I got up and headed into work this morning, knowing full well that there would not be very much work done. I had to get ahold of ECVO and find out what they came up with on tickets. When I talked to them later this morning I think I misunderstood a lot. That said, they are Russian and spoke with very very thick accents. I thought she told me that she found seats for us, but they weren't together. I told her I would see what I could come up with but to hold them for us until this afternoon, just in case I didn't have any luck.
I found a site called gotorussia.com and found the best deal on tickets. Let me tell you it was no "deal". It ended up costing us 3200.00 for both tickets round trip. It was basically the same price that ECVO had but I knew we would sit together. Booking on short notice we didn't get any type of "bargain fare" Mom and Dad offered to pay for the plane tickets for us. That was a blessing. Michael had been working 6 days a week for the last 6 monts and we had saved up around 4000.00 on our own, along with the 22,500.00 that we borrowed on the blazer and the boat, we were going to end up coming up short in the end with how expensive the tickets were ending up being. We did get a bit of a discount if we hopped planes several times. I had first looked at a direct flight from Cincinnati to New York and then on to Moscow. I ended up saving around 400.00 going from Lousville to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Paris, and Paris to Moscow. I emailed the itenerary to Amanda to make sure that it would work for the translators and drivers. She would get back to me that aftenoon so I could go ahead and book the tickets.
I got word later that afternoon that all was a go and to book the tickets. Done. The visa's should arrive by Tuesday of next week via FedEx, our tickets will be coming FedEx also and should be here by the end of the week. Now it's on to booking a hotel. I'll work on that later. We are scheduled to have a telephone travel meeting on Friday and they don't want me to book a room until after that.
Like I said before, I didn't get much work done (that I was getting paid for anyway). I just feel like my head is spinning out of control. Most people get a month to plan this we have 10 days. Whoops, 9 days now. I mean how crazy is it that we are going to Russia?? We are going to be parents. We've wanted and waited for this for so long, it's scary now that it's really going to happen. I am so excited though. We just can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, September 15, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5/18/04
O.K. Today was the most exciting day ever. And hectic. It started out like any old day. Get up, take a shower, go to work. All was normal. I will admit though that everytime the phone had rang in the lab for the last few weeks I jumped out of my skin. Wondering Is that Andrea??
Well, today we wonder no more. I had just gotten back from lunch when the phone ran. Ooohhh. An outside call transfered up to us. I jumped as usual but ran to answer the phone.
This is how the conversation went:
Lab this is Kim.
Kim, this is Andrea.
Me thinking, Good grief what paper has to be redone or do they need now.
Andrea: Are you ready for this?
Me: Are you kidding?
Andrea: Kim, we have a 9 month old healthy baby boy for you guys if you are interested.
Me: Are you lying?
Andrea: No, I wouldn't lie to you about something like this.
Me: Oh my God!!! (crying and sobbing) I can't believe this. What do we have to do?
(in the meantime all my crying and shrieking had Anthony and Lisa pacing the floor trying to figure out what was wrong with me.)
Andrea: Here's the thing. That's all the information we have right now, but we have to move quickly. Can you guys be in Moscow on the 28th?
Me: (counting on my fingers) 10 days?? Next Friday??? Yes, yes. OMG!! I have to get ahold of Michael!! He's home sleeping with the ringer off on the phone.
Andrea: I need to know something within a couple of hours.
Me: I will call you as soon as I talk to him, but I'm saying yes without even talking to him. I'm sure he'll feel the same. So consider it a yes.
Andrea: O.K. go tell your husband and call me back with your definite answer.
Me: I will, Thank you Thank you so much!!!!!!!
I hung up he phone and was attacked by Anthony and Lisa. I had been trying to mouth 2 weeks to them while I was on the phone but they just weren't getting it. Then I realized. OMG !! It's not 2 weeks at all. It's 10 DAYS!!!! Anthony had been pasing around the lab and Lisa was crying. We were drawing quite a crowd with all the commotion. They called Dad and told him he needed to come upstairs. I'll never forget the look on his face when I told him he was going to have a Grandson. We cried and hugged each other. I called Mom and told her. I think she was in shock. The girls in her office told me later that she just balled when we got off the phone.
O.K. Now I don't want you guys to think that I've forgotten Michael for a minute. He works night shift and turns the ringer off on the phone during the day. In all the excitement I was like "how am I going to get ahold of him??" DUH. Think McFly Think. :o) Next thing I knew I was being shooed out the door and being sent on my way home.
