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!

Speed Bump

Our road to Uzbekistan has developed a nasty speed bump or would it be considered a pothole? It seems that there is a political change occurring that has added a lot of uncertainty to our adoption. This is not a national issue, just one affecting the specific area from which we were adopting.

I honestly don't know what it means for us yet. But, somehow I don't think it's going to be good.

Nichole - It's your fault! :)

Every time Mike and I debated a baby girl's name during pregnancy, we always ended up with the same middle name.... Nic(h)ole. So, we decided to give our new little girl this same middle name. Now the problem of spelling came up. Mike thought it was going to be spelled "Nicole" and I declared that we had always spelled it "Nichole". I stuck by my decision and said that Nicole just didn't look right, it was supposed to have an 'H' in it.

Then... I had to eat my words. I looked back at our e-mails from our last child naming discussions when I was pregnant with Jonathan. It turns out I had always spelled it 'Nicole' too. So, it's all NICHOLE's fault! :) She is another Uzbek PAP who I've corresponded and chatted with over the past eleven months. She spells her name with an 'H'.

So, (I'm sorry Nichole) after considering the fact that my husband will be spelling our daughter's name wrong for the remainder of her lifetime, we have decided to change the spelling back to "Nicole". It still does not quite look right to me, but it's better than having to correct my husband's spelling for the rest of eternity.

Besides, we already added an extra letter to her first name. The poor child might be in fifth grade before she learns how to write her full name. Sorry, but I can't share her first name publicly yet....

It's TWINS!?!?!

While they will not have grown together in my womb; instead they will grow together in my heart and in our family.

We received more concrete information from our adoption agency about our future little girl. It turns out that the estimate on her age was wrong... half a year wrong.

When we started the adoption process we wholeheartedly agreed that our goal was to adopt a younger sister for our sons. That meant keeping a nine month spacing at the very least between our youngest son and our new addition. Even as we read our online education requirements including sections on "artificial twinning" we, again, wholeheartedly agreed it was something we did not want to do.

But, when you find out that the little girl you've been dreaming of for several months is actually a virtual twin (less than 1.5 months difference) to your youngest son... what do you do? For some reason I'd always pictured myself having twins someday. I always thought it would be a surprise at an ultrasound appointment or something. Never expected it to come in the form of a phone call.

Guess Who!

The moral of this story is photograph children BEFORE they are tired and ready to go home. Does anyone recognize the handsome little man on the left? Avid Uzbek blog readers might recognize the famous Cole of Uzbek adoption fame. The boys and I had lunch with Julia and her new son, Cole. I had delusions of discussing the finer inner workings of travel to Uzbekistan, bonding with your new child and conquering the language barrier. Instead, we took turns running back and forth to the buffet line, restrooms and napkin dispenser! Such is the life of moms.

I must say that Cole is a handsome young gentleman. He loves his mommy a LOT and his smile is even more infectious in person. My glass was once again half full after meeting in person a family created by an adoption from Uzbekistan!

Adoption Updates - not much to report

I was just reading the comments that everyone posted to my most recent posts and realized I never even touched on actual "adoption news". There really isn't a lot to report. Our agency is still hopeful that I may travel in February (January is no longer an option), but nothing is concrete yet. There are a few adoptions in line in front of ours and those take priority. Other than taking care of the boys, I've started filling the days with planning for travel and learning Russian. Both subjects are worthy of their own post, so I'll save the details for another day!