Thursday, November 30, 2006

2 More Sleeps, 3 More Sleeps

We officially have 2 more nights before we leave for Miami and 3 nights until we arrive in Haiti to see our kids! This will be the first trip to Haiti for Curt....he has also only seen our kids in pictures. He is so wired he cannot stand himself....I am so wired I cannot stand myself. :-) Do biological children cause this much adrenaline??? When you go to have a planned C-section do you feel all tingly inside knowing that soon you will be holding your child???
Airline tickets are made, hotels are reserved, shopping will be done tomorrow....all I have left is cleaning the house, packing and running around like a chicken with my head cut off from the craziness!
I will write more after we return home and tell everyone about our trip and post new pic's of the kids in Haiti AND HOME!!!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

BIG FREAK OUT!!!!!

I got an email today stating that our Birth Parent interview has been scheduled for Dec. 4th at 11am. In that same email I got a request to appear before INS to sign papers as well. WHAT? You do that afterwards...I mean hey, I do these adoptions for a living (meager one at that) and I should know how things work right?! Anyway, with USCIS being the governmental agency that they are, they have decided to change the rules on us and Curtis and I must appear before them Monday December 4th 11am to sign the Immigration forms requested in order for our birth parents to meet INS. SO, Curtis and I are leaving for on SATURDAY!!!
Our flights look something like this:

United Airlines Boise to Miami Sat. Dec. 2nd
American Airlines Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti Sunday Dec. 3rd

Birth parent interview Monday Dec. 4th

Leave Port-au-Prince Friday Dec. 8th for Miami
Leave Miami Saturday Dec. 9th and arrive in Boise!!

Our kiddos will be home for Christmas!!!

Monday, November 27, 2006

Macey's Home

I am happy to report that my Macey kittie is home from the vet.
They said it appears that she has some infection possibly in her bladder. Of course, they told me to begin with that she didn't and that she had a fatty liver, feline anorexia (WHAT?? my cat is a supermodel! hehe)

Anyway, she is home now and seems to be feeling ok. Of course, the bill was a wonderful $318...YIKES! I am luckily going to be making payments. I told them that as much as I love her, they were either going to have to take payments or keep the cat as collateral..I think Curtis would have preferred they kept her!:-P

When I was at the vet they told me that Macey was so loving and sweet. She was a dream to work with. This is good considering when I went to pick up Skittles from them they told me she was mean and quite possibly the cat version of Cujo..hehe I told them it was nice that I had a good cat since they weren't to fond of my other one. When they wanted to know who my other cat was and I said "skittles" the two vet techs shook their heads and said they remembered her. hehehe

Well, off to feed Neurotic Norman, Cujo Skittle and Sweet Macey!

Friday, November 24, 2006

Ah, Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful time and meal at my parents house. Attending were my brother Eric, his wife Lyndsay, his kids Addisyn and Ariya. My Granny and Papa, and my parents and us of course. ;-P

Every year my parents make a gluten free holiday meal with turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, and all the fixin's. This is something I wait for all year...gluten free Thanksgiving dinner. If I had nothing else to be thankful for, that would be enough.
Gluten free is free of all wheat, rye, oats, barley, malt etc. and anything that came in contact with those things to cause contamination. If I eat them I become extremely ill and it causes damage to the intestines. The fact that they take on this feat is something else...but at least I get a regular thanksgiving meal!!! ;-)

Anywhoo...I was SUPPOSED to go shopping at 4:15am today. WELL, we got home from Curt's parents house at 12:30am and by the time we got the kids in bed and ourselves in bed it was 1 am. Now, 2.5 hours is better than nothing, so I set my alarm and tried to rest. A little later my little Skittles kittie climbed up on me and purred...I pettted her and reached up to look at my alarm clock....5:15 am.....WHAT??? I had missed my alarm, or it never went off (more my idea becuase it wasn't blinking like I snoozed it 500 times). I felt so bad because Tracey was not going to go but we decieded to because there was a couple of gifts I wanted for the kids there....so she sat outside my house for 1/2 an hour waiting for me to come out...I slept. I called her this morning and apologized. She had some satisfaciton that after I woke up at 5:15 I was unable to go back to sleep due to GUILT! ;-P