I was in a daze for the drive. My mind just whizzing. In 10 days we were going to be in Russia!! We were going to meet our son. I walked in the door and of course the dogs started barking excitedly. Michael raised up out of bed and asked me what I was doing home early. I started crying and asked him what he thought about going to meet his son next week. He couldn't believe it either. I mean the dossier had just gotten to Stavropol the week before. I told him that we had to call Andrea and Amanda back and let them know definitely that we were going to travel next week so that we could get the ball rolling.
Let me tell ya. It was a good thing I left work when I did. I had no idea what the rest of the day was going to be like. We made the call and told them heck yeah we were going, like there was every a doubt. :o) Amanda said to go check our email for the "travel packet" Good grief another packet. LOL She also said that with the short notice we had to get a rush on our visa's which meant our application had to be overnighted to ECVO in New York TONIGHT!!!!!!!! We didn't even know where to begin. I mean plane tickets, visa's, hotels, travel meetings. We printed out the travel packet, the applications for the visas and off we went. We went to Mom's office for some much needed help. It was now 3:00 and we had to find a FedEx or UPS place that would be open when we got there and be able to deliver the visa applications first thing in the morning. ACKKKK!!
We had a little bickering session over filling out the papers. They ask for everything but your right arm. No, really. I mean it. They wanted the last 5 places we had worked, with address, supervisors names, addresses, phone #'s. Who could remember all that at a time like this?? We finally got all the needed information and were on our way. We thought we were going to have to fly to Louisville like madmen, but luckily we found out that sending it UPS was acceptable and we headed for LaGrange to make the last pickup for the evening.
Amanda told us that ECVO could also arrange our plane tickets and hotels so I called them to see what they could come up with for us. More than likely it was going to be tomorrow before we heard anything back from them so we started looking on our own when we got home. Unfortunately for Mikey, he had to go into work that evening. It had been an exhausting afternoon, exciting and thrilling, but exhausting. He went to work and I collapsed into bed.
Well, today we wonder no more. I had just gotten back from lunch when the phone ran. Ooohhh. An outside call transfered up to us. I jumped as usual but ran to answer the phone.
This is how the conversation went:
Lab this is Kim.
Kim, this is Andrea.
Me thinking, Good grief what paper has to be redone or do they need now.
Andrea: Are you ready for this?
Me: Are you kidding?
Andrea: Kim, we have a 9 month old healthy baby boy for you guys if you are interested.
Me: Are you lying?
Andrea: No, I wouldn't lie to you about something like this.
Me: Oh my God!!! (crying and sobbing) I can't believe this. What do we have to do?
(in the meantime all my crying and shrieking had Anthony and Lisa pacing the floor trying to figure out what was wrong with me.)
Andrea: Here's the thing. That's all the information we have right now, but we have to move quickly. Can you guys be in Moscow on the 28th?
Me: (counting on my fingers) 10 days?? Next Friday??? Yes, yes. OMG!! I have to get ahold of Michael!! He's home sleeping with the ringer off on the phone.
Andrea: I need to know something within a couple of hours.
Me: I will call you as soon as I talk to him, but I'm saying yes without even talking to him. I'm sure he'll feel the same. So consider it a yes.
Andrea: O.K. go tell your husband and call me back with your definite answer.
Me: I will, Thank you Thank you so much!!!!!!!
I hung up he phone and was attacked by Anthony and Lisa. I had been trying to mouth 2 weeks to them while I was on the phone but they just weren't getting it. Then I realized. OMG !! It's not 2 weeks at all. It's 10 DAYS!!!! Anthony had been pasing around the lab and Lisa was crying. We were drawing quite a crowd with all the commotion. They called Dad and told him he needed to come upstairs. I'll never forget the look on his face when I told him he was going to have a Grandson. We cried and hugged each other. I called Mom and told her. I think she was in shock. The girls in her office told me later that she just balled when we got off the phone.
O.K. Now I don't want you guys to think that I've forgotten Michael for a minute. He works night shift and turns the ringer off on the phone during the day. In all the excitement I was like "how am I going to get ahold of him??" DUH. Think McFly Think. :o) Next thing I knew I was being shooed out the door and being sent on my way home.
