A day in the life...

LID

2009-04-08T22:45:00.004-05:00

Bad blogger!

I rarely swing by this way as I'm posting some updates on Facebook and adoption forums, but just in case *anyone* peeks here, we have a China LID (Log In Date - more adoption lingo!) of February 25, 2009. That means we are officially on the waiting list for a baby girl in China as of 2-25-09. It's a long, long, LONG wait (5 years? 6 years?), so there will be no news soon...unless the program closes in the the meantime. Ugh. I'm a "plan for the worst, hope for the best" type of person!

In other adoption news, things have also slowed down in Ethiopia. We had hoped to have a baby home within a year from our official wait date (2-18-09), but it looks like it may be December, 2010 before we bring home a child. I can live with that. It's not ideal, but what can you do?

Tad & I have hypothesized (in fear!) about the process slowing down in Ethiopia and speeding up in China so we'd have two young children at the same time! After all we've done to get to this point, we happily accept that possibility. (with a bit of healthy panic!)

DTC!

2009-02-21T00:20:00.001-06:00

More great adoption news!

We're DTC today! For anyone not into adoption acronyms, that means we're "dossier to China." In other words, our dossier was translated and shipped off to officials in China. We should get a LID (log-in date) in the next few weeks, then we simply wait...and wait...and wait...

It's official!

2009-02-18T16:18:00.002-06:00

Today, we are officially on the "waiting" list for a baby girl from Ethiopia. Quite a good day!

Just because I like to see progress...

2009-02-09T21:27:00.002-06:00

...and there has been SO much progres lately!

Ethiopia
11-13-08 Applied to program
11-28-08 Fingerprinted for China process, which we can use for Ethiopia, too!
1-12-09 USCIS received I-600A
2-3-09 Home study approved by placement agency
2-9-09 FedEx'ed final dossier documents to Secretary of State for certification, so we should be done, done, done by late this week or early next week!

China
5-1-08 Applied to program
6-?-08 Home study appointment
10-9-08 Dossier (well, most of it) mailed to placement agency
10-29?-08 Home study finally completed
11-11-08 USCIS received I-800A
11-28-08 Fingerprinted by USCIS
1-23-09 USCIS approved I-800A
1-30-09 FedEx'ed final dossier documents to Chinese Consulate for authentication, so we should be done, done, done around the same time for both countries!!

I'm waiting (impatiently now) for FedEx to deliver two valuable packages to my house!

Updated timeline

2009-01-26T18:37:00.002-06:00

Just for fun:

Ethiopia
11-13-08 Applied to program
11-28-08 Fingerprinted for China process, which we can use for Ethiopia, too!
1-12-09 USCIS received I-600A
Now? Waiting for placement agency to approve home study so we can finish the dossier.

China
5-1-08 Applied to program
6-?-08 Home study appointment
10-9-08 Dossier (well, most of it) mailed to placement agency
10-29?-08 Home study finally completed
11-11-08 USCIS received I-800A
11-28-08 Fingerprinted by USCIS
1-23-09 USCIS approved I-800A
Now? Waiting to receive I-800A approval to finish dossier! We're nearly done...finally.

A not-so-subtle message from the toddler

2009-01-26T18:34:00.001-06:00

Samuel, looking closely at my face: Mommy, you don't look right. Your lips are blank.

This is how I know my makeup needs refreshing!

New photo

2009-01-24T23:58:00.003-06:00

More from our waterpark vacation. Or, as Samuel likes to call it, his "vacation spot!"

A better day

2009-01-24T12:56:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, after I posted the last blog entry, we received an e-mail from our USCIS officer saying she'd approved our I-800A application yesterday afternoon!!! I put a LOT of work into the application process (and everything else that preceeded it), so I was more than relieved. I slept better last night!!

Now on to the next zillion steps. At least there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

Pity Party for Two

2009-01-23T00:10:00.005-06:00

I feel like the universe is telling us to stay away from a Chinese adoption!

This police clearance in the UK is going to make me crazy. Tad tried to get an international bank draft to pay for it in pounds sterling, but there was a delay at the bank, so we STILL don't have it. We created a time map to see how long each remaining step will take. (This, by the way, is what two math-minded people do in their free time!) We're cutting it really close. By that, I mean, some of our documents will start to expire soon and it's possible that if anything else goes wrong, we'll have some real problems on our hands.

For the second time in the last 10 months, we questioned if we should just abandon the process. We'll see. I'll call the UK police today and the results of that conversation may sway our opinions.

I thought I'd upload a picture of the adults in the household, for a change. I like this picture. Samuel took it with the "good" camera! I may look happy in the photo, but it's more like nervous energy as Sam fumbled with my new camera!

Yes we can!

2009-01-21T20:25:00.001-06:00

As an aside, didn't it seem a tiny bit sunnier yesterday, the 20th of January, 2009, than it has in many years?! I'm still smiling!

We've been rejected

2009-01-21T20:11:00.004-06:00

OK, perhaps "rejected" is a bit dramatic, but the USCIS (US Immigration folks) sent us a "Request for Evidence" in relationship to our I-800A application to adopt from China. I lived in London years ago when I was in college and I need a more official statement from the UK police that I have no record of abusing children there.

This is going to take longer than I'm comfortable. Our dossier documents start to expire in March, so I'm a bit concerned.

So, tell me parents of bio kids, how do you fill your free time if it's not spent justifying your ability to parent to the federal and foreign governments? (Yes, this is my bitter, maladjusted side. Occasionally, this all seems more complicated than it needs to be. That's a profound statement coming from someone as regimented and detail-oriented as me.)

I thought I'd toss in a photo of Little Man for a smile. We took a mini-vacation to a waterpark hotel nearly two weeks ago. He loved the water as an infant, decided in recent years that water is not-so-great, and had another 180 degree change this year and now loves the water again. Go figure!

