A Yucky Week

This hasn't been the greatest of weeks, I must confess. Luckily it is almost over. Tuesday I took the day off from work so that I would be home for 1:00 for a teleconference from our agency. The agency wanted to get the couples together who are waiting to return to Yekaterinburg for their court dates and to bring home their children. Mike and I knew it would probably not be a grat phone call and we were right. The government agency that was taking care of the adoption court paperwork, the Ministry of Education I think, is no longer doing that. A different government agency is now in control and the paperwork is not being processed as quickly. Some of the paperwork is expiring before it can all be collected and turned in so they are having to redo much of it. This means that although referrals are coming somewhat quickly, the return trips and court dates are not. We were told to be ready for a wait of about 9-12 months inbetween both trips. So, our court date will not be until at least March, probably later. I am devestated. Don't they realize how terrible this wait is? Don't they realize how much more difficult the transition will be the longer the child waits in the orphanage? Unfortunately, I guess paperwork is more important than getting children to their families....

So, in the end, the holidays will not be good this year, I probably will be miserable, and there is nothing I or anyone else can do to quicken this process. We just have to wait. And wait. And wait.
YUCK!

More Family Birthdays

Yesterday was another bust Saturday. Mike and I went to my grandmother's house (Mamie) to put in her new cabinets in the kitchen. She just got a new refrigerator and it is smaller than her old one so my dad ordered new cabinets to fill in the gap. They actually match the old cabinets pretty well. So Mike was asked to put them in and I helped him. While we were there one of the miniature horses was loose so I had to put her back in the corral. We then fixed the fence, a temporary fix, as well. Once we were finished we brought Mamie to my mom's house for more family birthdays.

This month is Mike's birthday as well as Steve's. He is my sister Kristin's boyfriend. It is also my nephew Teddy's 13th birthday. I can't believe he is already a teenager! November 1st is my sister-in-law Ally's birthday so we were going to celebrate her's as well but she is still in Texas for her work. It has been really nice having all my brothers and sisters and their families get together about once a month. I just can't believe we have so many birthdays to celebrate.

So, now it is Sunday and a new week will begin soon. I wonder if we will get any news this week. I think the hardest part of this wait is the not knowing. We haven't heard anything about our paperwork but I could deal with that if I could hear something about how Colby is doing. Why can't we even get an update on him??? Maybe soon......

Another Weekend

This weekend was a busy one. On Saturday I went shopping with my mom. Shopping is one thing my mom and I have always done togther. I can remember spending time going to the Meriden Mall with my mom on a Saturday ever since I was very little. Sometimes we went with just the two of us and other times we went with my Aunt Doone and her daughter Carmen. (We call my Aunt "Doone" but her name is Lorna. We have nicknamed her Doone or Doonie after the Lorna Doone cookies.) Mom and I went to the mall to get a birthday present for my sister-in-law Ally. Her birthday is Nov 1 but we are celebrating it and the October birthdays in our family this Saturday. After a little shopping, Mom and I went to visit Mamie, my mom's mom. It was nice to enjoy the afternoon together.

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, Mike, and I went to Mohegan Sun to see the Professional Bull Riders. This is something we have done for the past couple years. Mom and I really enjoy it the most I think. Mom bought the tickets for us for Mike's birthday. We enjoyed a nice fall car ride, looking at the beautifully colored leaves on the trees. When we got there we had lunch at "Johnny Rockets". My cheeseburger was pretty good but the onion rings were really good with the ranch dressing. Then in to see the bull riders. "The toughest sport on dirt." We had a great time. I love spending time with family so this was a great weekend. Hopefully we will have more great weekends to come, and hopefully soon we will share them with our son.

Free Time

I have noticed lately that I have much more time on my hands, free moments, especially at night. Up until last year, I was teaching and my nights revolved around correcting papers and checking lesson plans. Now my nights are free, as are my weekends. It has been nice being free but at the same time, it gives me more time to think. I'm not sure I like this thinking time. It has its ups and downs. I certainly have enough to think about. The adoption, my change in careers. I am still not sure what I want to do as a career. I know I need time away from teaching but I love working with kids. I love writing. I love taking photos. I love to bake and cook. But what should I do for a career? I hate not knowing. It seems like I have always known what I want to do "when I grow up", but now I don't. So much uncertainty is new territory for me and I am not sure I like it. For now, I take school portraits and every day is "Picture Day"! It is a fun job, certainly less stressful, but not quite something I can see myself doing forever. And my free time is taken up with spending time with Mike, playing with the dog, Misha, household chores, and a lot of online arcade games. My favorite of those has become "Cake Mania" and "Diner Dash". I have found that these games are often addicting. I also enjoy "Minesweeper", "Spider Solitaire", and "Solitaire". Perhaps some of you have some ideas for me. Any good hobbies or other activities to keep me busy? Any ideas for a new career? Hopefully some good news will come soon so I can use my time to update paperwork. I wish I knew what needs to be updated, I'd start on that right now.