I was in a daze for the drive. My mind just whizzing. In 10 days we were going to be in Russia!! We were going to meet our son. I walked in the door and of course the dogs started barking excitedly. Michael raised up out of bed and asked me what I was doing home early. I started crying and asked him what he thought about going to meet his son next week. He couldn't believe it either. I mean the dossier had just gotten to Stavropol the week before. I told him that we had to call Andrea and Amanda back and let them know definitely that we were going to travel next week so that we could get the ball rolling.
Let me tell ya. It was a good thing I left work when I did. I had no idea what the rest of the day was going to be like. We made the call and told them heck yeah we were going, like there was every a doubt. :o) Amanda said to go check our email for the "travel packet" Good grief another packet. LOL She also said that with the short notice we had to get a rush on our visa's which meant our application had to be overnighted to ECVO in New York TONIGHT!!!!!!!! We didn't even know where to begin. I mean plane tickets, visa's, hotels, travel meetings. We printed out the travel packet, the applications for the visas and off we went. We went to Mom's office for some much needed help. It was now 3:00 and we had to find a FedEx or UPS place that would be open when we got there and be able to deliver the visa applications first thing in the morning. ACKKKK!!
We had a little bickering session over filling out the papers. They ask for everything but your right arm. No, really. I mean it. They wanted the last 5 places we had worked, with address, supervisors names, addresses, phone #'s. Who could remember all that at a time like this?? We finally got all the needed information and were on our way. We thought we were going to have to fly to Louisville like madmen, but luckily we found out that sending it UPS was acceptable and we headed for LaGrange to make the last pickup for the evening.
Amanda told us that ECVO could also arrange our plane tickets and hotels so I called them to see what they could come up with for us. More than likely it was going to be tomorrow before we heard anything back from them so we started looking on our own when we got home. Unfortunately for Mikey, he had to go into work that evening. It had been an exhausting afternoon, exciting and thrilling, but exhausting. He went to work and I collapsed into bed.
Dossier arrived in Stavropol!! 5/10/04
Andrea emailed today to let me know that the dossier had arrived safe and sound in Stavropol. Whew. What a relief. Not a lot's been going on. We've just been working and trying to keep busy to pass the time while we "patiently" wait. snicker snicker We went and registered at BabiesRUs and Wal-Mart. That was fun. People can be so rude. I went to get the little scanner thingy at Wal-Mart to start our registry and the lady might as well have slapped me. I told her that we wanted to start a baby registry. I'm not kidding when I say that this woman looked me up and down with a disgusted look like "you're not even pregnant and if you are it's too early to start a registry". She never said anything, just took my license and gave me the scanner. I was ready to cry. It's not written anywhere that the only way to have a child is giving birth to one yourself. I went and found Michael and was fuming. Needless to say when I went back to return the scanner I informed the rude lady behind the counter that we were adopting a child from Russia. She had to pick her teeth up off the counter. hehehehehe The look on her face was definitely a kodak moment.
BabiesRUs wasn't quite so bad, but there was no place on their little application that said you were adopting. It asked for a due date. O.K. We have no idea. The lady looked at me funny when I told her that. I then had to go into the whole "we're adopting a baby" spill. I mean come on people.
It was pretty funny seeing Michael and I running around trying to decide what we were going to need. We knew that our baby was going to be between 6 months and 12 months. That was it. So we just started scanning stuff that we "thought" we'd need. It was definitely fun though.
BabiesRUs wasn't quite so bad, but there was no place on their little application that said you were adopting. It asked for a due date. O.K. We have no idea. The lady looked at me funny when I told her that. I then had to go into the whole "we're adopting a baby" spill. I mean come on people.
It was pretty funny seeing Michael and I running around trying to decide what we were going to need. We knew that our baby was going to be between 6 months and 12 months. That was it. So we just started scanning stuff that we "thought" we'd need. It was definitely fun though.
The nursery 5/3/04
Michael has been working so hard this week to get the trim stained and ready to put up. He's doing such a good job. My little carpenter hubby. The room really started to look like something when the trim started going up. He got done with it after lunch and we put up the border and hung up all the cutsie decorations. It looks more like a boy's room now that we are done with it. I'm posting some pics of my hubby's hard work.
I must say we are quite proud of ourselves. Now all we need is our baby to put in the crib and it will be complete. I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time in here daydreaming until we get "the call". The poor dogs don't know what is going on. They just know that something is up and I don't think they like it. :o)
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Dossier to Russia! 4/27/04
Andrea called this morning and told me that they had recieved the corrected documents that morning and had turned right around and sent the DHL to Russia. It would take about 2 weeks for the document to get to Moscow and then from Moscow to our region. It had to be couriered once it got to Moscow.
