Looking To the Future

I was cleaning out old boxes of teaching materials yesterday, deciding what to put into storage and what to toss, and found myself taking certain items, including blocks, CDs, books and a Little People farm, and setting them aside in what will, in the murky, distant future, be a nursery.  I can honestly say I have never done anything like that before—I refuse to let anyone buy us baby toys, and do not even go near those sections of the store or mall—one nervous breakdown in the baby aisle was enough, thankyouverymuch.   It was a new experience, this assumption that someday a little one will be playing with those toys, and felt pretty darned good.  So nothing new to report here, just feeling somehow hopeful for the future.  Must be that impending fingerprinting appointment next Tuesday.

One funny kiddo conversation overheard on my walk in today (I work upstairs from an elementary school):

Keep in mind, it’s actually sunny in Seattle today

Child:  The sky sure is blue!  Mom, why is the sky blue?

Mom:  Because it’s not raining. 

The mother and I looked at each other and started laughing, because that is the most Pacific Northwest-y response of all time.    Since I don't really get the whole physics behind sky color thang (wavelengths of light in the atmosphere, or some other scientific smarty-pants hoo ha), I've decided that this is the best response ever, should my future child ever ask me this question.

Happy Friday!

Haiku Saturday

In honor of this beautiful, sunny (aaaaggghhh!  My eyes!!  My eyes!!)  Saturday, I will present four original haikus, one for each of our lovely animals:

An Ode to Delilah

Big boned, Rubenesque

Beautiful feline princess

Hissing at the dog

An Ode to Goose

Yes, you are way cool

Bad a** indeed, even if

You sound like Mike Tyson

An Ode to Maggie

I protect the house

As long as it’s not attacked

By the vacuum cleaner

An Ode to Tripper

I love you, human

And will sit on your keyboard

To show you how much

Dinner and a movie?

Nope, not that kind of date!!  We finally, finally, finally have our fingerprinting date!  March 1 at 10:00AM we will finally, finally, finally get to meet with USCIS officials, have our fingerprints done, and hopefully make it onto The List asap.  Two weeks...two weeks...two weeks....

Well, that was....helpful

This morning we were on the horn pronto to find out more about our fingerprinting appointment.  The person who answered the adoption line confirmed that our documents have been received.   I asked if we could expect a fingerprinting appointment soon, and she responded, "Hopefully!".  Hmmmm...not what I was necessarily expecting, but I guess expectations exist to be revised, or something like that. 
So I decided today (and I mean today, I make no guarantees about tomorrow) that this is an exercise in learning to be patient, which is absolutely not my strong point. Time to eat my yearly share of candy hearts, kiss on the hubbie, cats and dog, and send love into the universe.  Happy Valentine's Day!

So now we are super, duper sure

That our paperwork is in the right hands.  Our third, identical letter stating that our documents have been received arrived today.  Super, duper glad they made it safely, as these are some seriously difficult documents to get again.  And, a fingerprinting date would be really, really nice.  Sooo, Monday will be ringy-dingy time to the powers that be.  Argh. 
On the plus side, we installed new laminate flooring (I couldn't bear the thought of a baby crawling on our old carpet--blech!) and it looks faaaabulous.  Once Maggie gets used to slipping and sliding, we will all be good.
Happy Saturday!

Selaam!! (Hello!)

Selaam!!

Since we are working toward an adoption of a child 0-24 months, and could well bring a child home who is over 2 years old (after all of our travel), we have decided that learning some basic Amharic is in everyone’s best interest.  While our child’s birth family may not speak Amharic (many kiddos come speaking Sidama), they will likely have picked some up at the orphanage--and we cannot find a Sidama course anywhere!  In addition, Amharic is generally used in legal matters in Ethiopia, so it’s high time we got some basic phrases down.  Online courses are pretty amazing these days, so we are attempting a free, online basic Amharic course.  First order of business:  Learning to count to ten J

1 – Ande ( an- as in ant and de- as in detuches )
2 – Hu-let
3- sost
4- Arat
5 – Amist
6 – sidist
7- sebat
8- semint
9- zet’agne *
10- Asir

So we got this letter in the mail...

from the State Department, and what did it say?  Ummm, that they received  our documents.  They cashed our check, so that was mighty obvious, but I guess it's a step in the right direction.  We got all excited about a fingerprinting date, but that must be the next item they will send us, right?

Aaaaand, Done!!!

Our dossier, which is a huge, enormous packet of personal info, is done, done, done.  Once our fingerprinting is complete and we are approved by Homeland Security to bring a child to the US, our dossier will be sent to Washington DC, translated to Amharic, and then sent to Ethiopia.  So at this point, we have no more paperwork due…which, believe me, is quite exciting.  I don’t quite know what we are going to do with ourselves. 

And Homeland Security cashed our check, so something is happening there as well!  Come on, fingerprinting date!