Waiting but not sitting around

Three different people I know went on a trip during their wait for referral. When they returned, they soon got theirs. So, I'm on vacation! Seven months have come and gone. It's been a rough month. I know it will happen. Just would like to know when. Maybe it will happen while I'm on vacation with my family? It would be a wonderful way to find out and they would be there to celebrate it with me. I am going to have to relax and not think about it. Good thing about cruises, it's easy to relax!

That's all I have for today. A little whine, a little foot stomping, not much else. I'll get back on track after vacation :-)

Time marches on

It has been a hurry up and wait process since last September when I first contacted the adoption agency. I did everything in my power to move the paperwork along quickly so I wouldn't be the holdup on getting my family started. Then, the dossier was done. Cue the thumb twiddling. sigh.

Until last Wednesday. Something to do! I received a letter from the agency. Apparently they let their Ethiopian attorney go and hired a new one. Good because I had heard stories that he was tough to work with but bad because he's still a man with a family and it's hard to see anyone not being successful in their work. Good because now maybe things will go more smoothly in country but bad because now there's a new form to attach to the dossier. While I didn't really enjoy the thought of the process maybe being delayed while I got more paperwork done, it felt good to be doing *something* more than twiddling my thumbs.

So here's how it went down...
12:00 received email with new form
12:30 went downstairs to the notary and got two copies notarized
1:00 meeting (it was during work hours after all)
2:00 at Secretary of State across town for authentication
At this point, after waiting my turn in line we realized the forms weren't stamped. $#!+
2:00-2:45 drive back to work, get the forms stamped and then back to SOS
3:00 at the bank for the money orders
3:30 at FedEx sending overnight. done.

Ok so I probably didn't need to send it overnight but I just couldn't stop myself. I was so jazzed at being productive and also probably had too much coffee.

So now I'm back to waiting. The email from the agency also stated that they were starting to sponsor two additional orphanages as well as a foster care system. Hopefully that means there will be referrals coming soon? I have heard others who've been waiting the same amount of time as I have that have received theirs so who knows!?

In the meantime, I'm well underway on the Christmas stockings (well ok I'm halfway done with one anyway) and my moneymaking selling opportunity is almost ready to unveil. It's looking good and I can't wait to see if there's anyone out there who thinks the same and wants to buy one. Check back again soon for a cool Christmas gift!

Non-Update Update

I was hoping that I would have more exciting adoption news at this point in the year. Alas, I don't have any news except that there is no news. Disheartening for sure. So I've been busy. Judging season has started so between regular work and judging, I have much less time to walk into the empty nursery spare room and sigh.

Actually, I've been using that room to work out! Shocking, I know. I broke down and purchased the 30 Day Shred, since my 25th high school reunion was in 30 days. Haven't missed a day yet and I'm on day 16! So I haven't seen any difference yet but I did get fit enough to move from level one to level two. Not sure level three will come soon but who knows! It is perfect for my short attention span, being only 20 minutes long and each exercise less than 1 minute. You can do anything for less than 1 minute, right?

I've been enjoying the lovely fall weather and the dahlias that are now blooming in full force. This is the garden as of a week or so ago...

I'm still working on re-creating the Christmas stockings that our great-aunt made for the whole family. New family members don't have them but I'm not a very good knitter. I've signed up for a class at the local shop where they will help me figure it out. I sure would love to cross that project off my list!

Judging season provides me with a few captive hours in between sessions so I usually fill that time with crochet projects. Here are the latest...

The best news of the fall so far is that the family will be heading to Mexico on a cruise! It's a 7 day cruise and I'll be sharing a cabin with Aunt Shirley. Flights were even pretty cheap so with that and the cabin sharing it will be a relatively inexpensive holiday. We will be cruising over Halloween so there's another project for me - a costume!

Now I am not a costume person. Anyone who attended our amazing and fantastic (they really were) Halloween parties remembers it was not about the costumes, it was about carving pumpkins. Still festive but no dressing up needed. A bit of history to explain my hatred lack of enthusiasm for costumes - When I was 11 or so, can't remember the exact year, I made an awesome costume. I thought it was very creative. I used paper bags and covered them in brown trash bags in the form of a big circle, one for the front, one for the back. A big M&M! I had eye holes and my hands stuck out of the bottom of the M. The mean neighbor boys said I looked like a big black sperm. Now, I'm sure at the time I didn't have a concept of sperm or any such thing but I remember being horrified at being laughed at. So, it was the last costume I ever put on willingly. Now I only do it when I'm forced. So, I will figure something out for the cruise because no one likes a party pooper, least of all my sister, who will kill me if I don't (hi sis!). Any ideas?

And since I don't have enough projects going on, the Gerster/Zentmyer/Newberry cruise will need a logo for shirts. That's my project for this weekend. I scored a Groupon coupon for Zazzle.com and for a song, (or at least relatively cheaply) we will have some kind of cruise wear once the logo is designed. I'd better get to it!