I promise not to make you cry again...

I probably shouldn't promise that so early in the game. How about I promise not to make you cry for a few...er...days? I was going to say months, but then I thought I might have something sweet to share, and I don't want to get in trouble for breaking any promises.

The newest rumors: The new SDA is supposed to open up June 24--yes, that would be the same SDA who was supposed to open up the beginning of May. What can you say about governments? I hate to destroy the hopes of some of you out there, but the opening of the SDA doesn't really mean a whole lot for us. One of my coworkers heard they were opening late June and said "oh, so you could have kids by July!". Ummm, no. Aim for December, maybe February and you're probably closer. Unless of course you mean July 2007. ;)

There are at least 600 dossiers already registered with the old NAC being transferred to the new SDA. That equates to 600 families waiting to get appointment dates, all ahead of us. It's going to be awhile. But don't give up hope. There might be a small loophole we can squeeze through. Currently, it appears that when the SDA opens, they will have the same restrictions on US families as before the NAC shut down--namely, the only children allowed to be adopted by US citizens are those over the age of 10, siblings of children you have already adopted, and special needs kids. If true, those of the 600 requesting young, healthy children may not get appointments (this is only speculation). We're still open to adopting special needs kids, and have a couple of special needs that are near and dear to our hearts for a variety of reasons. So we'll see. No guarantees on when we'll succeed, but we're not giving up.

Waiting

Usually I do pretty well with waiting through all of this, but every once in a while something gets me. This one did.

Cheerios commercial

Updates

Whew! I thought things would slow down once April was over, but we're still moving full steam ahead! The clothing drive was a few weeks ago and we collected nearly 3 tons of clothing--not bad for a first drive. We got a great response at the church and the staff has agreed to put it on the calendar for next year. All of the clothing we collected is being sent to Brovary, Ukraine, which is a suburb of Kyiv (also spelled Kiev). The really cool part about that is that we have visited the clothing store and the church where these clothes will be distributed. We spent the night in Brovary while we were in Ukraine in 2003.

A couple of weekends ago, we coordinated the team-building events at our church retreat. We had a blast at the retreat, in part because we got to play with everyone's kids! At one point we were in the pool, and were watching 6 kids between the two of us. It was great! Everyone keeps saying if I watch their kids I won't want so many, but I'm still thinking a houseful (read: 6 or so) would be fantastic. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend. We played some tennis, softball, mini golf, played in the pool, and ate so much food. We had a great time with the team-building activites (especially the marshmallow towers).

This weekend being Mother's Day, and my sister's graduation, and her birthday(!), I drove down to Spfd for lunch with some of the family on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was a very short visit since we already had dinner plans with some friends of ours. One of them we hadn't seen for several months as he's been in Iraq, and we were so glad to get to see him. Welcome home, Scott! :)

Home visit, take two

Our home visit with our new social worker was absolutely wonderful! She is also an adoptive parent and so understands a lot about the process and the emotional ups and downs. We're very excited to be working with her through the rest of our adoption process.

On a completely different note, I've been hesitant about posting this for a number of reasons, but I think it's something people should be aware of. There is a photographer who spent some time near Chernobyl photographing some of the people affected by the disaster 20 years ago. The subtitles are not in English, but the audio is. I will say that this is very graphic (not violent), and I would not recommend watching this with young children.

Chernobyl photoessay

Yeehaw!

We're back from the Lone Star State (Texas, for those of you who aren't familiar with some random state nicknames) and it was incredible getting to see so many old friends! We had so much fun and got to do everything on our "to-do" list...except eat at several restaurants and one ice cream place we were hoping to get to. ;) In substitution, we ate at a couple of new places (for us) and had a great time hanging out with everyone. We had the most gracious host who let us and another couple and their 2yo son stay at her new house. We had such a great time, but I don't know that any of us got a lot of sleep. Isn't that what sleepovers are for?? Great food, great weather, great friends--altogether, a most wonderful weekend.

Tomorrow night is our home study update. I have been informed by our SW that MO has no requirements for safety precautions within a house, other than a smoke detector on each level and a fire extinguisher in the house (we've got 3). I had thought we might have to make a quick run to the store for some cabinet locks, etc., since we haven't finished childproofing yet. We've been working towards it for a few years now, actually, and have been acquiring furniture and arranging rooms to be more accomodating for kids. We're not there yet...but we've still got some time. :)

Tonight I'm going to Kinkos to make some copies of a lot of our documents for the SW to take with her to use for the update. I realized last night that ALL of our dossier has to be redone. *sigh* It's our own fault for moving. All of the documents that are currently in Ukraine have our old address on them. But our home study update will have the new address, and all of the documents need to match. So they will all need to be notarized and apostilled again. Once again, I thank whomever in MO government decided to put a cap on the cost for apostilles relating to adoption. You are saving us SO MUCH money!

Guys and dolls...and more dolls

The musical is over. It was a blast, truly, but boy am I glad to have our evenings back. The title of the post come from the fact that there were not enough males interested in the leads and a girl played Nicely Nicely. She did a phenomenal job, by the way. Many of our gamblers were females as well. :)

No news adoption-wise. We have our home study visit for the update next Thursday evening (04/27).

This week is normal chaos for us. In addition to the usual commitments, we are organizing a clothing drive at our church for Ukraine through Master Provisions. MP collects clothing here in the states and sends it overseas. It is truly an incredible ministry. We first became involved with them through clothing drives at our church in Michigan, Meridian Christian Church, and then had the wonderful priviledge of traveling with MP to Ukraine to see their clothing ministry in action. The clothing drive will be held April 29 from 8a-5p at our church here in St. Louis, West Hills Community Church, out in West County. If you're in the greater St. Louis area, please feel free to drop off clean used clothing in good condition. If you'd like to volunteer to help sort and pack, show up and we'll put you to work! :)

Lots happening, little to say

Well, it's now happened. I have so little to post on the adoption front that I'm going to assault you with what we've been up to. :) Last weekend we performed for a Tartan Day Ball, held in honor of Tartan Day which celebrates Scottish heritage. It was a LONG night (you try being in a corset for 6 hours), but fun nevertheless. And I can truly say that I now have a much better grasp of how imposing an approaching line of Highlanders in kilts and long swords would be. Sunday night we spent an hour in the basement refurbishing a dresser as we waited out a tornado warning, then headed to church for a business meeting. This week we've got dress rehearsals every night (until 11pm!) for the musical which opens this weekend. Mark's conducting and I'm playing in the pit orchestra. Welcome to a world of sleep deprivation I haven't hit since college--and hopefully won't hit again until we have kids.

In reality, there is some news from the front. We have decided to switch social workers for our homestudy update. I have now contacted the new one, and the old one, and our facilitator in Ukraine, and I think everything is worked out. We're hoping to not have the update completed until after May 1, which will allow us to incorporate any changes that need to be made. In all honesty, it would be easiest if the new Ministry did not change any of the paperwork requirements (and we don't have any indication that they will make changes), but we have no guarantee at this point so it seems safer to hold off a week or two longer and make sure.