Timelines

2009-01-07T20:44:00.005-06:00

Timelines are a big deal in the adoption world. I think all pre-adoptive parents are curious to know how long it takes to paddle upstream. While we were in process with Samuel's adoption, I kept a detailed list of dates and milestones. For whatever reason, I haven't done that this time. I'm inspired to try to put together some sort of history tonight.

I'll start with the shorter, more encouraging, list:

Ethiopia
11-10-08 Hey, honey! What do you think about adopting from Ethiopia?!
11-13-08 Applied to program
11-28-08 Fingerprinted for China process, which we can use for Ethiopia, too!
Now? Waiting (impatiently) for home study agency to send Hague certificate to placement agency so they'll finally approve our home study AND for them to send us a copy of our home study so we can apply for our I-600A.

Now for the tough one (because it's painfully long):

China
5-1-08 Applied to program
6-?-08 Home study appointment
10-9-08 Dossier (well, most of it) mailed to placement agency
10-29?-08 Home study finally completed
11-11-08 I-800A application logged in at USCIS
11-28-08 Fingerprinted by USCIS
Now? Waiting (yes, impatiently) for home study agency to send home study report and copy of license to placement agency AND waiting for I-767C approval from USCIS.

If everyone would operate on MY timeline, this would work much better. I'm doing a lot of waiting.

No news

2008-12-22T22:26:00.004-06:00

I have no adoption news, but I'm happy to say that I finally finished my Christmas cards. One thing after another came up this year that today, the 22nd of December, was the day that I finished them. Pathetic.

I'm rather certain I won't hear any adoption news until after the holidays. Everyone's attention (including mine) is focused elsewhere.

I had to add a seaon-appropriate photo! After the last post of Halloween photos, I thought I had better unload the new photos from my camera!

Photos

2008-12-17T20:47:00.006-06:00

And, only photos.

Even if they are a few months old. :)

Bump in the road

2008-12-16T09:54:00.004-06:00

Just when I think I'm on the ball and I've done all of the necessary paperwork, something else comes up and makes me realize that I could be filing forms for a while yet!

I got an e-mail from our Ethiopia agency yesterday with a 3-page attachment. "Please answer these questions, sign and date, and forward it to your home study agency for your social worker's signature, thank you very much." I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

I thought I was done with the application process weeks ago. I filled out the application to the Ethiopia agency in mid-November. Once the initial application was approved, I was sent PART 2 of the application. Wasn't I surprised to discover a part 2?! It's important to note that part 2 required a lot of writing in response to a few pages of questions, so it wasn't something we could do without a lot of thought and time. I thought we were done after the second part of the application, then I received the e-mail yesterday afternoon.

I thought everything was in line for our China agency, too, but then I found out last week that they never received our home study from our local social worker. (Are you following this? The Ethiopia agency is different from the China agency, which are different from the local home study ageny where our social worker is. Clear as mud.) That should be settled now, though.

Still on my to-do list? Tad & I are having Ethiopia dossier documents notarized today. We're waiting for the Ethiopia agency to approve our home study, and once they do, we'll file our I-600A with the USCIS (Immigration) and apparently, receive instructions for more dossier documents. Then we'll be done. Well, it's not that straight-forward, but it isn't terrible. I don't really anticipate this being too difficult. It's been easier than Guatemala and China.

For China? We wait. We filed the I-800A with the USCIS in late October (It's a different form than the I-600A we used for Ethiopia because China is a Hague-compliant nation as Ethiopia is not a Hague nation. Again, clear as mud.), we were fingerprinted the day after Thanksgiving (something that finally applies to BOTH countries!), and now we're just waiting for our USCIS approval form (I-767C). Then that and the home study go to the Secretary of State for certification and off to the Chinese embassy for authentication.

Why am I writing all of this? Mostly to keep it straight in my mind!

Sadly, I'm at work so I have no photos of Little Man.

3 more days until my Christmas break begins!!

Blog hopping

2008-12-10T20:51:00.007-06:00

I find myself reading other people's blogs, but never updating my own. I'm particulary crazy about adoption blogs lately. That only makes sense as we're in process in Ethiopia AND China right now.

So, if anyone hasn't' heard from me in a while, it's because I'm ovewhelmed with adoption paperwork. I'd bore you with the details if I thought it would make sense to anyone but me!

For anyone "in the know," we've filed the I-800A for China and are in for a wait. The USCIS (aka Immigration) is backed up for about 3 months. I hope we're though the US side of process by February and can finally send our dossier to China. For reference, we started the China process in May, 2008.

The Ethiopian process is sailing along. We started that process in November. The dossier is practically done. That's record time! We're waiting on modification for our China homestudy so we can use it for the I-600A for Ethiopia. We should hear about that in about a week. I hope to be in line for a referral for Ethiopia around the New Year. :)

Maybe I should start blogging our adoption processes. It may save Tad some stress from hearing me drag on about the bumps in the road!

To end this, I've included a photo of the little man in this post somewhere. :) I just never know where in the post it will show up. I truly need to clean up this blog...in my free time! Maybe when I'm off for the holidays...!

These are a few of my favorite things

2008-05-14T22:03:00.026-05:00

I have no cute stories to share, but I thought I'd post about Samuel's "favorites." I found a collage we had to make for his daycare class more than a year ago, and it was fun to see his favorites from his 2-year-old days. I did a digital collage (no shock!), so it's easy to share!

His list now (3 years, 10 months old) is quite similar.

Samuel still LOVES Cars (with a capital "C"), waterparks, his puppy Matisse, and Mickey Mouse. Thomas has fallen out of favor, and I can't say I'm disappointed. I never cared for that train! Handy Manny and Bob the Builder are lower on the list, too, these days. We're radically cut back on TV time, so most TV shows are off of the "favorites" list.

He loves his shoes! Mickey Crocs and his new alligator Polliwalks are the clear favorites.

