Paper Pregnant Surprise

I found this at THIS blog. I had to post it for all my adoption blogging buddies! Chris and I thought it was very humorous! lol!




--Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.
--What is it?
--Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I went out to the mailbox today and ... well, we got an I-171H.
--A what?!? An I-171H? As in, we're going to have another baby?!?
--It looks that way.
--But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600A forms. Didn't you hide our homestudy update?
--Of course I did. But don't forget, there was that one night ...
--What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night. But it was only once. We were just messing around. I didn't print clearly. I didn't even use ink!(pauses again) But it was kind of fun.
--(giggles) It was, wasn't it? I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints.
--So now we've got our I-171H, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something, make sure everything's okay?
--I already did.
--And?
--I'm five documents along.
--Five documents! And they're all notarized, certified and authenticated okay?
--Just great. There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see the notary's middle initial, but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.
--Thank God. And you, honey? Are you feeling okay?
--I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this.
--Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like this happens, but of course I'm happy.

Stick a Fork in it... it's done!

Yes! Our final yard sale is complete! We have been busy boxing things up to take to Goodwill this afternoon. Hopefully our garage will look less like a selling floor and more like a place where we can park our van.

We still have a few things we would like to try to sell on Craig's list and Ebay, but the majority will be donated. We sold a lot of clothing during our three yard sales. Probably half of the clothing we had... and if my friend Susan is reading this, then she knows how much that was...since she helped me price all of it!

I am thrilled to say we raised $350 dollars today so all total we raised just over $1000 for our adoption costs! Yeah! It was a lot of hard work, but worth it. This will help pay for one of our airline tickets to Russia, so that is a big blessing!

Adoption Fundraisers..

We have two more adoption fundraisers coming up this week.... (as if I don't have enough on my plate). lol! The first is a used curriculum sale. Quite a bit of curriculum was donated to me from a friend at church, and I have plenty of my own to sell. So tomorrow I will be heading to a local used curriculum sale to try and sell some of this stuff. All the money I make will be going toward our adoption.

Then we will be having a yard sale again this weekend. I really pray that it doesn't rain, and I really pray that we sell a lot more stuff! There is just a ton of stuff in the garage still and it needs to go! If it is still here this weekend, then most will go to Goodwill, and a few things we will sell on Craig's list.

I'm ready to have my garage back, and my dining room back and the clutter gone! :-) BUT, despite those wishes, I am truly thankful for everyone who donated to our adoption! THANK YOU!

Here is one of the action photos I took. And yes, it happens to be the best one. :-) These are the frames Chris painted. They actually look a little bit darker in real life, but you get the idea.

One list complete....two to go....

My AWANA ministry commitments for the year are complete. Yeah! It was fun, and I felt confident that I had prepared well for our final awards night. The evening went really well, and it feels good to get that list complete!

Tomorrow evening should just about complete my Team Mom commitments. I have to pick up the trophies... and pray they are in! I have to email the team about our final year end celebration. And I have to finish my little gift to all the parents and kids.

I found some inexpensive frames in a white wood from Walmart. The white did not look good with the photos, so I bought a can of navy spray paint from Lowe's and Chris painted all 12 frames. They look great, so tomorrow I will put each child's picture in a frame, and place them in the decorative bag to hand out. Here are two photos of the little bags that I will be putting the picture frames in. The first is how the bag started, just a small plain red bag with handles. The second is how I decorated it. The name tag is a little blurry...but you get the idea. I think they turned out well!

So Sweet....

Here are the lambs that I bought to bring to Russia for the children. They are so sweet, and I'm not sure if you can see...but there is a plastic slot to insert a photo in the front. We are going to put a photo of Chris and I in there....

Team Mom....

Did I say that this wasn't that big of a committment?

I think so....

Did I say that it was pretty easy???

I think so....

Was I w-r-o-n-g????

I think so......

The end of year is clearly the toughest for a team mom. It's all the stuff I dislike doing, collecting money, planning/coordinating schedules for a party of sorts... It's a busy time of year for everyone. Needless to say this has been consuming this afternoon, and has not endeared me to this position. lol! I'm awaiting a response from our head coach, and then hopefully I can put this volunteer position behind me. (Surely by next Monday).

