Home!

We're settling in I think. I will post more about the trip but for now I'll just say it was a wild ride. She's a cutie and I'm head over heels in love! Now if we can just figure out this schedule thing...

The final countdown

We're almost there! By this time tomorrow we'll be off on the adventure of a lifetime. Dad (Papa) and I are coordinating the packing tonight and then at the crack of too early we'll be off to the airport. Riley's set up with the sitter :-) and Mom (Nana) has her people lined up too. I have way too much stuff but we'll leave a bunch of it at the foster home for the kids and the staff. I hope I have the right stuff, enough stuff, the important stuff and not the wrong stuff. We'll see when we get there I guess!

So many people have asked me if I'm excited. hmm. Well yes, of course. But my comeback is this. It's as if someone asked you if you were excited to move to the moon. Excited yes, but do I have any idea? Sure, weightlessness would be awesome and the views of earth would be spectacular. But it's probably dusty and dark. So can you be excited? For sure! Will I be more excited by this time Friday when she is in my arms and it is real? Most definitely.

Good gravy what have I gotten myself into? :-D

Baby's room update

While technically she's not a baby anymore it seems funny to call it a toddler room :-) This weekend I plowed through a ton of projects that I'd been sitting on for a while. (some longer than others.)

First, I finished putting all the flower decals on the walls, plugged in the new lamp and added the dimmer switch so it can be a night light...

Then I hung up the paintings and hanger I found at the art fair in Tel Aviv. Seriously, the cutest paintings ever. Also finished the afghan that matches all the other kids' afghans I made for the next generation of the Romano family. And made the pillow out of the fabric we bought in Tel Aviv...

Then I painted the closet door knobs to match the decals...

Later this summer we'll add the shelf and world map that my dad is crafting but other than that, we are done! Ready to be populated with a little munchkin very soon!

What do you think?

Another date change

On Friday I received the latest news from the agency. Our requested dates of June 13, 14 or 15 are all booked. sigh. Our next available dates to request are June 21, 22 and 23. How frustrating! What exactly is the point of letting us choose dates if they aren't available. I have an idea. How about you just tell me the soonest I can have a date and I'll just be there. That's what they did for the court date and it worked out just fine. I think the 'appearance' of having control while not actually having any control is the hardest thing.

I remember people telling me that the wait from court to embassy was the hardest. Until last week, I didn't agree with that. I still felt the time to referral was the worst. The not knowing. Will it happen, what will she be like, will I connect when I see her face? All those things drove me crazy. Once I saw her, I knew it was going to happen and it was just a matter of time. Now, it's coming down to the last few weeks and I'm So.Over.It. Done. And yet, it's more waiting. Hoping to hear on Tuesday or Wednesday if the dates they've we've chosen are available. More on that next week!

In the meantime, I'm still getting ready and packing things here and there (without actually taking out suitcases, since that drives Riley into a tizzy and who needs that?). I have toys and clothes and first aid stuff, benedryl and children's tylenol. I'll pick up some diapers and formula and some other food once I find out what she's used to eating these days.

I also wanted to bring something back to the nannies and staff at the guest house since they've taken such good care of all the kids there. I racked my brain, what would be a good gift? It's so hard to say. In the end it came down to these...

I modified a crochet pattern for a stuffed heart and created an opening with a flap. With some fun buttons from my mom's old collection and a braided loop, I think they make cute little purse-y type things. Then what to put in there? I thought a Minnesota made soap or something would be great. I purchased some from a local place from their online store. When they arrived the smell was so overpowering I coughed for days until I took the box outside. So, that got nixed. Maybe some people like that much essential oil smell but I'm not giving anything away that makes me sick :-)  Some puttering around from store to store uncovered these cute little notebooks and tiny pens. With some (decidedly less smelly) lotion, I think I'm done. I hope they like them!

Inching ever closer...the sequel

Fingerprints are finally processed and the Embassy has confirmed they are there! Next step is to request three dates. I requested the earliest possible dates that we could physically manage. Sure enough, they couldn't do those dates. argh! How about you just tell me the three dates then. sheesh. So we are now waiting to hear about June 13, 14 or 15.

I thought I'd be able to book travel today. Then I remember that the Embassy doesn't work Fridays so we won't hear until Monday. The waiting now is actively, physically painful. ugh. Years from now we will look back and it will only be a distant memory. But today, it sucks.

I suppose though, it's good that we wait a little to go. First, the tickets won't be horrendously expensive. Second, I find myself with this...