Here's a surprising TV show that makes the cut these days. Ni Hao Kai-lan! I like to think that all the talk of China in our house isn't influencing his opinion of the show. :)

I am impressed that Samuel can pick up on Chinese so quickly. I understand when he says something in Spanish (afterall, Diego hit the list of loves at his last birthday). Plus, we both speak a little Spanish and he has books in Spanish. But, Chinese?! I need a class to catch up to him...!

Dinosaurs and dino toys were also a new interest at his last birthday. (and this one is one of his favorites!)

Favorite foods? Only one!

Friends? Absolutely, although I won't post their photos! His "best buddies" (his words, not mine) are undoubtedly Kyan, Tyler, and Colin. Every day when I pick him up from school (daycare), he tells me which of the three were in school that day and what they did. He starts 4K in the fall and none of thse "best buddies" will be in his school. It's a bit heart-breaking. Samuel has told me for months that he wants them at his birthday party this summer, so I have to get on the ball and make the invitations so his buddies can save the date!

Samuel is huge fan of the zoo. We take classes once a month and he loves them. I'm impressed that he knows what mammals are! :)

He loves coins, too. He says he's saving for vacation. :) Last year, we used our spare change for our Disney World vacation, so I see where he gets that idea. This year we're going to San Diego (zoo!!), and he has a nice collection of change already. We don't dare leave money lying around because it will be gone once he spots it.

More another day...maybe in June some time!

Daddy's turn!

2008-03-24T11:05:00.003-05:00

I see that my postings are monthly now. Better than not at all...!

Tad and I took Samuel out to dinner Saturday night. The drink coasters had words all over them, so he "read" his a bit after dinner.

Samuel: (Looking at me) Ask me a question from your card.

Me: How old are you?

Samuel: (showing me the appropriate number of fingers) Three! (Turning to Daddy) Daddy, how old are you?

Daddy: I'm 30. That's a three and a zero. I'm like ten 3-year-olds.

Man, that comment was a gift to me! I'd be a TERRIBLE wife if I let it go unacknowledged!!

How to define "mine"

2008-02-21T01:27:00.003-06:00

Samuel was playing with a small pile of stuffed animals and had some affection for a small stuffed rat.

Me: Did you know that was mine? Daddy gave it to me before you were born.

Samuel: But, now I'm born so it's MINE!

That's how it works at our house.

Things that make me laugh

2008-01-10T09:39:00.000-06:00

Samuel does some of the funniest things (unintentionally, of course), that make me laugh. Even thinking about it makes me smile!

1. To him, "cars" is a two-syllable word. Just try to say it in two syllables; it's not easy!! Caw-awhs...?!

2. He has a puzzle of the US that he loves, but he dislikes South Dakota. He doesn't like "the heads" (Mt. Rushmore) displayed on that piece! He's gone as far as to remove it from the puzzle!

3. Like any kid, he loves dessert, but for the longest time, he called it "bessert." I tried to reinforce the correct pronunciation by saying "d-d-d-d-dessert." He repeated, "d-d-d-d-bessert!" :)

4. Clearly Dora the Explorer has greatly influenced his life. He calls the wipers on the car "swipers." (If this one is lost on you, Google "Swiper the Fox!")

5. His bed is FULL of stuff at night. He now has three pillows (one from his foster mother, the "blue pillow" that we bought at Ikea long ago to replace the one from his foster mom so that one could be preserved [no such luck], and a new fuzzier one that has Lightning McQueen on it), two stuffed animals (the monkey puppet we picked up at a truck stop in Indiana on the way to Disney World, and whatever other animal interests him at the time - usually a giraffe of some sort), and three blankets (the quilt that matches the rest of his room, a used-to-be-soft blue baby blanket he picked out at JCPenney shortly after he came home, and a new Lightning McQueen blanket to match the pillow). He can't sleep in an empty bed.

I'm sure I'll come up with more later!

Samuel, on marriage

2007-12-11T23:54:00.000-06:00

Samuel: I'm getting married soon.

Daddy: Really? What girl are you marrying?

Samuel: Mommy.

:)

Conversation with a 3-year-old

2007-11-28T14:33:00.000-06:00

Very, very neglected blog...

I was inspired by a friend to document a Samuel story. (Thanks Rob!)

Samuel and I have the best conversations on the ride home from daycare. A few weeks ago we had another one of those fabulously random conversation.

Samuel: I was in Guatemala when I was a baby.

Mommy: Yes, you were.

Samuel: I was waiting for you and I was missing you.

My heart broke a little.

A neglected blog is a sad thing...

2007-05-14T00:07:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd upload a few new photos (well, kind of new!)...

I think he's probably calling someone to finish all of the remodeling jobs we have going on in the house! :)

Thanks to Wyatt for the new tools and to Grandma & Grandpa Donny for the Lightning McQueen chair! :)

Easter was a huge hit. He was too young to care last year, but he was REALLY excited about looking for eggs this year. They all contained Cars characters, so I think that was the clincher!

This just never happens, so I had to take a picture! All of the animals get along fine, but they're not *this* cozy! This is Packer and Matisse, by the way. I can't believe Packer will be 11 this year and Matisse will be 7! My babies are getting older! These are our two sickest pets, so it's good that they are doing so well and living so long. Both have a history of liver problems, and both are doing quite well overall. We're obsessive pet parents! :)

The "Jumping Balloons"

2007-03-02T02:17:00.000-06:00

Samuel ADORES this place! He calls it the "Jumping Balloons." :) We're thinking of having his third birthday party here this summer. It's equally fun for adults, which is a real plus! These were taken at an adoption outing in January. You should be able to click them to view them larger.

This blog needs more photos!

2007-01-28T00:50:00.000-06:00

This photo strikes me as funny. How many shovels do you need to move snow? Apparently, three...and one rake!

This one is in honor of Sugar! :) Some kitties curl up cute, some curl up with the remote that I wanted to use! That's Bailey for you!

