Merry CHRISTmas!!

I just wanted to post quickly and wish everyone a very merry CHRISTmas! You know I will have hundreds of pictures to post soon.

I also wanted to let you know that we received notice from USCIS that we have an appointment for our fingerprinting in three weeks! What a great Christmas present :) Hopefully next years though will be a sweet little girl at home with her family!!

an update in photos

Christmas is next weekend!! What happened to the last month? We've been busy in this house getting ready for CHRISTmas, and we're almost there. Work has been busy for me with year-end stuff, but it's under control (at least I feel like that at this moment, next week may be a different story).

good ol' Ohio weather - at least the snow is beautiful (but then I'm not out shoveling it)

USCIS got our application! We received our Form I-797, so hopefully our fingerprint appointment will be soon :) (by the way - it's awesome now because you can get emails and text messages as your application is being processed. Welcome to the 21st century, government)

How cute is Katie? If you can't read her shirt it says "Sorry Santa, I ate the cookies"

Katie had surgery today to remove a growth on the edge of her eyelid. She did great and she's here sleeping in her lampshade (or Elizabethan collar as the receipt states). I'll post pictures of that sweet little girl later. She's sleeping now, so I won't wake her to take pictures of her that she doesn't want taken.

Yes, Katie has a lot of shirts

Christmas cards went out this week

Wesley got to see Santa! Up until this day, Wes wanted a train from Santa, but when he saw the big guy, Wes decided that a guitar was all he wanted. Damon and I let him know that Santa's elves may have already made him a train... 

a little family picture (notice the serious grip on my jaw)

Wes and Mommy in front of one of our four trees 

I would really like to post more, but my brain is tired. Maybe later this weekend...

the I-800A is in the mail

You read that right...our form is in the mail asking US Citizenship and Immigration and the Department of Homeland Security to allow us to bring two children into the United States to become citizens!! I've been waiting to say that for months...literally. When we adopted Wesley, we had to fill out the I-600A. The I-800A (for Hague countries like Moldova) is a MUCH more detailed form than the I600A. We're talking more detailed like 15 pages more detail, but I am happy to do it :)

We can now begin assembling the dossier (the official paperwork we mail to Moldova). Being the detail-oriented person that I am, I think I can get this bad boy together in a week tops. The first dossier we did back in 2007 took a few months, but once you've done it once, you get the system down pat. The trouble is that I will have to wait on the I-800A fingerprinting and approval, so I am not going to rush too much. I plan on getting everything together after Christmas, unless of course I can't wait to get started and begin to feel like I am doing something instead of just waiting - again. (I just keep repeating "patience is a virtue, find it if you can"...you know the rest)

I am going to attempt to explain something that I know a few readers out there in blog-land understand...now I have never met this daughter of mine (she may not even be born yet), but she is just as much my child as Wesley is. I don't tuck her into bed at night or comfort her when she cries, but one day I pray that I will. I pray for her safety, her comfort, her health, her future, but mainly that she has a peace that she isn't going to spend her life without a family. Her mommy and daddy are working very hard to bring her home and we know it will happen in God's time, but it doesn't mean I'm not anxious for it to happen sooner rather than later. I had these same thoughts when we were adopting from Ukraine a few years ago, and I know some of you know exactly what I'm feeling.

here's a favorite Christmas tree ornament (can you tell why?)

I will address the eating issues from our home in the next post; I'm too tired to do it tonight. I worked all day, then I had a nice dinner with my old co-workers. (And by "old" I mean past co-workers not their age, even though they are older than me :)