Curt and I went to Boise with the kids while I bought a few things for my mom to give the kids since she wasn't going to be here for the shopping day. Toys R Us was a NIGHTMARE! We ordered what I wanted to get the kids from Ebay and saved A LOT of money. It was amazing that God gave me that llittle bit of oversleeping to save us some money huh? At least, that is my story and I am sticking to it!!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Passports

As of today we have Kai AND Nikaya's passports in hand in Haiti!!! I have contacted the US Embassy to let them know that we will have our papers to them soon, they said they would do them as quickly as possible as soon as birth parent interviews are completed. Now, off to make Birth parent interviews with USCIS (Immigration)!!! It is actually going to happen, our kids could really be home by CHRISTMAS!!!

GOD IS GOOD!!!!!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Dinner Out and Sleepovers...

Well, last night was a wonderful night out with family.
Curt's Aunt Peggy and Uncle Don took us to dinner for chinese food....yummy! A good meal, especially when you have leftovers! ;-P
Thank you so much for the great meal and wonderful conversation, we love you guys so much!

Demi Roo had a princess sleepover with the neighbor girls... a lot of fun there. She came home about noon today tired, but happy after all the fun. Hunter had a sleepover here with his friend Marcos. Marcos is new in the school and his family doesn't speak much English. They are a wonderful family, and seem to really like Hunter as well. The family was surprised when they saw me for the first time....I would like to think it is because I am so stunningly good looking, but I think it was because I was white. hehe
Marcos' mother had to ask me if Hunter was mine or was I his step mother. I explained that Hunter and his sister and upcoming siblings are all adopted. She laughed a little, I am not sure if she completly 'got' what I was saying, but she seemed ok with the answer I guess. :-)
Regardless, they all had a lot of fun and our weekend was spent with friends and family. I would not have it any other way!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Passport Progress!

I got the word from Haiti today that we have Kai's passport in hand. Nikaya's did not come in yet, but they were told it would be early this next week, Monday or Tuesday. Once the passports are in hand, the dossier goes to the US Embassy for checking over...hoping we can make this go faster by speaking to the the Embassy ourselves. With the US Embassy being a United States entity it is possible to have Senator's help out etc. and we have a little leeway where we do not with Haitian governments!!
So, hoping that all will go well with passports for Nikaya and we can get the Embassy to speed us thru so we can get a birth parent interview soon and have the kids by Christmas.
Pray for us as we are coming up on black out dates for flying due to holidays!!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Cowboy Night

Tonight was cowboy/pioneer night at AWANA's (Baptist Church Acitivty).

Hunter and Demi Roo dressed up to the best of their head banging ability (with accessory help from Mammy and Pappy) to pretend to be cowboys and cowgirls! Aren't they CUTE?!





Afternoon Basketball

Here is Demi Roo going in for the free
Throw...Great shot~
















In, out, around and In!!













He shoots, He scores!!!












Dribble power..
watch out WNBA!!













Perfect lay up and
the ball goes in~
SWISH!!


The Fight Was Lost....

What happens when you are so tired but you don't want to give up the fight? You do what Demi Roo does, you climbs into your toy box and watch TV....... (snore, snore...) :-P

Quick Update

Well, yesterday was one of those days I pushed it to far. I dorve all over doing errands and made myself sore in teh belly area...never said I was to smart. ;-)
Still waiting to hear from Haiti about passports for us. Now it seeks like it is taking about 2 weeks to hear back from the US Consulate in order for them to pass the dossier off to USCIS(Immigration) to make the Birth prent interviews....aarrgghh! I am hoping things will move a little smoother as time goes on, but it is Haiti after all. We are still praying hard for the kids to be here before Christmas.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Nerves

I have some nerves that I am currently dealing with. It is funny to me that I am having these thoughts now, and I am not sure if they are normal or not.