Short absence

2007-01-17T17:19:00.000-06:00

Wow, I vowed to blog more often once I started again last week, and here I am, SIX days later finally producing a new entry! Sadly, though, I'm not sure that I have much to say! It's been busy week at work as I prepare for the students to return next week. I'm looking forward to it. I'm one of the fortunate ones who really enjoys her job. I got lucky. And, I recognize how lucky I am. No, my boss doesn't read my blog! :)

I couldn't sleep last night, so I did a little scrapbooking. I wanted to do something for New Year's Eve, but it's tough trying to figure out how to entertain a 2-year-old on a very adult holiday. So, we made fondue. I think it turned out rather well! It was a spur-of-the moment decision, so we barely made it to the grocery store for "dippings" before they closed at 9 pm, but it all worked out well. Anyway...there is a point to this...I had to do something with the photos of Samuel that night. I thought they turned out pretty cute! I started a "gallery" at Digishoptalk, a secret addiction of mine. :) So, check out my cutie on New Year's!

Our other kids

2007-01-11T13:55:00.000-06:00

Poor Matisse gets much less attention these days now that we have Samuel. He is so good with Sam. We wondered how he would react to having a child around and he's been great! All of the cats have been amazing, too! I have to admit that I was a bit concerned about Bailey because she can be aggressive, but she tolerates Samuel better than the other two cats at times.

This is one of my favorite photos of the fur babies, although I really need to fix Matisse's eyes! If anyone knows how to do that, I'd love to hear about it!

tadandlisa

This picture is a few years old. It must be because the walls are peach! The first change we made in our house when we moved in was paint the living room walls green.

Speaking of the house, I have plans to do some more work on the kitchen. I've been meaning to order some words for the walls (Yes, words for the walls), but now that they're on sale, I need to do it soon! I'm just waiting for the right words to come to me!

I also need to do some blog updates. I have a few links I'd like to add and the polka dots need to go! Oh well...another day...

An unusual gift

2007-01-10T14:47:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while, life hands you a small gift. Today, we received a gift!

During the summer of 2005, the alley by our house was repaved. I'm happy that it was done, but we were told that we would get the tax bill for it (!!) in 2006. Oh well. We can't argue with the city!

Today, Tad went to pay our regular property tax bill and asked if we had overlooked the additional tax bill for the paving. No, we didn't overlook it. Now here is the gift...the city has no record of needing to bill us for the paving! If this is true, we somehow saved a few thousand dollars. I hate to complain to the city too much, however, I fear that if I assume we won't get billed and spend the money we have set aside, we'll get a bill (with interest!) next year. I'll sit on the money for a few months and see what happens. I'm not too eager to give it away!

If the city doesn't take my money, I can only assume that it's a sign that we need to do this again! The Carnival site is giving me grief, otherwise I'd link directly to the two cruise I've narrowed it down to. It's a choice between Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, and Antigua or Miami, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, and Costa Maya. At first, I leaned toward the first cruise because there are some stops that would be new to us. But, now I'm leaning toward the second cruise. We're always happy to go back to Grand Cayman, where we were married. Plus, I found an orphanage in Roatan, Honduras where we could drop off donations. That really interests me. We have a few months to decide. I only have one week off in August, so our "window" is small!

Here's our little tourist from a mini-vacation in northern Wisconsin this past summer. Grandma loves this picture. :)

tadandlisa

"You're not a person..."

2007-01-09T15:59:00.000-06:00

I blog like I scrapbook...Sporadically. I took a year off from scrapbooking after Samuel came home and apparently I took nearly 6 months off from blogging!

Now, about that title. That's a quote from Samuel. I don't know what we were talking about yesterday, but it was after I picked him up from daycare. He was in his car seat and we were driving to pick up his daddy, so we were chatting about his day. They must have used the word "person" in daycare yesterday because he kept using that word over and over. Usually he just says "peoples." Anyway, at one point he said to me, "Mommy, you're not a person. You're a mommy."

That about sums it up! :)

I "revisited" the photo I scrapped in the previous post and tried again. I like this result better. This is actually for this purse.

My little guy's day

2006-07-30T02:15:00.000-05:00

He's two years old today. Where has the year gone?!

He is just too cute for words.

This was taken on our mini-vacation in June. I adore this picture, but this was only a quick attempt at highlighting it in any way.

He is SUCH a big boy already. It makes me sad that he's no longer a baby (not that we had much "baby time" with him), but it's amazing watching him grow.

Toddler dictionary

2006-07-21T12:05:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to comment on Samuel's vocabulary for a while, but I've been so involved with work this summer that everything but work has suffered (including Tad, Sam, the pets, the house, blogging, etc).

I decided that I really need to start chronically some of the things that Sam does and says. I take a ton of photos, but rarely take any video, so I have none of him talking. I need to change that because he's growing and learning so quickly. I have no idea what his first word was. If you count "uh oh," I'm sure that was it! He used to say that all the time, regardless of how appropriate it was. He'd throw a toy on the floor and say "uh oh!" He started to talk later than the average toddler. I'm sure it has something to do with living in a Spanish-speaking country for 10 months, and a little to do with his shy personality. Either way, I was never concerned. He now chats incessantly!! Tad and I were talking last night about how much his language use has changed in recent weeks. Some things he says make me smile. :)

Here's a brief exerpt from the Samuel-to-English dictionary:

Num-num: Cookie Monster (He's recently abandoned Num-num, which makes me sad! I think Num-num was much more fun and descriptive!)
Baa: Sheep (No surprise here! He abandoned this one recently, too, sadly.)
Grampa: Grandpa OR Grandma! For whatever reason, he rarely says Grandma!
Bonka head: This is Sam's synonym to "Uh-oh." I think it came from us saying something like "Did you fall and bonk your head?" "Bonk your" turned into "Bonka." It's now applied to any situation where something falls, drops, etc. Kinda cute!
(Time out for Samuel's ant crisis...He hates bugs, remember? There was an ant crawling on the floor.)
Avocado: This is my personal favorite these days! What does "Avocado" mean? Helicopter!! This is the one I need to get on video before it goes the way of "Num-num."

