Cross your fingers!

The hope is that I might get to meet our little Becky in January! That would be the first trip to Uzbekistan where I get to meet the MOE and GTO officials. But, more importantly, I get to meet Becky herself! The trip should be about a week long, but there's nothing definite yet. It's a good thing I've got two major holidays between now-and-then to keep me distracted. It will be a great way to fill those post-Christmas ho-hum months!

We have a MATCH!!!!

Hooray!

We have our official referral and she's a "keeper". Given the nature of Uzbek adoptions, I can not share too many details about her yet. Once she's officially, permanently ours, then I'll be posting pictures and all of the details.

I can say that she's 100% adorable and actually looks amazingly like our sons at the same age. She's a little older than our originally requested age, but that is not deterring us in the slightest. February or March is probably the targeted time frame to bring her home. However, timing is always subject to extreme changes.

When Sean and Matthew first saw her picture, they had only one comment - "that looks like a boy, Mommy." Our little Becky definitely has the orphanage/Marine buzz cut, but with some imagination I can picture pigtails.

Jonathan has been traveling everywhere with his little photo album of Becky pictures. His speech therapist, the "cheese lady" at Walmart and our regular Walmart cashier have all been shown each and every picture by Jonathan.

We are getting more confident that Becky will be our daughter one day, but I still keep throwing some "if's" and "probably's" in there for the boys. I don't want the disappointment to be too great if things fall apart at the last minute.

"Becky" - explained

A very careful reader has noted that I used the name "Becky" for our daughter in a previous poast. Each of our children has had a "working name" prior to their birth. "George", "Charlie", "Dewey" (<- for 'do we' want a thir) and finally "Becky". Becky's name comes from her birth home of UzBEKIstan. Ooze and Stan just weren't flattering girls names. Becky's given name and potential adoptive names do not even resemble "Becky" or "Ooze" or "Stan" for that matter.

On a completely different note, I happened to check in to see who has been reading my blog today. Turns out someone from the AquaDots distribution company actually found my blog through a google search. Hmmmmm....

Aqua Dots

I'm not sure when my son first laid eyes on it, but it must have been over a year ago. It was the AquaDots infomercial/commercial that came on at nearly every commercial break. In his own little preschool way, he tried to explain this toy that only required water? Finally he dragged me into the living room one day just to catch the end of the commercial with the infamous "and for just $19.95 ***insert hushed voice**** plus $6.95 shipping and handling" we too could have our own personal AquaDots.

First, let me explain that I NEVER purchase (ok, wait...other than those shake-up flashlights)/ ALMOST never purchase anything from a TV ad. Well, Matthew begged and begged and begged. He bargained, he whined, he tried every 4-year-old...then 5-year-old trick in the book. About two weeks ago, I finally relented. His kindergarten teacher said he needed to work on fine motor skills and I needed incentive for the kids to help me clean the house. I purchased AquaDots at the local Walmart (woohoo... no shipping or handling!).

Poor Matthew assembled his creation, but mean-mommy wouldn't let him spray his artwork. Seems he missed the point that the dots have to be "touching" for adhesion to occur. We were going to fix this and modify his masterpiece as soon as we found a couple of quiet moments without a two-year-old sibling helping.

I even remember thinking... now this is a cool toy. I don't have to worry about my 2-year-old choking on them. They're so small, they'd just pass right through. Not so fast! Never considered they'd hide a date rape drug in a kids toy!?! Ugh.

How do I explain to a 5-year-old who waited over a year for his flipping dots that they could kill him??? Let me just quote from the box, "Conforms to product safety standards.." uh..yeah... I'm sure rat poison has to pass some sort of safety standard too?

Maybe coal would be the safest gift for my kids this Christmas. As long as they don't burn it and inhale the fumes?

Glass is Half Full Today

Since Jonathan was in Mothers-Day-Out on Tuesday, I decided to do a little shopping on my way home from the dentist. I stopped at Tuesday Morning and purchased several gift items for the folks that we will meet along the way in Uzbekistan. More importantly, I started to plan ahead for the trip. I got a great deal on a raincoat/windbreaker with hood that will be perfect for snowy/rainy weather. Still need to do some more research on what weather to expect, but since I didn't know when I'll be traveling....

My favorite purchase was this little guy! He is just the softest little animal you've ever felt. I'm hoping to leave him with "Becky" between our first and final trip, but I'm not sure what the orphanage policies will be. He's filled with little plastic pellets, so he has a real squishy, cuddly feel to him. I also have it on fairly good authority from a dear friend's 1 year old daughter, that little girls really like ducks!

The best news... we were able to send a hug via another About a Child mom to our potential little referral. We know her name, but can't share it yet. She also has light brown hair and light colored eyes, possibly blue. The wait for a picture of her chubby little cheeks is almost too much!

Houston... we have a problem

Thankfully it's with our internet connection, not the adoption! With my "personal network manager/computer system architect" on the other side of the planet, I was bound to encounter troubles of a technical nature. My interpretation of our home network and DSL service is that it resembles a delicate house of cards. Saturday, I innocently unplugged and reconnected a power strip. Not a good idea. Long story short as possible... my DSL modem does not want to reconnect to the internet and can't get an IP address. <- Wow, that actually sounded like I knew what I was talking about, HA! I've temporarily got everything working, but I'm about to start disconnecting and troubleshooting again.

If someone needs to get in touch, please call me!!! It could be another day or two until I get this problem completely fixed. Ugh. I want to go back to tin cans with a string between them. I'm just going to need to find some REALLY long string.