On his way home!

I received word from Mike this morning that he was back in the United States. Unfortunately he's still traveling from the East Coast to the midwest, but he is SO VERY close to home. In some ways it seems like just last week we had a very tearful goodbye at the airport, and in others like it was ages ago. In reality, IT was September 16, 2007. Today IS April 22, 2008... you can do the math. The boys and I are just very glad he's "on his way home!"

An Anniversary...

This is no April Fools'... Today is the one year anniversary of when we began our "Road to Uzbekistan" by initiating the adoption with our agency. Honestly, I never thought I'd still be blogging about waiting and paperwork on the one year anniversary. My dream was that I'd be sharing pictures of our four kids playing together and posting stories of our everyday lives. Not yet... Just because a dream is delayed, it does not mean it won't happen. We just need to be patient.

As far as we know, our dossier is still with the MOE and waiting for its final approval.

Dossier - Status Check

On an earlier post from February, I said that hopefully our dossier was safely in the hands of the Ministry of Education (MOE). Well, it wasn't yet. But, now it is. It made it there nearly a week ago.

So, what happens now? We wait. I must say we are getting a lot of practice with that one. The MOE timeline can be a bit variable, plus our travel must be arranged around the other families from AAC (About a Child) who are also reaching that point in their adoptions. So, my travel dates are still at least month or two out at best.

Pack your mittens!

We're heading for the mountains... or at least the east side of them. It seems that Colorado is where my husband's future job lies. This is the Air Force we're talking about though, so until we're standing amongst stacks of moving boxes, it is all subject to change.

I've spent the past several weeks trying to make it look like three children and a dog never set foot in our house. For those of you who don't have kids, you need to prepare yourself for the scratches, dents and other bruises your house and furniture will take on when you bring your kid(s) home. For example, there is the closet door that had a door stopper installed on the top hinge. That's fine for adults who know to stop pushing when they feel resistance. When you couple that door stopper with a two year old and hollow door... let's just say I've got the start of swiss cheese going on.

Then there is the kitchen cabinet door. At dinner time last night, my youngest was either having a "two year old moment" or was simply clumsy... I'm honestly not sure which. He opened the kitchen cabinet door as far as it would go, and then leaned/fell on it. I could just hear the splintering wood as the door gave way the only way it could. One more thing on my to-do-list!

I could go on and on.... the list keeps growing by the moment. And then, while I'm busy working on sprucing up the inside of the house, the weather has the audacity to think it's spring time. The weeds are starting to poke their way up in some very unfortunate locations in our yard. More work to do!

One last note, for anyone who hasn't heard of Old English Scratch Cover... you need to look into it. I wonder if I can special order it in a gallon size.

Skip the globe

Pull out a U.S. map! I think we're staying on U.S. soil. The list has narrowed slightly... the most likely candidates right now are (in no particular order):

Nebraska, Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, Louisiana and Hawaii

If we stay in Texas, then our adoption/readoption paperwork won't become the disaster I was anticipating! That would be good news. It would still be a different military base hours away, but it would be the simplest of all possibilities.

DISCLAIMER: This is still the military we're talking about. The information won't be finalized or released until March and even then... last minute spontaneous changes are possible.

Speaking of March, the newest estimate for my first trip to Uzbekistan is now March.

Sound familiar?

So, you've decided to wander down a particular path in life. You realize there are twists and turns, but for the most part you are pretty sure of the destination. As you continue your travels, there is a mention of twist ahead. You talk to some other people on the same path, but it seems everyone is in agreement that while the "twist" could be exciting and different it's just not going to happen.

You continue on.... a little further down the road, someone tells you that "NO! There is INDEED a twist in the road." They don't know what it is or where it leads, but word on the street is that you'll know on Monday. After an anxiety, curiousity-filled weekend, Monday arrives. Nothing. So, you start asking all of those people that said "Monday!", and now they say.... maybe next week... maybe March!?!

So, you're wondering... is this our dossier? Is this related to our referral? Nope. Guess again... sounds like international adoption right????

This is whether or not the military will be restationing us this summer! I was skeptical that it was going to happen until this past Friday. Now, I'm fairly confident it will happen, but I have NO idea where we will be going. It turns out that my husband's selected preferences might not even enter into the equation. Take your nearest globe, close your eyes, poke it with a pen... your guess is as good as mine.

What I wouldn't give for ONE definite in my life... oh wait. I've got one. The spoonful of vanilla frosting that I just ate is SURE to add five pounds to my thighs by morning. Ugh.

Answering a couple of questions

There is still no new information on the "pothole" I mentioned earlier. We just have to continue to wait that one out. With any luck though, our dossier is now safe in the hands of the MOE. A ray of hope!

I've had a couple of people ask me how we suddenly ended up with our "twins" and a six month age difference. Our agency has been great about passing along all of the information they receive. Unfortunately, that also means that we receive information that hasn't been fully documented yet. To see our (hopefully) little girl, you would never even expect that she was the younger age given. She's a little peanut. So, the "rumor on the street" was that she was just about to turn two. When the official paperwork was received and reviewed, it turned out that her birthdate was actually six months earlier than estimated.

Here I'll let you judge for yourself... How old does this question mark look? :) We got new updated photographs a couple of weeks ago. She's definitely getting good care at the orphanage and looks like she's getting healthier and bigger(!) in every picture. I can't wait to be able to share the photos publicly!