I'll have to post photos later. I'm on the laptop downstairs, while the photos are all on the hard drive upstairs.

Until later...

"There are no bugs in your nose."

2006-07-05T01:33:00.000-05:00

I should keep track of all of the strange sentences I've had to say since I became a mother. This one came out of my mouth this past weekend. I know I've mentioned that Samuel is afraid of butterflies, and I may have mentioned that he's not too fond of ladybugs, either. Well, expand that to ALL bugs. The past few weeks have shown us that he is not a fan of nature! (...not to mention that he has nasty allergies)

By the way, I tried to upload photos to this blog recently and have been MOST unsuccessful, by no fault of my own. I lost a few entries as well, so I abandoned this temporarily in frustration. I'll give it a go tonight and we'll see what happens. If all goes well, I'll be back soon! :)

Life is good...

2006-06-07T04:28:00.000-05:00

And that's all that there is to it.

Ugh...

2006-05-31T13:46:00.000-05:00

I have to fix this column formatting issue! I don't know when it happened or how it happened, but somehow the left-hand column "fell" to the bottom of the page. Everything looked OK until some time shortly after my last post. Obviously, the column is too wide, but I'm such an HTML novice that I need to really spend some time investigating the problem before I'll be able to find a solution.

I realize that I'm sadly short of Samuel photos here lately. In fact, I'm sadly short of Samuel photos everywhere! Don't get me wrong, I still take them (daily), but I haven't done anything with them. I need to upload photos to our Webshots album, print photos for the grandmas, send a photo CD to a friend who visited 2 weekends ago (cuuuuute pictures of her little one and Sam!!), send a photo CD of pictures from January (ugh) to Tad's best friend, and finally send a STACK of pictures to Samuel's foster family in Guatemala. If I don't send them soon, I'm going to need a crate to ship them. Oh, I'm forgetting the photos I found this past weekend that I meant to send last year (double ugh) to Sam's sister and her mom in Chicago. I used to be so well-organized. I sent cards BEFORE someone's birthday, bought thoughtful gifts, and replied to messages promptly. I wish I could say that it's parenthood that has changed me, but I'm afraid that's not true. I need a personal assistant. :)

I just glossed over a comment in the paragraph above...Did I ever mention that Samuel has a birth sister in Chicago? And another sister and brother in Atlanta. And yet another 3 siblings in Guatemala. He'll never be an only child! ...not that that's a bad thing. I personally think being an only child is pretty darn great! (note a hint of bias)

Rambling...Refocus...

I don't have Sam photos handy, however, I was just snooping on a friend's blog and she uploaded a photo of Samuel and me that I didn't know she took. It was her daughter's 2nd birthday party. The photo made me smile because it's clear evidence of how incredibly shy Samuel is lately. Anyway, this is me trying to coax Sam to join the other kids. He clung to me or Tad during the entire party. I hope this is a phase and that I haven't somehow turned him into a very anti-social child. :( He wasn't too interested in birthday cake, either. Actually, I'm not too surprised because he rarely gets sweets. I'm such a mean mom!! He's had cake exactly twice - once on his 1st birthday and once on his adoption day this month. (Anyway, I hope you don't mind me linking your blog, Nancy...if you're reading this!!)

OK, I could ramble forever, but I should try to be productive this afternoon. I'm much more focused during the regular school year, but now that it's summer and I'm only teaching summer classes (only? I taught 7 hours yesterday!), I'm a bum.

I won't post again until I (a) have something useful to say, or (b) have photos. Bet on the photos! It's a more probable option!

100 Things about Me

2006-05-24T11:44:00.000-05:00

I'm "playing" online during lunch and found this here dannigirl.typepad.com, so I thought this would be an appropriate mindless thing to do...

1. I love chocolate!
2. I shouldn't eat chocolate!
3. I have a son named Samuel.
4. He's Guatemalan.
5. We suspect he may be of indigenous decent (Mayan).
6. He's almost 2.
7. We've talked about adopting a girl some time in the future.
8. We're interested in adopting from China.
9. Or trying a domestic adoption for another Latino child.
10. I'd like to be able to use some of Samuel's clothing again!
11. Samuel has acquired the name "Sammy" at day care.
12. I don't like it!
13. I'm married to an amazing man.
14. His name is Tad.
15. But, his given name is Thomas.
16. He has no middle name.
17. But he does have a middle initial!
18. I have two middle names. :)
19. One is Ann, the other is my maiden name.
20. We were married on Grand Cayman island.
21. We went back there for our first wedding anniversary.
22. We're not taking a vacation this year.
23. I drive a Grand Prix.
24. My last car was also a Grand Prix.
25. I wouldn't be surprised if my next car is a Grand Prix!
26. We own one and only one car.
27. We donated the other car around Christmas.
28. I teach math.
29. I used to teach French.
30. I love my job.
31. This is the first professional position I've had that doesn't require me to speak French.
32. I'm afraid I'll lose the language.
33. I took 2 years of college Spanish.
34. I can "get by" in Spanish if I have to.
35. I'm a procratinator.
36. I love taking photos.
37. I'd like a newer, better, faster, more spectacular digital camera.
38. I'll consider buying one next year.
39. I like Diane Keaton movies.
40. A former boss of mine told me that I reminded him of Diane Keaton in Annie Hall.
41. I'm afraid he's right!
42. I have 3 cats.
43. I have 1 dog.
44. I think cats are easier to take care of!
45. My dog and one of my cats have both had severe liver problems.
46. All of our pets are healthy now.
47. I live 3 hours from where I grew up.
48. That's close enough!
49. I'm a city girl.
50. I like to be able to walk to a grocery store.
51. I rarely ever walk to the grocery store!
52. I hate snow.
53. I'm always cold.
54. I'm an only child.
55. I love to travel.
56. I lived in London during college.
57. I would like to visit Tahiti.
58. I've been on 5 cruises.
59. They were all Carnival Cruises.
60. I don't have a preference for Carnival.
61. We've met amazingly wonderful people on our cruises.
62. We're lousy long-distance friends, so we lose track of them.
63. My favorite vegetable is broccoli.
64. I hated broccoli as a child.
65. I almost never cook.
66. My husband is a "foody" so he cooks.
67. I think I rebel against domesticity!
68. I like to clean, though.
69. I tend to over-estimate what I can do in any given time period.
70. I'm a perfectionist.
71. The combination of 69 & 70 above make me a bit crazy!
72. I have 6 pictures of Samuel in my office.
73. I have 4 pictures of our pets in my office.
74. I have 3 pictures of my husband in my office.
75. I never bothered to decorate my office.
76. I don't really like to decorate.
77. I have a collection of coins from countries I've visited.
78. We started a collection of "squashed pennies" for Samuel.
79. I believe that there is balance in the world.
80. Fundamentally, I am very philosophical.
81. I over-analyze people and their actions.
82. My ex-husband used to tell me that was because I watched too much Oprah.
83. I never tell people that I have an ex-husband.
84. I'm not proud that I'm divorced.
85. I've been married now for nearly 4 years.
86. I wish we had had a wedding reception.
87. I like social gatherings!
88. I'm a democrat, but I rarely discuss politics.
89. I'm interested in international relations.
90. I value education
91. I graduated high school in 1988.
92. I'm working on a master's degree in mathematics.
93. I really have to get my master's degree because of my job.
94. Eventually, I suppose I'll get a PhD in education.
95. I think I would be crushed if Samuel decides not to go to college.
96. I hope he likes to travel.
97. I'm really thrilled that he loves animals as much as he does.
98. I never knew that being a parent could be so exhausting!
99. I think about Samuel's birth mother and foster mother a lot.
100. I feel extremely fortunate to live the life that I do.

