we're still here (& some good news)

We survived the ice storm here in Ohio. It wasn't nearly as bad as the forecasters made it sound, but I was unable to get up our hill of a driveway in my car. I parked on the street though and stomped through the yard (I had to stomp to break through the ice on the snow). I was glad the next day though when my car was outside because our power went out, so I didn't have to worry about how I would get my car out of the garage. Here are a few shots of the ice taken the night of the storm:

This picture has nothing to do with the storm, but I  took it the same night.

And here's some good news...we got our I-800A approval in the mail!!!! It took less than four weeks from our fingerprint appointment. Truthfully, closer to three weeks. Our dossier has been sent to our agency, save this last paper. I am going to head on up to Columbus next week and get it apostilled.

Now for some most unpleasant news (at least for me it is)....I fractured a small bone in my ankle, and I have to wear the walking boot for what will seem like an eternity. I was lucky enough to "get the boot" (HA HA) two years ago when I had a stress fracture in the same foot!! I am praying that this time I don't have to wear the boot for eight weeks.

Now for Wesley's 4th birthday!!

I bought this awesome cake pan to make a train cake. The first two times I made the cake, it fell right out of the pan. What do you know...the one time it matters I cannot scrape the cake out of the pan!!

Damon saved the day by running to Sam's Club and picking up a cake!

A kitty cat from Doda and Pawpaw!

blowing out candles

Can't you see the excitement as Wes is about to enjoy cake?

ANOTHER kitty cat!! What a great birthday! Almost made eating cake worth it...

Wesley with Doda and Pawpaw

Wesley with Grandma

now with Mommy and Daddy

Happy 4th birthday, sweet Wesley! Time sure does fly...

"adopted for life" free dowload

Have you read the book "Adopted for Life" by Russell Moore? AWESOME book! It isn't so much about adopting children (like I first thought), but it's about how God has adopted us into His family and the part that ALL Christian families are to play in adopting children.

This book is available as a free download right now at http://christianaudio.com/adopted-for-life-russell-moore  I realize that you may not be personally interested in adopting children, but this book speaks to everyone and the role that they are to play in adoption. Enjoy!

P.S. Oh yeah - there is some ice, but the main roads are just wet. So far, not bad weather at all!! I'll get out and take a few pictures. I will say though that I couldn't get up the hill that is our driveway, so I did have to park on the street and walk through the yard. A little salt will fix that.  

it's just a little snow and ice, people

Now I've talked about this before, but I live in good ol' Ohio and the weather here can be stinky to say the least - 70s one day and freezing temperatures overnight, snow, ice, rain, humidity all in one week. Living in the Midwest gives the meteorologists plenty of time to determine the weather "headed for us" as it travels across the country. Any time it is going to snow or be ice-y, you would think that the world is coming to an end...the grocery stores sell out of bread and anything in the freezer section. Really? What are you going to do, sit around and eat sandwiches made out of corn and peas? And if the weather is actually bad, you will be able to get out of your house in about two days, so you aren't likely to starve. I estimate that we could live in this house for at least 10-14 days, so no way you would find me at the grocery today! 

The horrible, treacherous conditions are headed our way, so I'll let you know how bad it really is. If we're stuck in this house, I'll have plenty of time to blog :)

adoption #2 update

So I've been meaning to update y'all on where we are in the "baby sisser" adoption process...we were fingerprinted last week for USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration) and we have begun to gather dossier documents.

Damon and I - post fingerprinting

The adoption "rules" (for lack of a better word) will be changing in Moldova effective February 1, 2011.  The two biggest changes for us as adoptive parents is that the children will need to be on a national registry for a longer period of time (from 6 months to 12-24 months) and a longer stay in country (from 2-one week trips to 30 consecutive days). There are other changes, but they wouldn't affect us like the above two.

Now as parents who are "in the process" (I LOVE to be able to type that), it is unclear right now whether we will proceed under the old or the new rules. We have sent in enough dossier documents to be registered with the Ministry of Labor, but we could be under the new rules because we haven't accepted a referral. There could also be delays in the processing of adoptions as the new rules are implemented.

As always with international adoption, so much is in flux right now, but just like with Ukraine, God's timing will be perfect :) Ukraine stopped adoptions for about 5 months after we had sent in our dossier in 2007, and I just remember thinking that everything (aka my thoughts on how the adoption should progress) was messed up then. Of course it wasn't because Wesley wasn't available until the day we had our second appointment. I really thought that I knew when it would be best for us to travel to Ukraine, but I was SO wrong!! Besides Wesley not being available, we would have been in Ukraine in the winter - no thanks!!

Please pray for us (mainly Staci) as we (again, mainly Staci) work on the dossier. We have to find a notary who is able to travel to our dotcor's office to notarize our medical papers, and I am not feeling all that motivated to get things done. I think the weather has gotten me down. It has been downright dreary here in Ohio with no sun and inches upon inches of snow. Lately it always seems to be snowing which I enjoy when I am home in my pajamas, but not so much when I have to run errands or drive to work.

I am not going to end on a depressed note, so I do have some good news to share...Damon has been offered a new job!! I have been praying for him to get a new job since we started dating (seriously), which was over 10 years ago. He will still be working in government, but in a job much more suited to his talents and abilities. We are so thankful for this opportunity  for him, and I pray he likes it as much as he thinks he will :)

By the way...I FINALLY had time to make a new background!

Happy birthday, Doda!!

Today is my sweet Mom's birthday! I won't post how old she is today because I'm not looking for trouble...  :) At this point in his life, Wesley has almost learned the birthday song, but we're working on it. I practiced with him earlier today and spent a long time explaining the difference between "dear" and "deer." He kept telling me that Doda (his name for Grandma) "is not a deer, she is a girl" and that "Doda does not pull Santa's sleigh." Thank you, Wesley, I was confused. When he sang the song to her on the phone, he sang

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to my Doda, dear Doda  

Happy birthday to you

So happy birthday, DEAR Doda!! You're the best & we love you!!!

CHRISTmas update in photos

We had a wonderful Christmas! I could babble on about it, instead I'll show our day in pictures.

Wesley saw Uncle Scott's iPad and fell in LOVE!

my parent's fireplace and tree

the gift-opening begins

(notice the tongue sticking out? It was a theme of the day)

Pawpaw rocking out on the new guitar

now Wesley takes a turn

"riding" the new scooter in the box

now using it as it was intended

part of a wonderful gift from my parents  (makes me a little teary even looking at it)

Wesley's gift to Doda (looks like my mom, doesn't it? NOT at all!)

Wesley's gift to Pawpaw (words fail me, I have no idea how he picked this out for my Dad except that my Dad likes salt)

I'm sure you are wondering what Damon and I received...Wesley purchased a tiny picture frame for me (about 1" x 2") and Damon received a yellow plastic bracelet with the word "honor" on it

playing with a new train

Katie modeling her christmas wear

the basement Christmas tree on Christmas morning

the train Santa brought Wesley

instead of playing with the train, he sat down to read a book (just like his Momma would do)

Uncle Scott showed Wesley how cool iPhones are

pouting

another new train

showing the train to my cousin's daughter (I LOVE this picture)

the Christmas tree in the family room

our niece's daughter giving Katie a kiss

Wesley having a spot of tea

Katie was able to sleep amid the chaos

Wesley warmed up and started playing with his train

a picture before heading to bed (I cannot believe I didn't get a family picture all day!!)

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 :)