No Ordinary Family

Thank you Kim for the "just because" gift, you always seem to know when I need a pick me up. She has been saving up some goodies for me for a while and I was so happy to get them today! I have had a sore back so I have been not been as active as I like, then Jim decided to give me his head cold. No one can ever say that we are not a family that shares. I can't wait to get these clippies in Little Miss' hair. The frame is super cute and the window clings might have to follow me to work. The flashlight is really neat it comes on when the eletricity goes out so Little Miss can find us in the dark if she ever gets scared in a power outage or just needs some middle of the night cuddle time. Kim you always find such neat stuff. We got our home Study update today so that means that the updated 171H should be on the way. We also got our birth certs and marriage cert. today, wow that was fast! We might be heading out of base camp soon.

So here we go again, adoption paperwork can be the Everest of Paper Work Mountains and we have just began the climb. Instead of Everest maybe I should compare it to climbing Mount Khuzi which according to Wikipedia is the highest peak in Burundi. Yesterday we received our first instruction packet of documents that need to be collected. So basically we stopped at the mountain climbing store and picked up our picks and shovels and high altitude gear to get ready for the journey. Then I wasted no time in getting to the foothills (dragging my dear husband behind), I ordered our birth and marriage certificates and started getting everything organized. I am tempted to start a Book like I have for China (“The Book” for people that know me well) but I think I can live with out it, gasp, shutter, breathe in. In 2 years we have gone from a 3 inch binder filled to the brim to a flash drive and a manila folder. I can carry most of it with me, everywhere , in my pocket! I think the next step is to

Here we are 17 months into what sometimes seems like a never ending wait. It is not a neverending wait one day I will put all of these posts in a books for our Little Miss to look at and know that while her parents are waiting they were still smiling because one day they would have a beautiful little girl to share all of this with.

We got up early this morning and headed for the USCIS office to get our finger prints re-taken. As you may recall some unknown governmental force caused us to have to do this again although we were just there on the September 4th and they collected our biometrics (fingerprints, no bodily fluids yet)right there at that time. We got this letter in the mail with an appointment on it with no clear reason why we had the appointment so we called our agency and they thought it was an error and we should ignore it but to be on the safe side Jim called the number on the notice and he talked to someone who told him that she could not say what happened but they needed to recollect our biometrics. So we figured we don’t want to mess this up so we arranged to be late to work, which was not easy for Jim since he is a substitute teacher. Jim could have easily have lost his subbing job for that day but the school he was working for was kind enough to work around it. We get the office and after having

It is always sad on Sunday nights when I realize that I have to go back to work tomorrow. The weekend always seems so short. We did not do much this weekend. I got a little sewing done and we helped my Mom with her new fish tank. I think she is going to really enjoy it and the kids will to. Sorry no pictures we forgot the camera but I do have some of my sewing. Here is the newest in my clothing creations. I am pretty sure that it will look even better on a little girl, perhaps I will find one to borrow to make sure it is OK. Here is the back. And it is reversible, how clever am I (Ok it was the pattern) but still cool. I also got a couple pillow cases listed and a blanket done! Yay!

It is a slow blog day so I thought I would do a little post. I have decided to make a Christmas wish list. It is a work in progress. I only have 2 things on it so far and they are not really realistic but what the heck. Ok the first thing is of course our little BB but that is a real long shot at this point. I do hope to at least have a referral but I just don't see travel by the end of the year. The next thing on my list is equally as out of the question since they are about $250. I want an iPod, yes I am giving in to the Apple/Mac cult that I have some how avoided by joining the Microsoft cult. but lets face it nothing else has really caught on and since I no longer can listen to sirius at work I am running pathetically low on good music from my pathetic CD collection. Also I want to take some great music on our trip so I am starting my plea for a extra early this year. So Santa Claus if you are a lurker I will take either option or both if you are feeling extra generous. Have a

