Why I love judging

I love being a gymnastics judge. Yes, it can take up an entire weekend. Yes, it can be long days of sitting on my butt with my brain hurting from all that math. And yes, I eat too much during the breaks. But in the end, I get to see successes and accomplishments and of course all the glittery hairdos. And leos.

This past weekend I got to see and judge some amazing gymnastics. I scored my first 10.00 vault. It was awesome. Makes me glad to be a part of such a fun sport. And a little jealous that this old body will never do gymnastics again. So, I will live to watch and enjoy. Fun!

Take a look at this amazing vault...

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Dossier in Ethiopia

My dossier has arrived in Ethiopia! I can't say exactly when it arrived but it's there! I thought maybe I could track it by my FedEx account but it turns out you can't just pull up your account number and see all of the shipments billed to that number. Seems like you should be able to but I guess not. In any case, it arrived some time in the last week or so. Next step, translation. I'm told that may take 3-4 weeks. And so I keep waiting...

On another note, work is underway in the soon-to-be-nursery as the closet door gets removed and enlarged. Lots of dust, hammering, sawing and dust. And did I say dust? Will be exciting to be done.

One giant step!

Well it's officially out of my hands now! Immigration form came on Friday, and Tuesday as soon as the offices opened, I was at the Secretary of State office in St. Paul with my whole dossier to be authenticated. I waited about an hour, along with all the other people who probably wanted the office to be open on Monday like I did. And then it was done! I then proceeded to make a boatload of copies, collate and double check and triple check that all was in order. Quite a stack of paperwork!

Then it was off to the FedEx office to package and ship. I splurged on the overnight shipping, knowing I just couldn't wait on myself when I'm already waiting on everything else. And now, I wait again. But it's out of my hands now and I've done everything I can do to make it happen. God willing, I'll be a family soon!

Remodeling

I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Seems funny that a new bathroom vanity would make a difference in my life but apparently it does. While I loved the old look, very 50s retro and taking up little space...
it did lack storage and the faucets were in danger of rusting off. So, my fabulous parents gave me a vanity for my birthday and my awesome dad installed it!

Add an updated paint job and it's a shiny new world! At least this will hold off my fix for remodeling for a bit, at least until I'm ready for a baby's room...

It's here!

Friday's mail brought the most wonderful piece of paper I've received, well, ever! I now possess the "Notice of favorable determination concerning application for advance processing of orphan petition". 21 days since my fingerprinting day at the application support center. With the rest of my dossier done, I was planning a Monday morning run to the the Secretary of State office for authentication. Of course, best laid plans. Monday is a holiday. And I have meetings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Somehow I will figure a way to make this happen. Soon.

Still waiting

It's going on day 10 now, waiting for the immigration approval to come through. I've gathered the rest of my dossier and made copies. Now I continue to wait. I guess I should be glad that it didn't come this weekend or I'd be snowshoeing to St. Paul in this storm to get the authentication done. Maybe it will happen this week? Crossing my fingers and toes...

The final step

Yesterday I took the final step in my cancer journey with reconstructive surgery. No implants, but now I'll be back to normal, with no divot where the cancer used to be. Sore, yes. Excited, yes! Tomorrow I'll be able to remove the bandages and see the new me. woo hoo!