We are still in shock that this is really happening. We've started working on the nursery over the weekend. I'm attatching some pictures of our work in process. I think I mentioned earlier on that we had decided on Blue Jean Teddy for our decor. We decided that we were going to sponge paint blue, red and yellow on the bottom half of the wall and put up a chair rail and border right above that. The sponge painting was really fun. Michael and I have been staining trim and getting ready to put that up hopefully this weekend.
We have a region!!!!!!!! 4/23/04
The dossier was recieved in Texas on 4/21/04. AAi will do a final check of the documents and after the final O.K they will be on their way to Moscow. Today however they sent an email that they were trying to figure out what region to put us in.
Andrea's email said basically this: We are trying to decide what region to put you guys in. We have a situation we wanted to ask you guys about. Would you be willing to accept a blind referral? Which means that you would get very limited information about your child before you travel. We have a region, Stavropol, where there is no one waiting right now. You guys would be next to recieve a referral when one comes available but we would have to travel blind.
I ran outside and yelled at Michael. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I tried to explain all of this to Michael. We both knew that we were fine with it. You couldn't make lots of decisions when you were pregnant, who were we to pick and choose. We called Andrea to talk to here and get more information and let her know that we were fine with blind travel if that's what it came down to. I asked her if the wait was still around 6 months or longer. You could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "Kim, you guys will be the next to recieve a referral." Oh, O.K I said. Still geared up for the fact that it was going to be awhile. I wasn't going to get my hopes up. No matter what they told us, we weren't going to get our hopes up. We had went into this looking at a year plus in the process that was the mindset we were going to keep.
In the middle of all this talk she did tell me that she needed 4 documents redone due to an issue with the notary. I was like sure sure. I'll get them redone and have them in the mail to you on Monday. I don't think they realized who they were dealing with.
Andrea's email said basically this: We are trying to decide what region to put you guys in. We have a situation we wanted to ask you guys about. Would you be willing to accept a blind referral? Which means that you would get very limited information about your child before you travel. We have a region, Stavropol, where there is no one waiting right now. You guys would be next to recieve a referral when one comes available but we would have to travel blind.
I ran outside and yelled at Michael. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I tried to explain all of this to Michael. We both knew that we were fine with it. You couldn't make lots of decisions when you were pregnant, who were we to pick and choose. We called Andrea to talk to here and get more information and let her know that we were fine with blind travel if that's what it came down to. I asked her if the wait was still around 6 months or longer. You could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "Kim, you guys will be the next to recieve a referral." Oh, O.K I said. Still geared up for the fact that it was going to be awhile. I wasn't going to get my hopes up. No matter what they told us, we weren't going to get our hopes up. We had went into this looking at a year plus in the process that was the mindset we were going to keep.
In the middle of all this talk she did tell me that she needed 4 documents redone due to an issue with the notary. I was like sure sure. I'll get them redone and have them in the mail to you on Monday. I don't think they realized who they were dealing with.
Mailing the dossier. 4/19/04
I didn't go to work today. I just don't think I could have faced everyone there. I've got the entire dossier together and ready to take to UPS. Michael and I are going to take it later this morning to LaGrange to the UPS store to send it overnight to San Antonio, TX. From there it will go to Russia to be translated and sent to the Minister of Education for us to be matched with a boy/girl.
When we got to UPS you would have thought I was having to cut off my right arm and send it along with all of those papers. For the last 4 months I have done nothing but eat, sleep and breath this paperwork. It was like an extension of me. Michael wasn't quite as "bonded" with it as I was, but he understood exactly how I felt. What if it got lost or damaged?? Could I stomach the thought of having to do all of that again??????
Everything was in order and the dossier was on it's way. Scheduled for delivery tomorrow morning to AAi. Now I can sit back and relax and enjoy preparing the house for our baby. This is a huge step. It will still be a couple of weeks before we get into our "official" waiting period of 6-9 months but it's out of our hands now. We've done our part and now it's time for the agency to do what we are paying them to do.
When we got to UPS you would have thought I was having to cut off my right arm and send it along with all of those papers. For the last 4 months I have done nothing but eat, sleep and breath this paperwork. It was like an extension of me. Michael wasn't quite as "bonded" with it as I was, but he understood exactly how I felt. What if it got lost or damaged?? Could I stomach the thought of having to do all of that again??????
