Finished...I Think!

I can’t believe I am typing this post today, getting ready to add pictures of our son’s bedroom. When I woke up this morning I realized that this is the last full day in our home as just Troy and I (and five animals!) Our next full day here will consist of waking up and then hugging our son good morning.

Before I post pictures of the baby room, I have to tell you that it’s been done and then done again about 6 times since yesterday! I would walk out thinking it was perfect and then 10 minutes later go back in, move some things around and then think it was perfect again. Troy just laughs because he knows I’ll be in there again today moving things. He says it won’t be perfect until we’re on the way to the airport and I can’t change anything else!

Without further ado….

I can’t wait to leave tomorrow. We’ll be seeing our son in just a few days and facing a judge on the 15th to ask for the honor of being a certain little boy’s parents, who we already consider our son and have since the moment we saw him. Please pray for us and for the judge over the next week.

Here we come!!

Paperwork, Packing, Cleaning and a Prayer Request

The title pretty much sums up what’s going on in our house! We have been fortunate in that all of our paperwork is nearly done. We are only missing one form and I would love it if those of you reading would send up a prayer for us-that the form we need will be received. God will know exactly which form that is!! Of course I am trying not to panic – hence the new Bible verse on the sidebar. It is very appropriate. We are so worried about not getting this document in the next day or two as we had planned to apostille everything on Monday as it is really our last opportunity to have it done before we leave. Otherwise my family will be on the lookout for it after we leave, but I would rather have it with us, in our own hands. I'm sure God is listening!

As for the packing – well – not so much. We did sort clothes for our little guy, but are finding ourselves re-evaluating everything! Hopefully this weekend we’ll sort that out. We’ve been putting things in our guest bedroom as we go if we think we might like it to travel with us. Seems to be working although there’s no way it’s all going in a couple of suitcases and carry ons.

Cleaning is a whole other ball game. Tonight we hope to finish redecorating the bathroom for our little guy. Troy’s sister Amber did most of the set up of the new shower curtain, rugs, towels etc. Last night I mounted the frog toy holder and tonight we finish up. I’ll post pictures of that and the baby’s room soon too.

In other news – go over and congratulate Slade and Wendy who received their court date!!

Also – Michael and Carrie, Randy and Susan, and Russ and Ana who have all just recently passed through court with flying colors and are proud new parents!! Congratulations!!

In Two Weeks from Yesterday

We leave to for Russia to make our final trip to bring our son home. How lucky we are!

We have a lot on our plates right now and I am under a lot of stress. Please pray for us as we are still waiting for documents to arrive that are out of our control. Among those are our updated police clearances and our amended I-171H showing the fingerprint renewel. Both places say we will receive the items on time, but I can’t help but worry we won’t get them as the days count down. Another big worry I have is the amount of time between our flight on the way to Russia. We only have 1 hour and 17 minutes between flights and I am worried about making the next gate in an airport we have never visited. Troy seems to think we will be fine, but I can’t help but worry about every little thing!!

We have started making a pile in our guest bedroom of items we want to take to Russia for us and for our little guy. My sister-in-law Amber has been so helpful to us by letting us bug her questions such as “How many of these would you take?” or “Do we really need this?” We managed to cut several piles in half last night!! Thanks Amber!

As for the baby shower – here is my sister’s last comment from a few days ago.

BABY SHOWER COUNT DOWN.....6 DAYS! WHOOO WOOOO, WOULD YOU LIKE A RED, PINK OR A BLACK BLINDFOLD WITH PAWPRINTS? COMPLETE LONG TERM SLEEP DEPRIVATION COUNT DOWN....17 DAYS

Now I wonder if they are going to take me the SPCA, throw me in a kennel with a couple of dogs wearing my paw printed blindfold and of course the socks!! Okay by me – rubbing dogs for a few hours uninterrupted sounds relaxing to me!!! Of course wouldn’t my babies be jealous?!?!

The Dog Did It

Troy and I went to the ever famous Wally World this weekend to pick up a few groceries. While we were there we found the cutest T-shirt for our little guy who we hope to hear about and meet soon.

How appropriate is this shirt in our house!! We bought a 3T which might be too big, but we’ll save it. The shirt was just too cute to pass up.

We also bought this handmade photo holder some time ago that I wanted to share. I found a lady on Ebay who hand stitches the paper together. I was able to request one in the colors we liked and then she made it and listed it for us. Closed it says “A Special Delivery”. You can also display it opened and from the top you’ll see a star pattern. Then each side has either an adoption poem or a spot to slide in a photo. The ribbon you see coming out of the top are tags that you can pull out and write a caption about the photo in the spot. Each spot there is for a photo also has a tag. I thought this was beautiful and a nice keepsake. I love that the paper is hand stitched together. Pictures are below.

In other adoption news, we finally received our re-fingerprinting appointment notices from USICS. We go February 29th at noon! I’ll be glad to get those done and then we’ll wait 30 days for a new I-171H approval with new dates for our fingerprints expiration. We wanted to be sure to have them done as soon as possible so that they wouldn’t hold up a court date, in the case of a referral soon and court soon after.

Since being registered last Tuesday, Troy and I are sitting on pins and needles waiting for “the call”. We hope it is soon!!

Becoming Prepared

Now – don’t get excited. We haven’t received a referral but we have decided to start making some preparations and at least thinking about things such as: What kinds of toys to take, what to do with the animals while were gone, what kind of clothes, etc.

Well, we have the animals worked out. One of my sister’s will be house sitting and my mom lives close enough to check on them daily. After all my doggies and kitties love “Aunt Cassandra” and “Grandma”. The mere mention of “Grandma” puts my oldest doggie, Elka, in a full pant, jump, and run around mode. Did I mention she loves her Grandma??

We have some toys picked out that we though might be fun. The first is a soft bunny teether toy. It came from the wonderful Wally World and the funniest thing is that it has the name RAE initialed on the front. Rae is my nickname and used to be my initials before I got married. My entire family and Troy’s family only calls me Rae. Troy and I joke that Troy’s family doesn’t even know my full name!! And if Troy calls me Rachel, I think I’m in trouble!! We bought a Little Tykes hammer that makes sounds when you hit it on something. We also have an inflatable ball, another teether/rattle, some blocks, and a soft book.

Other things we are taking are a blanket to leave with our child, and disposable cameras in the hopes to get a few pictures back from during the time we are gone. (Is 2 too many to give them?)

We are going back and forth on all the electronics to take with us. I really hate to lug around the camcorder, laptop and camera. Our camera doubles as a camcorder, but it just isn’t the same. I did learn about, thanks to my grandfather, disposable camcorders you can buy that have 20 minutes on them. Then you take them to the store and they put it on cd for you. You can also review and erase so you get the 20 minutes you want. They are small (same size as a disposable camera) and only about $20.00. This sounds great, but you can’t load them onto the computer while there to send to the Dr. I’m not sure how we are going to handle that yet. I’m not even sure the Dr. really needs the video, as he really just talked about the photos.

We also ordered coats finally. Troy needed one and I needed a heavier coat in case we go to Russia anytime soon. We ordered Extreme Squall Coats and they look great and warm!! I ordered a Paradise Aqua color. Usually I am a black or tan girl, but thought I’d go out on a limb. We ordered Troy a dark green. Here’s to hoping these coats will come in handy. Thanks mom for helping me pick them out and placing the order for us!!

If anyone else has any ideas about what else we might need, let me know. I am particularly interested in the electrical converters. We bought one that we used in St. Lucia, but I’m not sure it will work in Vlad after seeing the Marlowe’s pictures with the sockets in the background. The box we have is square but the prongs come out all different ways. Let me know!!