Adoption Day

2006-05-19T00:28:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Samuel's Adoption Day yesterday the 18th (the one-year anniversary of the day he joined our family in the US). I'll post more photos later, but I was playing with this one so I thought I'd upload it. Not so great, but I'm tired! :(

Classic work avoidance

2006-05-17T14:07:00.000-05:00

Tad, check out #83...we just talked about this lyric the other day.

106.5 points. Should I be proud, or embarrassed? Despite the fact that Tad believes I am a product of the 1970's, I do show signs of being influenced by 80's "culture!"

Shocking!

2006-05-11T00:34:00.000-05:00

This is the first real layout I've created since we brought Samuel home (one year ago next week, by the way)! I haven't scrapped in sooooo long that it took me hours. Ugh. Oh well...anyway, I found the kit as a freebie on a designer's site which is kind of funny considering that I actually spend money on scrapping stuff and it's the freebie that I use! :) I'm crazy about orange and Samuel has a ton of orange clothes, so it was perfect. (Credits: Simple Pleasures Kit by Khristy Schmidt, Katie Pertiet's Digital Date Stamp, and 2Peas Simple font) I rarely like the way things turn out and I'm kinda happy with this. :)

OK, now I'm exhausted so I need to sleep! I'll pay for this when I get up for work in 5 or 6 hours!

Samuel the music man

2006-05-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

I've added Sam's favorite song to the blog! :) He loves Shakira, so whenever he hears this song or "La Tortura" he starts to dance (or at least bounce in his car seat)! He'll repeat "No fighting!" when it's said in this song. Yikes...that sure makes it clear that even though he's not quite two years old, he understands an awful lot.

For the record, if I have to opportunity to be reincarnated, I'd like to be Shakira next time! Or, at least have some of her dance skills! Oh well...

I'll add some photos of our yard. These are (well, were) on the new tree Tad planted. Love it!

These are (uhm...were) my tulips. They started to blossom in February! Sadly, they are gone already. So, in other words, our yard is less desirable in May than in April!

Had to share...

2006-05-09T22:48:00.000-05:00

My new favorite photo...

'nuff said!

Our little Easter bunny

2006-04-16T22:08:00.000-05:00

This falls under the category of "Things you can do to your toddler, but not your teenager!"

The yellow dog is compliments of Tad's Uncle Mike.

"I've got ears!!"

Happy Easter!!

I took 108 pictures today...

2006-04-10T19:38:00.000-05:00

Does that mean I'm obsessed?! The weather was quite nice for first time this season, so Samuel tried out his new golf clubs outside.

Where is the rest of my club?!

A face any mommy could love!

Things you've saved

2006-04-02T03:46:00.000-05:00

Robin's Ten Things: Things you've saved

I think I can do this easily...

1. All of the programs from the plays/musicals that I saw while I lived in London (about 20 of them)
2. Every card I've ever received...pathetic, huh?!
3. Coins from every country I've ever visited
4. Reams of scrapbooking paper despite the fact that I haven't paper scrapped in ages (and barely ever did)
5. My grandmothers' photo albums
6. WWII ration stamps that used to belong to my grandfather (who died before I was born)
7. Sand from the beach where we were married (shhh...not quite sure that's legal!)
8. Report cards from elementary school, junior high, and high school
9. Some papers that I wrote in high school (back when I actually had strong writing skills!)
10. Every card or note that I've received from a student (for those days when I forget why I love to teach!)

Museum Photos

2006-03-30T22:27:00.000-06:00

We took Samuel to the museum a few weeks ago and I'm just getting around to sharing his photos today!

He loves water and fountains of any kind...

Did I mention that he's afraid of bugs? That includes butterflies!!

There are sooooo few photos of me and Sam because (1) I always have the camera, and (2) when Tad DOES have the camera, he snaps the photo when I have a dumb look on my face! I have a million of those. Here's the rare exception.

Irritated rant

2006-03-22T15:06:00.000-06:00

Long time, no post! And now, all I have to do is complain!

A synopsis of a conversation I had today with our social worker who has to do three follow-up visits after our adoption (we're trying to set up #2)...