Everything was in order and the dossier was on it's way. Scheduled for delivery tomorrow morning to AAi. Now I can sit back and relax and enjoy preparing the house for our baby. This is a huge step. It will still be a couple of weeks before we get into our "official" waiting period of 6-9 months but it's out of our hands now. We've done our part and now it's time for the agency to do what we are paying them to do.
The Funeral 4/18/04
The funeral was this morning. We got to say our goodbye's before they closed the casket. I don't see how any of us had any tears left. I kissed her forehead and told her I loved her as did everyone else. It was so hard for Mom and Martha to know that this was it. They were getting ready to close the casket. I don't see how they managed as well as they did. It was heartbreaking to watch them and Popal saying their goodbyes. We were all just standing in a huddle, holding and comforting one another.
Brother Eades performed a wonderful service. He spoke of how Granny always talked about "her kids". Even though he had not really known us personally before this he felt like he'd known us all forever through her. She was always telling stories about us to him. How we were always up to some kind of mishchief. He spoke of Mom and Martha and how much Granny loved them both and how proud she was of Martha and G.W. with their store and how proud she was of Mom and Dad with all they had accomplished and Mom being the County Clerk.
Craig sang Amazing Grace and it was absolutely beautiful. I'm sure that Granny was smiling down from heaven on all of us. The funeral was beautiful. We went from the funeral home to the gravesite. Brother Eades performed the internment and gave us all a carnation from the spray on the casket. It was a short graveside service.
After we left the graveside the ladies of the Pentocostal church had prepared a meal for all of us at the church. Everyone just seemed to be numb, but again it helped to be around everyone. Talking and laughing about all the stuff that us kids put Granny through. Why does it seem like families only get together at funerals? We all enjoy each other's company. It just isn't right that it should take something like this to bring a family together.
Brother Eades performed a wonderful service. He spoke of how Granny always talked about "her kids". Even though he had not really known us personally before this he felt like he'd known us all forever through her. She was always telling stories about us to him. How we were always up to some kind of mishchief. He spoke of Mom and Martha and how much Granny loved them both and how proud she was of Martha and G.W. with their store and how proud she was of Mom and Dad with all they had accomplished and Mom being the County Clerk.
Craig sang Amazing Grace and it was absolutely beautiful. I'm sure that Granny was smiling down from heaven on all of us. The funeral was beautiful. We went from the funeral home to the gravesite. Brother Eades performed the internment and gave us all a carnation from the spray on the casket. It was a short graveside service.
After we left the graveside the ladies of the Pentocostal church had prepared a meal for all of us at the church. Everyone just seemed to be numb, but again it helped to be around everyone. Talking and laughing about all the stuff that us kids put Granny through. Why does it seem like families only get together at funerals? We all enjoy each other's company. It just isn't right that it should take something like this to bring a family together.
Visitation 4/17/04
Today was the first day at the funeral home. Tomorrow we will bury Granny. The family always gets an hour before the funeral home is opened to the public. When Michael and I got there it finally hit home. Mom and Martha were crying uncontrolably at the casket. This was the first time they had seen their Mother and I can't even imagine how that must have felt. Dad and G.W had to walk them away and sit them down. All of us kids then took our turn. She looked so good. Like she was just laying there sleeping and would wake up and laugh that laugh that we all loved and everything in the world would just as it was a mere 48 hours ago. But she wasn't going to wake up. We were never going to get to hear that laugh of hers ever again. How were we ever going to get over this. It was so unexpected. My poor Popal was beside himself. He just sat in a chair by the casket with his hand on hers quietly crying and trying to understand why....................
All of our friends and family began showing up to pay their respect. It helped to talk to everyone and kind of not really forget what was going on but to separate yourself from it all for a short time. No one could believe what had happened. She had just waved at the school bus driver a couple of hours before and nothing appeared to be wrong or different.
It was very emotional when we left that evening. Saying goodbye and knowing tomorrow that we were going to lay Granny to rest.
All of our friends and family began showing up to pay their respect. It helped to talk to everyone and kind of not really forget what was going on but to separate yourself from it all for a short time. No one could believe what had happened. She had just waved at the school bus driver a couple of hours before and nothing appeared to be wrong or different.
It was very emotional when we left that evening. Saying goodbye and knowing tomorrow that we were going to lay Granny to rest.