My badge of honor for doing the right thing and donating blood. Apparently the needle didn't go in right and instead of pumping the blood out it pumped it back into my arm. neat. All those chemo treatments and doctor visits and MRIs and whatnot and this never happened. ishy. Now I'm sure it's probably not a problem to fly a long distance with that large of a bruise but carrying a toddler around might be challenging.

So what is your best 'traveling with a toddler' tip? I can use all that I can get...

Inching ever closer...

Last week I found out that my case has been cleared by the US Embassy! One would think I would be madly packing and booking flights. Sadly, we're still waiting on fingerprints. Ugh. If only. (see earlier post) Whatever. Have you checked your i-171H yet?

In any case, the Embassy is ready and waiting. Last Friday, I called USCIS to see if they'd been processed. They directed me to the NBC (National Benefits Center) and they said the package was in the mailroom waiting to go out 2-day air. Then they go to the NVC (National Visa Center). At the NVC, they upload the prints to a sharepoint drive and let the Embassy know they are there. Hopefully we will hear this week if the prints have arrived. Then we choose three dates and the Embassy lets us know which one is available.

So, in the event that the prints arrive this week, we've tentatively asked for May 31, June 1 or June 2. It's so far away! And yet so soon! I have yet to buy any diapers or get her outfits packed up in neat ziploc bags for the flight home (or a host of other things I probably should be doing or have done). I've almost completed the little gifts I planned to bring to the nannies and staff at the transition house. It's not much but I'm so grateful for the care they give all those kids.

It seems like many people I traveled with or whose kids she plays with every day have scheduled travel and are on their way. I'm so excited for their families to be reunited and I can't wait to hear their stories. Those of us still waiting are thankful for all the hugs and love you can give to our babies as they wait for us!

Important information day...and a little whining

I wouldn't call this blog a wealth of deep and insightful knowledge. Probably, you'd say it is a nice picture book with the occasional recipe. All good, I say. I never claimed to be anything other than just another page on the internet, just trying to get from day to day. But today, I have something that you might even find useful (if you're adopting anyway).

Anyone who has been through or is going through the process of international adoption (and I would guess also domestic adoption) knows it is challenging on many levels. This month, my challenge has been paperwork. Not that it is necessarily more or less than the giant stack that sits in my office, tipping over at random occasions. And anyone who knows me knows that I tend to be just on the edge of compulsive about organization (I'll just let you decide which side). I think I just hit the wall. I'm done with needing more forms and more checking and more everything. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want the process to be so easy, any psycho could do it. I'm just whining that I'm over it all. My baby waits for me, let's get on with it. Ok so that's my whine for the day, on to the important information.

As you start the adoption process you start to amass papers. Application forms, agency information and references to start. Then you move on to dossier forms, in duplicate and triplicate, notarized and authenticated by the state. Then that stack sits for a long time. Then you get a referral-yea! More forms and more papers. stack stack stack. More waiting then a court date. What do you bring? I brought my whole dossier and never took it out of the suitcase. But I had it, darnit!

Court gets passed (sometimes quick, sometimes slow) then you wait some more. Now, with a new addition to the process, there are more forms! DS-230, i600 and i864. Before, you would fill them out and bring them with you, now you get to do them early, notarize them and then bring more unsigned copies with you. Good gravy.

Now on to the fun part. Everyone who has received their i171H form, go now, look through the stack(s) of papers and get it out.

I'll wait...

Ok take a look at the bottom right hand corner, the part where it says 'Fingerprint Expires On:'. Write that down on a big piece of paper and put it on your refrigerator where you can look at it every day. That way, you won't get a call on Tuesday saying 'let's overnight a fingerprint request to USCIS since they expire on Thursday'. sigh.

It's right there on the bottom right hand corner...

Not to be confused with the top right hand corner which is when the actual i171H expires...

I've read blog after blog and lurked on countless adoption lists. Along the way I've read stories of people scrambling at the last minute because their fingerprints expired and they were in the process of traveling. I've always shook my head and wondered how that could possibly happen since everything is on a form for you to file and remember. And then, it happened to me. Waa? Boo. Well I thought I was good until August but then I hadn't looked at my i171H since I got it, back in February of last year. And really. Seriously. Fingerprints expire? Like they'll change? sigh again.

So I scrambled, wrote a very nice letter and overnighted it to USCIS. I now have a new fingerprinting appointment on May 16th and am praying desperately that I haven't delayed our reunion any longer than it would have been already.

And now pass this knowledge on to you. Just trying to do my part for my vast readership :-)