Me: Hi, this is Lisa returning your call.
Her: We really need to set up this meeting. When are you available?
Me: The best time is after 6:00 PM since we both work.
Her: It has to be before 4:00.
Me: OK, well, I have to work around my teaching schedule, and I have no classes Friday afternoon. So, that would work best for me. I'd have to double check to see if my husband is free, though.
Her: It has to be a Monday or Wednesday.
Me: OK...those are my busiest class schedules, so I'll have to call you back tomorrow after I check my work calendar and I talk to my husband.
Her: Well, I won't be in until next week Monday, but we really need to set up this meeting.
Me: (screaming at her in my mind, WELL THEN YOU NEED TO HAVE A MORE FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why start a conversation with "When are you available?" when you're only available 9-4 two days a week?!)

During our entire conversation she had this annoying "sing song-y" tone and sighed a lot. Good Heavens. Is her job REALLY that painful?! We've had the worst luck with local social workers. I love our international agency, but the people we've worked with locally have been less than helpful and more than unpleasant. I really am a very agreeable person, so I'm not sure where the problem lies! It's not as if I've made them deal with Tad...!! :) (who, by the way, reacted much more negatively to my description of the conversation than I did to the actual conversation)

Done ranting...hunting down a recent cutie photo! :) Guess who's afraid of butterflies?! Oh, and ladybugs, too! That's my boy!

Wasting time...

2006-03-12T23:03:00.000-06:00

Borrowing an idea from another blog. I came across this as I was checking out scrapbooking blogs!

The idea is to only search Google Images to find a reference for each of the topics...

MY HOMETOWN (Wausau, WI)

MY NAME (Lisa)

Who knew? LISA stands for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna...image from NASA. :) Kinda cool.

MY GRANDMAS' NAMES (Sadie)

(and Edna)

FAVORITE FOOD (chocolate!)

FAVORITE DRINK (Cherry Coke lately)

FAVORITE SCENT (ocean)

FAVORITE SONG (Jack & Diane...makes me feel 16 again!)

This one cracks me up because (1) it's in German and (2) I looooooooove Diane Keaton! :) I just saw this movie again within the last few weeks...the English version, though! Love the movie.

By the way, the headache seems to be at bay. I don't think I've ever spoken to my doctor this frequently!

That's all for now.

We're in great company

2006-03-09T13:56:00.000-06:00

For a glimpse into a great group full of amazing kids, you'll want to check out Latin American Adoptive Families (LAAF)!

Our family in photos

2006-03-08T22:07:00.000-06:00

Now you know the REAL reason we buy bottled water! :) This is yet another example of the "odd places our cats sleep."

Samuel is, single-handedly, attempting to bring back the drive-in theater! :)

Day 13...

2006-03-07T14:06:00.000-06:00

Today is day 13 of the SAME headache. I've been to the doctor twice and will have been home from work three days by the time this week is over (working from home today). I manage to get some work done in between severe pain, which is why I can type now. There is always a bit of a headache here, but it's at a tolerable level right now. The migraine medication I was prescribed yesterday has done little or nothing and I've already taken the max amount that I can. After living more than 35 years with less than 10 headaches, I would guess, this is bizarre. Bizarre and frustrating. Oh, and annoying. Very very annoying.

18-month photos

2006-03-05T23:19:00.000-06:00

These were taken last month. He was set for Valentine's Day! Actually, he cried through most of it! We brought the cow along as something to entertain him, but it turned out the cow was there to comfort and pose with him!

It's never a good thing...

2006-03-04T02:13:00.000-06:00

...when everyone else is sleeping and I start playing with photo-editing software! I'll be up all night if I don't stop now!

I dusted off the software and broke out the digital photos and tried to remember what all of the buttons on my computer do. What do you know? It all still works!

I love this photo, but I need to do something else with it. I'm just happy that I still know how to open the program. :)

The critters

2006-03-04T01:02:00.000-06:00

The pets have been neglected...they need their time in the sun! First, the normally-photogenic Bailey...

I guess we all have our bad side!

Next, our girly-girl, Packer (with a not-so-girly-girl name!)...

Then, there's our canine representative, Matisse...

And, this is where I realize that I've never scrapped our handsome Mittens! Ooooops!

Oh well, he looks great without adornment!

Scrapped Pages

2006-03-03T23:16:00.000-06:00

I'm in a scrapbooking mood...now that it's nearly midnight and everyone else is a asleep! It's been a long time since I've done anything creative, but I'll see what I can dig up...

Most everything I like is from our visit trip to Guatemala last year, January! We took so many outdoor photos and the colors were so "natural" which is why, I imagine, that I like them!

Because there was an air-traffic controller strike at the ONLY international airport in the country, our flight back to the US was delayed. So, we stayed an extra few days and acted as tourists. We walked from our hotel in Guatemala City to the Botanical Gardens.

We took a side-trip to Lake Atitlan and took the wildest boat ride I've ever experienced! High speeds, an old boat, and some crazy waves.

We also visited Antigua, Guatemala. I've been thinking about going back ever since we left! We tried to include a stop in Antigua when we returned to Guatemala to pick up Samuel, but we had to travel at the spur of the moment. We'll take him back with us some day! The city is incredibly gorgeous. It's a Unesco World Heritage Center (see how I've mastered this hyperlinking?! :) ) and it's in the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" which I got for a Christmas gift (thanks Charlene!). I guess that means there are only 999 places left on the list of sites to see! OK, we may have seen a few others, but we still have a ways to go.

Anyway, it just happened that we were in Antigua at this church, La Merced, on the day of first communion. We went through the city so quickly (a guided tour) that I was only able to snap a few quick shots. This photo took more manipulating than anything I've ever done and I love it for that reason alone! :) Actually, I love the color of the church and the fact that we were able to witness such a "natural" event...not touristy at all. Gosh, we have to go back!!