I do have to say that the one thing I did enjoy (and I've said this before) is taking all kinds of action shots of the kids. I ordered all the prints through my internet picture site, and also ordered prints for our photo albums for Russia. I will be looking for frames to put those in this week. I really love all the shots and can't wait to wrap them up in a unique way to hand out on Monday evening.... It's the one bright spot I am choosing to focus on .... :-)

Another Update...

I am busily trying to get paperwork ready to be FedEx'ed to our state capital so it can hopefully arrive at our adoption agency by next Friday. Ack!! Lots to get accomplished....and timing is so important.

We have to have our financials signed off by a CPA for this region... which is not something we have done in the past. We think we may have one through Chris's work. But if not we'll be asking around at church as well. I want to send the documents out next Tuesday if I can. That means Monday or Tuesday I am running around getting things notarized and county certified. If anyone in my area needs paperwork help for adopting from Russia, I'm your girl. lol!

I've also looked through my Word documents of helpful information I have copied and pasted from individuals that have traveled ahead of me. I have a list going of things I need to get ready to take, and technical things we need to get set up before we go.... Two things people recommended are a webcam for the boys back home... and skype to talk very inexpensively via internet. These will be a challenge as neither Chris and I are technical at all. As a matter of fact, we will probably have to practice at home beforehand.

A fellow blogger Dede recommended the apartments in Moscow to stay at as they offer free internet and international calling. I am sooo looking into that as well. I don't know if we will be able to stay there on our first trip, but the second trip may definitely be an option.

I'm getting more excited... (well as excited as I get,which I'll term as cautiously optimistic). LOL! I'm looking forward to accomplishing some of the items on my list and getting a box started in my house of things to take to Russia. :-) Lord knows I have enough boxes lying around from our yard sale.

Update.

I accomplished quite a bit on my first two lists today. All of my AWANA stuff is about done, and the trophies have been ordered for baseball. I have a call into one pool area, and if that doesn't work out then I just may have to scrap the party theme, and do a minor league baseball game instead. I'd actually prefer that anyway....

Chris went and requested our police reports once again. Until this adoption, I would never have known what my police clearance looked like! lol! I have a drs appointment in the morning to update our adoption paperwork. I get to have blood drawn again. Yeah! Not. Chris will be coming home to watch the boys as they are both sick. Both have colds and fevers, so they will be home in bed. I'm bummed for them as they will be missing their field day for homeschool co-op...the last one until next year. :-( Ds2 will be missing a ballgame tomorrow evening as well. I sure hope they are better to play piano for their recital on Thursday! They have worked so hard for that....

Lists and Lists and Lists....

I'm bogged down with my lists! I am a "check it off my list girl", that's for sure... so without them I would be lost.

I have lists for the end of our AWANA ministry year. I am the Sparks secretary and have thoroughly enjoyed this position. It's so "up my alley" as far as organization etc. I find it fun!

Then I have a long list for "team mom". This I actually did not enjoy very much. I really enjoyed taking all the pictures of the kids for the parents. And I will love to hand those out at the end of the year. But ordering the trophies and organizing the end of year party has not been up my alley. I'm much more of a behind the scenes person, and quite frankly this is falling in the midst of AWANA above, and getting the last of the documents together for Russia as well. It's been a little hectic.

My Russia list is the longest. We only have 4 documents to update, but unfortunately they have to go to two different states to be apostilled. Plus there is more we have to get done, that we didn't get done previously. I just keep adding to that list, and I seriously wonder when we finally do get the call to go..if we will be ready.

Have I mentioned that our garage is still fully set up for a yard sale? And that my dining room table is still out there, displaying all my kitchen/home goods. Our last yard sale is Memorial weekend, and hopefully we will sell a lot!

Oh yes, and we are trying to finish up our last week of homeschool as well! LOL! Piano recital is this week, and 3 baseball games, and Field Day for our homeschool co-op, and end of year party for my hs support group. Lots to do, but it is so FUN for the kids! lol!

Please pray that we get it all done. I'm especially in need of prayer for the baseball end of year activity.... and for the Russian documents getting completed.

Jackie

Moscow Region...

We received an email today from our agency representative that said they have decided to register our dossier in the Moscow region. What does that mean? Well, that's a good question...

1. It means that we have been assigned a region in Russia where we will be adopting from. Since August we were "regionless" so I think it's a step forward.



2. I'll say this with a big "MAYBE" to preface my statement... but our agency has recently been assigning regions when they know that a referral could become available. (That is a huge maybe, as with international adoption everything changes all the time).



