in the mail. At least I got to scan in our passport photos (yes, those are required for a VISA too) and I scanned in our passports so that she can get to work on that ASAP. Go, go Eva!!! I hope she pulls through for us!

Now let me vent and complain about our dr office for a minute. We have to have our medicals updated every three months, ours just expired this weekend. I gave our dr new forms to fill out LAST Tuesday, he was kind enough not to make us come in for an appointment, HOWEVER, when I went in there today the papers were still not done!!!!!!!! The cold-hearted receptionist told me they would be ready tomorrow. I calmly stared her down and told her we were going to Russia next week and that I NEEDED those papers TODAY. Well, she calmly stared back at me and told me no, they would be done tomorrow. She said they might be done tonight, but could make no promises. I asked her if she could PLEASE ask the dr and she denied me!!! I do believe in karma, she will get hers one of these days! I looked at her, I said, "Well then, I think you are going to make me cry." I put on my sunglasses, walked out the door, got in my car and burst into tears. It has been a really rough day. I am proud that I didn't have a total meltdown like I did when we had to go through this for Travis. By the time we needed one of these medicals towards the end of the process I thought I was going to go out of my mind! Anyway, we need to get these medicals so I can get them to Tuscon to be notarized, then sent back to Phoenix to be apostilled, back to Tuscon and to Moscow and all of this has to be done by next week .

Sorry for so much venting, if you have actually read this far I am sorry! I don't think I have done too much complaining on here, I saved it all up for today. The good news is we should know our court date tomorrow or Wednesday or maybe even Thursday. Bottom line is that by the end of the week we will know when we will see Connor again and when we will be having court. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes, we are really needing them!! And, if you are someone I see on a regular basis and I look a bit frazzled, well I am, but don't worry, it will pass! LOL

Happy Mother's Day

I can hardly believe it was just one year ago that Daryle and I started telling people that we had decided to take a leap of faith and adopt another child. When we stop to reflect we realize that so much has happened and changed in the last year. We are so excited to have met our new son and we are even more thrilled to bring him home and start our life with him. We are pretty sure we will be having court this month, we will know for sure later this week. We probably will have short notice, so we are preparing to leave at a moment's notice. If things go as we hope we have a very good chance of having him home much earlier than we had originally been told. We also know how things in Russia can change so for now we are saying big prayers and keeping our fingers crossed that we get the news we are hoping to hear this week. We have decided to go ahead and send off for our VISA's tomorrow, it is all just so incredible and "crazy" as our adoption coordinator put it. I am a nervous wreck on the inside while trying to stay calm and cool on the outside. I have no idea how well I am accomplishing that! Well, I am off to enjoy Mother's Day, I am hoping to make it in for a pedicure later this afternoon. Pure bliss!

Nothing New

Just to let you know we haven't heard anything. Each morning I wake up and run to the computer searching for an e-mail. So far no luck! I know that Friday and Monday are holidays in Russia. (FYI May 9th is Victory Day, they celebrate this day as when they defeated Nazi Germany and they also remember those who died fighting in WWII. I have read it is the equivalent to our 4th of July and Memorial Day rolled into one.) So, if there is no news this week I guess we will hold out for next week. With the end of the school year quickly approaching things are getting hectic around here. When I do get the news I am waiting for I will post it as soon as I can, promise!

Crazy Week

Here it is, Friday once again! Boy, has this been a crazy week or what? This Swine Flu thing is wearing me out. I think one third of my class *thinks* they are sick, another third has been out sick with *something* and the other third is clueless about the whole thing. I had the kids thoroughly clean the classroom at the end of the day. Hopefully if there are any germs lurking they will all be gone by Monday morning.

We have had some crazy things happen with the adoption this week, but so far it seems to be crazy in a good way. That is, of course, if things end up happening the way they might. Sorry to be so vague, but I don't want to jinx myself as I have done in the past. We could just use some prayers that some paperwork comes through and we have some news by Tuesday. If that happens, then I will be screaming so loud you won't need to check my blog because you will be able to hear me!!

Last weekend Travis was quite a busy boy. Here are some pictures so you can see just exactly what he has been up to.

On Saturday Daryle took Travis to a Monster Truck show. They had a blast. Travis even got his picture taken with some of the drivers. These trucks are HUGE!

On Sunday we all went to the Diamondback's game. The kids got free webkinz, which are a big hit with Travis right now. He has never been into stuffed animals, but since he got his first webkin last September (thanks Grammy Kathy and Grandpa Robert!) he has really been getting into them. This week he even started lining up his webkinz and plays school with them! It really is quite cute. We took his friend Jessie with us (by the way, she just might be my future daugher in law, Travis and her have been friends since they were in pre-k 3! She is adorable and they are two peas in a pod. She doesn't put up with any of Travis' nonsense!). Here they are with their cute lil webkinz.

Last Sunday was also Humane Society Day or something to that effect. Of course, there was my son warming up to the cute puppies! Jessie liked them too. It is so funny how both of them pose for the camera the minute they see me taking it out of my purse!

This weekend won't be nearly as exciting. Check back next week, hopefully there will be some good and exciting news to report!