The last Guatemala photo here isn't "scrapped" at all, but instead, a bit of "photo trickery" that took me some time to master. A merchant dressed me in traditional indigenous clothing and I wanted to highlight the colors. Each region has it's own "pattern" (I'm sure there's a better word than that, but I can't come up with it now!) and colors. The shawl over my arm and the cloth on my head, I think, are called tzutes. The one on my arm is in Samuel's closet. The designs on it have meaning; the birds symbolize the national bird, the Quetzal, and I know there are also small coffee beans woven in.

By the way, I think the city we were in here was San Antonio Aguas Calientes, just outside Antigua. I found a great site about Guatemalan textiles that references this city.

OK, I'm done reminiscing for tonight!

Html queen! :)

2006-03-03T12:18:00.000-06:00

Our online photo album

I've been meaning to try to do that cool little link thing for a while now, and I think I've finally got it!

Water park weekend

2006-02-28T22:33:00.000-06:00

We had a great weekend at the indoor water park! Too bad that Samuel had a nasty cold (and still does), but also passed it on to me. Sore throat, aching, coughing...I even missed work! Anyway, enough whining and on to the photos from our weekend!

Here's one of the waterslides that starts outside the building. This was the view from our hotel room. Obviously, because we had Sam, we didn't go on anything this extreme!
Here are a few of our water baby inside the park. Oh, and this "thing" dumped 700 gallons of water about every 5 minutes. The crowds rushed to stand under it as the water fell!
There's also a "dry play area" at the resort, so we hung out there for a while as well.
We took some photos on a disposable camera as well, so I'm curious to see how those turned out. I don't anticipate great things, but we'll see! We're already talking about going back to one of these water parks in summer when we can visit the outdoor pools. We'll have to see how busy we are. Summer always goes by too fast! To complicate things, I'm teaching 7 classes this summer and returning to grad school to work toward finishing my graduate degree. So, in our free time... :)

An oldie, but a goodie

2006-02-24T22:49:00.000-06:00

This is hanging in our hallway. It's always been a favorite of mine. I took the photos when we were in Guatemala the first time (to meet Samuel) in early January of last year. It's hard to believe this was more than a year ago!

Photos

2006-02-23T00:37:00.000-06:00

This just struck me...

I was looking through my collection of digital photos of Samuel to send to a friend (who, incidentally, has a daughter from Guatemala) and I realized I've taken about 5,000 pictures of him. He hasn't been home a year yet. The cats are simply happy that I've focused my attention...or should I say, my lens...elsewhere!

Yup, we have snow. :(

TiVo has taken over

2006-02-22T23:34:00.000-06:00

TiVo has taken over our television! This is the strangest thing. I try to change the channel, and I'm told that something is uploading (or transferring, or whatever...), and all will be lost if I change the channel! Hmmm...I can no longer watch the channel that I want to watch! This is some technology, huh?

The TiVo, by the way, was Tad's Valentine gift from me! He mentioned a few times that it interested him. He's not a big fan of television, so I was kind of surprised that he was interested in this. I didn't think we'd get any use out of it, but I have to admit that it's been fun! We laugh at what TiVo thinks we want to see. Somehow, it got the idea we were sports fans, but I think it's becoming wiser as time goes on. :) Now I fear that someone will visit, turn on the television and discover my collection of Dr. Phil episodes. So much for being a closet fan!

I took some cute pictures of Bailey tonight as she crawled into our picnic basket (those who are not cat people won't appreciate that at all - a cat where the food belongs!). At first, she was sitting on top of a crate intended for Samuel's outdoor toys, but I was afraid she'd tip the basket over, so I moved her to the floor. If you look very closely at the photo on the right, you'll see Mittens spying in the background! I could post a series of "strange places our cats sit" photos. I already have some photos in mind for the second installment!

OK, I need sleep! We have a mini-vacation planned for this weekend. It's very kid-oriented complete with indoor waterpark, so I need to rest in advance! http://dells.greatwolflodge.com/amenities.aspx ...gotta figure out that hyperlinking so that looks cleaner!

Quote

2006-02-22T12:03:00.000-06:00

It occurred to me that it's nearly impossible to read the quote on the page that I just posted. Here it is:

I didn't give you the gift of life, but in my heart I know
The love I have is as deep and real as if it had been so
For us to have each other is like a dream come true
No, I didn't give you the gift of life...
Life gave me the gift of you!

I'm sure I "scraplifted" that from somewhere, but it's been a year, so I have no idea where I found it. Actually, I just Googled it and found it here: http://www.adoptionpoetry.com/poems/the-gift-of-you.html

This makes me realize I need to learn HTML so that whole link doesn't have to show as it does! I'll add HTML lessons to my "to do" list!

Back to work!

2nd shot at this

2006-02-22T01:28:00.000-06:00

Hey! I got back into the blog! You may think that that would be an easy task, but trying it at nearly 1:30 AM after working 12 hours is a real chore! But, I'm here and still don't quite know what to do with this. I think my parents need a computer so I can justify posting a string of grandson photos!

Speaking of grandson photos, we just got his 18-month photos back from JCPenney. They looked better on the tiny computer monitor at the store! They're not bad, but Samuel decided that he didn't want to stand when the photographer asked him to stand, so he cried throughout most of the session. So, in the actual prints, his eyes are all read and puffy! Oh well. We have 12-month photos and Christmas family photos, so I think we have enough pictures. To say nothing of the thousands I've taken! (yes...thousands!)

I've been trying to bring some photos to work because my office is painfully stark. I haven't made any scrapbook pages in ages, but I do have one up at work that I love. It's our first family photo. If all goes well, it will show up along with this post. ...no promises! If I were organized and doing this right, I would be able to credit whomever created the digital kit I used, but I'm not that organized! Most people don't know what I'm talking about when I mention digital scrapbooking anyway, so talking about digital kits has even less meaning!

Anyway...we'll call it a day!

Testing testing...

2006-02-18T18:42:00.000-06:00

This is a test to see if I have everything working correctly here. And, why not start with a photo of Samuel?!