Happy Birthday Mike

Today is Mike's birthday. We had a rather quiet day. After running a couple errands, we went to get a sandwich for lunch. Then we took Misha for a long walk at White Memorial. It is an animal sanctuary with a museum and lots of walking trails in the woods. We went to a different area than we have been before and walked along a fairly big pond just enjoying the different colors in the trees. Fall is definitely here. I love the dark yellowy, orange colors in the leaves. Then tonight Mike's parents brought us to TGI Friday's for dinner. I guess it is also Jocelyn's birthday. She is David's (Mike's brother) wife. I am not sure the exact date. Now Mike and Misha are snoozing on the couch as I play computer games and check up on the other blogs I love to read. I guess it is just another day.

We did get an email from the agency on Friday, but it wasn't anything important. I guess Svetlana (the coordinator in Yekaterinburg for our agency) needs another copy of the power of attorney paper. I am not sure why but we had to print it out and bring it to the bank this morning to get it notarized. That was the easy part. Now we need to wait for the goverment to open up on Tuesday to get it apostilled. It stinks because only the one place in Hartford can apostille papers and they take forever. I have brought a couple papers there myself but they don't like to rush through apostilles. I think my sob story worked to get them done, otherwise you need to send them through the mail and wait about a week to get them back. Goverment at its finest..... I don't think we can get to Hartford on Tuesday so I will have to overnight it and just wait. YUCK! I hate waiting.

Other than that, no news. I am slowly resigning myself to the fact that the holidays will not be fun. That the government in Russia will close for their holidays in January. And that I will not see my lovely little boy until at the earliest, perhaps February but most likely March. Once the government opens up again, the judge will want updates on paperwork so that will take most of February. Boy I hope I am wrong but that is what I think will happen. We just better get back before Colby turns 2 in April. Otherwise, I will go back anyway.

Ok, enough of the negative attitude. It was a hard day today knowing that I couldn't give Mike what he really wanted, that phone call from Russia. Hopefully good news will come soon.

No News.....

Tomorrow is Mike's birthday. How I would love to give him what he really wants but, it is not in my hands. All he wants, is a phone call or email from the agency telling us some sort of update about our adoption. It has been about a month and a half since we handed in our court paperwork but still no word from the judge. This is really frustrating. How can they make us wait so long? Don't the judges want these children to be with their forever families? Grr. I feel so helpless knowing that I can't do anything to speed up this process. My patience is wearing very thin, if you can't tell yet.

On a happy note, it is Mike's birthday so we will have to find something fun to do this weekend. Luckily it will be a nice sun-filled weekend, and fairly warm too. Then next weekend we are going to Mohegan Sun, the casino in Northeastern CT, to see the PBR (Professional Bull Rider's Association). We are going with my parents on that Sunday afternoon. So there are things to keep me occupied.

Judges

I have heard many stories about both judges in Ekat, one being a woman, the other a man. I don't know either of their names. Some stories have been good, others not so good. To answer one question, Mike and I will be dealing with the male judge. I'd love to know his name, but I don't so he is simply known around our house as "that guy judge". I have heard that of the two, he is a little easier in court and not quite so demanding with odd paperwork requests but we shall see. I just wish he would look at our paperwork and tell us what he wants. I hate this waiting period. It was much easier to wait when I had something to do, but now it is out of my hands. I guess that is my controlling side coming out. Everything is out of my control and it really bugs me. I guess I need to put my patient side on a little longer.

Keeping Busy...Trying to Be Patient

My job at LifeTouch taking school portraits is certainly keeping me busy. The weekdays are so full of commotion that there is little time to think of other things. Nights are worse though. Then I start to think and wonder when that phone call might come through. We are waiting for word from the judge on what paperwork he will want updated. Both judges in Yekaterinburg ask for updated paperwork at least once before setting the court date. Hopefully it won't be too much. We know the 8 doctor paperwork will need to be updated but we have that just about set. Also other financial paperwork will need to be done again. HOpefully it won't be too difficult to get.

Other than that, yesterday we spent the day at home, enjoying the nice Fall weather. We were hoping to head out for a nice walk in the woods with Misha, our black lab, today, but we woke up to a dreary day and rain in the morning. We went to Mike's Aunt Mary's for a celebration breakfast. It is his grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary. Can you believe, 65 years? It was nice to see his family again, although ti was difficult having everyone ask how things are going with the adoption. No news... No news... No news... I felt like a broken record. Maybe one day we will get some news.

On other adoption fronts, Laura and her husband have returned home from seeing their daughter for the first time, Nicholas seems to be doing great home with his family, Matt and Carla, and another fellow blogger is still in Ekat waiting for her 10 day waiting period to laps. She should be home with her 3 girls by mid-month. What great news! I am so excited for everyone.

So now I wait for the email or phone call. I am hoping to hear something by the end of the month. A fellow Ekat adoptee who went through the same agency we use waited about 2 months from handing in her court papers to hearing about what needed to be updated. We handed in our paperwork the first week in Sept so hopefully soon. Keep your fingers crossed for us. This waiting just plain sucks.