Final Post - probably...

Hello everyone. I am sorry for the months of silence, but I felt that any future blogging about our family must be done in a more private manner. I've created a new blog that is accessible by invitation only. For friends (personal and online) and family, please e-mail me and I will send you an invitation to the new blog. I've created a new e-mail account at uzbekblog@gmail.com for this purpose. If you have my current private e-mail address, please continue to use that for all normal correspondence.

Perhaps in the coming months I will post some additional general thoughts on adoption from Uzbekistan, but the details of our family's life will remain on the private blog...

To everyone who has stumbled across my blog while researching international adoption, I wish you the best of luck in growing your family through adoption. It is a wonderful and generous way to build your family!

To the anonymous regular readers of my blog, I apologize for going 'private'... Please just know that I'm fairly certain that our life story will have a happy ending!

And here I arrive at the end of my "Road".... Happy Holidays and Best Wishes!!!!

Home is where the heart is!

A huge apology to everyone that I owe e-mail, phone calls, etc. to. But as you can see... we're on the "move". Everything is going well so far, but I've got to admit that I can't wait to be settled in at our new home. I promise to be better about blog updates, e-mail, etc... but it's going to take some time!!!

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.