I am concerned about my mothering skills. HOW am I going to mother 4 kids?? CAN I mother 4 kids?? WHY did I want to mother 4 kids?? Now, of course I should have thought about these things some time ago, and I have. I am just now going thru the realization that very soon my child to parent ratio will double. We have things in this house that we are pretty slack with. During the summer and weekends there is a very late bedtime and sleeping in. If someone gets cranky or tired (this includes mommy and daddy) we take a nap. We sometimes eat weird things at weird times of the day (Hunter is famous for chicken noodle soup for breakfast everyday). I am wondering how this fits for 2 new people who may be very set in their ways. Kai is 5, he has been around the orphanage since he was 2 and will have some family life aspects he will need to learn, and what a weird family for him to figure that out in huh?! :-)

We are all anxious about the settling in period. Hunter has asked me about things that Kai and Nikaya may do that he witnessed from Demi Roo when she came home. Do they bite? Throw tantrums? Hide food in weird places? Ever seen a tv? Ever played with a basketball? Ever played Playstation? What will they think of Christmas and the family? Will they be afraid of all the kissing like Demi Roo was? (No joke, when Demi came home Dec. 1st at the age of 23 months, she would look at us like we were these freaks with sucky lips that wanted to lick her all the time.hehe) We are a huggy / kissy family. To this day, when we want to torture the children we don't tickle, poke or pester, we kiss and hug. Hunter will come up to you and plant one on your cheek and sit there with his lips on you until you cannot stand it anymore, JUST TO TORTURE!!!
I think we may do just fine with the new kids. They however may want to escape within the first few weeks, but we may be just fine. hehe

We Are Doing Good

Well, I think I am on the way to recovery. I am feeling much better now and only have difficulty wearing clothes...do you think that is a problem? :-)
I am looking forward to getting some things done this week...nothing to harsh (I promised Curtis) but I have managed to clean the kids bathroom and load and unload the dishwasher from time to time over the last 2 days. If I take it slow, heck...I a might have the house clean in time for the new kids to come home. hehe
I have some things I need to do as the time for our kids is closing in. I need to make photo albums, 2 of them, for the birth families as a gift. I am putting together pictures that I have recieved of the kids over our wait, our house, Curt and the kids and I, the kids playing etc...just a little idea for them to know where the kids are going. I know it gives the birth families comfort to see a picture and have an idea of where the kids will be going and what their life may be like. I have some from this summer of the kids swimming and having fun. I wil be able to explain to them during our birth parent interview some of the acitivites we have planned for the kids once they are home and settled; such as soccer for Kai (he loves it and loved my friend/assistant Amy for taking hackey sacks to Haiti with us last time). I am also planning on swimming lessons for the kids this next summer...Hunter and Demi Roo enjoyed theirs and learned so much...they even jumpp off the diving board now NO PROBLEM!!
I also need to go thru the clothes I have saved (which there are not many of since I had a cousin that had a baby and passed them on to her) and to see what I will need for them when they come home. Got lots to do!!!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

My Kiddos


Here is the recent photo of my babies. Nikaya looks like she bored to death and mid yawn hehe.
Heard today that they have done the last of the checks for the ministry and have signed for the passports etc. and they should have them in hand by this next week! ;-P

Monday, November 06, 2006

Recouperarting

Well I am on the mend. It is amazing how much a surgery can take out of you. I spent the first day laying down...sitting was out of the question....to much pain. Today I am doing better with the whole standing up more straight thing, but I am not able to do it for long periods of time. When I spend to much time on my feet I pay for it later...pain, itching in the incision areas etc....man, I get tired easily now. This is not fun for someone like me who when I want to move, I move. If I want to be a bum I can be a bum, but forced bumming is not fun at all!!!

I called Haiti today and got no new news. One of my families came out of passports and they are about 2-2.5 weeks ahead of us. I am hoping things will speed up and we can go soon....PLEASE...

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Surgery

I met with the surgeon today and he said I needed to have my gallbladder out tomorrow. He is concerned about a stone passing in to my ducts so they are going to suck it out tomorrow morning at 9:45am. I will post more after the fact...