3. One good thing about the Moscow region is that the travel costs will be lower, because we wouldn't need to take additional airline flights in country. So that is a good thing.



4. We need to update our paperwork... Financial statements, medicals, and police reports...plus a copy of our I171 form. All those need to be notarized and apostilled and we need to send them onto our agency. The toughest ones to get done will be the doctors. So I will be calling tomorrow to set that up.

How do I feel? Well quite frankly nervous... there are so many unknowns... and yet I keep reminding myself that nothing is unknown to God. He is in control of each detail...each and every one.

So I ask for your prayers. Please be praying as Chris and I wind up our ministries at church and at the ball field. Please be praying that we get the many adoption related tasks done that we need to do... and please be praying for the children we are to adopt. For their health, and for their well-being. Please pray that God will direct us to those children and we would steadily follow him as He leads the way.

Catching up in the kitchen.

My husband has the nightly "tuck the boys into bed" routine. I was very much a part of that when they were little, but as they have grown, daddy has taken over this ritual. By that time of the day, I'm ready to send them to bed, no questions asked, see you in the morning, and good night! Lately Chris and the boys have been having pillow/tickle fights, until they ripped one of their good pillow shams, and then mom put the kabash to that. lol!

So tonight on his way out of their room, ds1 says to Chris.... tell mom not to forget a Mexican food for tomorrow. What?!?!? Then it dawns on me, ds1 said yesterday that they were having a Mexican fiesta party for his Y homeschool enrichment class..... Aiy Yai Yai! Dh looks at me like "You've got to be kidding" when I tell him that our son wanted to bring empanadas. Do you know how long it takes to make those? Yes, I did and I was not looking forward to it.

So, dh ran to the store at 9:30pm, and got back and we started working together to make apple filled empanadas. Talk about w-o-r-k! It would have been so much easier to make my crockpot fiesta chicken. We couldn't find the recipe we used a year ago during our Around the World Day event when we presented Mexico.... so we pulled up one that was semi-close on the net and went to work. While the empanadas didn't turn out as well as I would have liked... (a bit too doughy). Both Chris and I had a great time just catching up together at the kitchen table. We talked about work, school, church, and our adoption.... It was a pleasant evening catching up and re-connecting. And whats' more... those empanadas are done! :-)

Edit to add: Eww.... I just went back and tasted those empanadas. I don't care for them at all... They aren't doughy, they are more like too much of a biscuit. Bleck. I'm such a perfectionist that I don't even want to send them, but Chris would not be thrilled. lol! He liked them a lot! So maybe some kids will too. Not me.... lol!

Rain Rain Go Away.....

Yep, it's raining here...and has been since about 8am this morning. Surprisingly until just about a 1/2 hour ago, people still came to our yard sale... Amazing. :-) Chris is ever the gentleman offering curbside umbrella service to all that stop by. One lady with 4 children had her car not start when she went back out. Thank goodness my girlfriend Kelly reminded me to pick up our jumper cables when I stopped by for a visit the other night! We needed them to help this sweet lady today!

We have had a steady influx of folks. Not like last weekend...but we have managed to sell another $123 so far. I'm happy with that, and maybe now that the rain has stopped, some more people will come out and visit us. We have sold a lot of little things and those add up. We sold a lot of clothes as well.... but still have a ton left.

We do plan on having the sale one more time on Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully we will be able to sell some of the bigger items. Bikes etc... Although I am seriously considering listing several things on Craig's List as well.

It's been a nice day... meeting great folks and just hangin' out under an umbrella in the rain.

Yard Sale... Deja vu.....

Well it's the eve of another yard sale. This one was much easier as most of the preparations were done from the previous sale last weekend. We added a bunch of items and re-merchandised (if you can actually "do" that at a yard sale!) lol! Okay, I have to admit I do that all the time. If a table looks thin, because a lot of things have been bought, I will fill it with other things and re-group and sheesh, generally merchadise the items. It must come from my retail back ground. Trust me if I had the room, I would put up displays of items to get them to sell. I was surprised, that a lot of our items did sell, and I really had to reorganize and add to all the tables. It looks fabulous now. ;-)

The bad news: It's supposed to pour down buckets of rain tomorrow.... however all our signs say rain or shine, and the ad in the paper said the same thing. I'm really really hoping and praying it holds off until at least 10am...so we can get three good hours in!