Trust me it leads to certian DOOM! I was talking on the phone with a co-worker (hi-Renee if you ever look at my blog) when I got a new timer in the mail. I was just messing around with it and told Renee that I was setting the timer for 1 hour 2 minutes and 56 seconds. She knowing that I am a bit crazy just asked why and I said because I can or something equally silly. I started the timer and put it up on the wall. We finished our conversation and I went to a meeting. When I got back from the meeting I completely forgot about the timer. I went back to work until I needed a file and I turned in my chair and banged my knee hard against the desk and simultaneously said a few things I don't normally say at work. Not even a second after that (I was still pounding the desk) that stupid alarm went off. It was a bit spooky and freaking hilarious at the same time. I emailed Renee about it and she called just to laugh at me, gotta love her. The moral of the story don't ever set at

Emily Called me on Friday and asked if we were free on Sunday because they got extra tickets to the game on Sunday. We of course said YES. We have never been to a professional football game and I was not sure what to expect. We had so much fun. I will let the pictures tell the story. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if they would have won.

We have been getting a lot of questions about where we are with our BB adoption. We really don’t have many answers at this point. We are still waiting for a referral which will be a little different than China we will not be assigned a child based on a profile. We will be given the opportunity to review a list of children within our profile and decide on the best fit for our family. For those of you who know the China system, it is similar to the way waiting child program works. We are in almost constant contact with our agency and I am sure they sigh when we call and say “OK whose turn is it to take the daily Huffman call?” It helps to hear it come from them that the program is progressing. There is so much information out there about the China program I don’t feel I need to call them about our China adoption but everything in this adoption is so new. We hope to start the paper chase officially next week, although we already have one important part the psych evaluation done (we

Ok since it has been about 6 months since we lost our beloved reef tank, I decided that it was time for a replacement. Well the truth is that the recue tank was on the kitchen counter and we finally had enough and decided to move it. When we went to the store a 16 gallon bow front was on sale so we went for it. It is not the dream tank that we still want, someday, but it will do and we were able to use all of our old equipment. Jim could not wait and set it up Sunday, but I have been a lazy blogger so here are a few pictures of one of our inverts, an emerald crab that is usually hiding in the rocks. Now that we can see it better I want to start adding to it again. I hope this one does not leak.

A couple weeks ago my Grandma turned 80. We could not all get together then so a small party was planned for yesterday. It was just kids, grands and great grands and it was really nice to see everyone. It is very rare that so many of us get together any more. It was at grandma’s house and my Dad brought a fish and cooked it, Jim made some salads, Aunt Karen and Uncle Denis made sure that the rest of the meal was filled in with yummy food. Emily and I decided that the cake should come from Cake Personality in Prosser if you live in the area I highly recommend them. Not only was the cake delicious it was beautiful. We have used them before, for my 30th birthday and the cake was just as good then. I think Emily will be picking up the cakes from now on, hope she does not mind. eight years old to eighty years old and looking great! "Just over the hill" What does an 80 year old woman want most for her birthday? A Laptop of course. So we all got together to give her money for her la

Represented by my cat.

Referrals came out today and this is how much money I would have saved if I was saving a dollar for everyday they have referred since our LID for Little Miss. There are still 440 days to go in the long wait for Little Miss. The actual number of days that we have been waiting since our LID is 495, sorry they don't make $495 dollar bills to post a picture of.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. I had to work today most people had it off but it is not a holiday for my company and I am trying to save my vacation for a trip later this year. However that trip is looking less and less likely to happen this year as we seem to be waiting longer and longer for a referral. We are now being told it will be a few more weeks, I was really hoping to have something by the big party on Saturday for my Grandma but that is not going to happen. I have fears that this will not work out, just like the domestic adoption that did not happen in July. I know that it is the risk we were willing to take by starting a pilot program but it is harder than I thought. I did get some fabric, yesterday and a new pattern. I am going to work on some more Little Miss Clothes. BB’s clothes will have to wait until we find out if we are going to get a referral of a boy or a girl and how old and what size he/she is. I also have another project that I am working on. So