Apostilling and Funeral Arrangements 4/16/04
This morning I had to be in Frankfort at 8:30 to drop of my papers at the Secretary of State's Office for Apostilling. I had 68 documents total to be done. Charlotte got to the house around 7:15 and we headed out. I'm still in a daze over Granny passing. I cried myself to sleep last night. Life is never going to be the same. She's never going to see my baby. At least she knew what we were doing and at least was able to share in our joy even if it was for a short time.
Charlotte and I dropped off all the papers and headed to Wal-Mart. I have nothing to wear to the funeral. I've been on Atkins and have lost almost 40 pounds. Everything that I have at home is too big. We didn't have any luck at Wally World so we headed over to Cato's. I found a black pin striped suit that had a skirt and pants with it. They had told us that it would take about 2 and a half hours to get the papers done. We had been wandering around Frankfort and decided to head back to the capital to see if they were ready to be picked up.
They were ready when we got there. I paid for the documents and we were on our way. The dossier was complete. The only thing I was going t0 have to do was get the new agency license from Adoptions of Kentucky. The one I have is good for another month so I'll send the other one when I get it. The papers were beautiful. They had the big gold seal and were tied up with a blue ribbon on each set of papers. I'm attatching a pic of them. It was quite the stack of papers. It really hit home for Charlotte just how much was involved in this process when she saw that big stack of papers that now weighed around 5 pounds.
On our way back to Henry Co. my phone rang. It was Karel telling me that the license was there. Of all the luck. I had her fax the paper to Mom's office so I could pick it up there and have it notarized, etc etc and Bless Charlotte's soul she offered to drive back to Frankfort to get that document apostilled. After today I am completely done and will mail everything on Monday. We went straight to Granny & Popals house after we left Mom's office and Charlotte left me there and drove my truck back to our house to get her car and head back to Frankfort. We had to be at the funeral home at 1:00 to make all the arrangements.
It was so hard looking at caskets and picking out music. It still hasn't really hit home. We picked out a beautiful casket and insert with the verse of "Footprints" on it. My cousin Craig is going to sing Amazing Grace and Brother Eades is going to do the speaking at the funeral. Everything is set and tomorrow we will have visitation. I still can't believe all this is happening.
Later on we were all at Martha and G.W's, Michael and Jamie both needed shirts and ties for the next 2 days so we decided to go to Goody's in Shelbyville. Me and Michael, Aimee and Dusty, Aimee and Jamie and Bryan and Samantha all went. Once we got the guys what they needed we went to eat at Tumbleweed. It was good for all of us to be together. Especially considering that we were all so close growing up. We sat around for quite some time eating and reminicing.
Tomorrow is not going to be easy........................................
Sunday, September 03, 2006
The worst news you can get. 4/15/04
I don't even know how to begin with today. Mom came over after work and we were looking at some bedding that Michael and I found for the crib. It's Blue Jean Teddy, very cute. The phone rang and it was G.W looking for Mom. Something was wrong with Granny. Apparantly she had fell and they were calling the ambulance, she wasn't breathing. I think we were in shock. We picked up Aimee on our way out of the driveway. We just rode along in silence. No one wanting to think the worst. It's unimaginable. Dad called on the cell phone, he was there at the house, it just wasn't clicking with us that they couldn't revive her. We drove to the house and Dad told us to go on to the hospital. Still not clicking that she was gone. We all just sat quietly crying. When we got to the hospital Martha and G.W. were there with Popal and Bryan and Jamie. Patsy and Debbie and Junior were there too. We all just sat in the waiting room. Knowing, but not believing. The doctor came out and ushered us into a family room. He told us the news that we all knew but were unwilling to believe. She was gone, more than likely from a massive heart attack. We just broke down. This can't be happening. Not Granny. We were all together Sunday at Easter. This just can't be happening. Not now.
We all just sat in the family area comforting one another and trying to understand why. My poor Popal was devastated. His whole life as he knew it.......gone in a flash. They had been together for more than half of their lives. Michael and I have only been together for 7 years, but I can't imagine life without him. I just can't imagine what my Popal is feeling right now. Mom and Martha are beside themselves with grief. I can't even begin to imagine what's it would be like to loose your Mother. I'm absolutely devastated over this.
Later we had to go by the house and start making preparations for going to the funeral h0me tomorrow. We wanted to make a picture board, so we got out lots of family pictures and talked about what a great woman Granny was and how much we all loved her and how deeply she was going to be missed. Popal seems to be in a fog. I can understand why. I've never seen my Popal cry and it's not an easy thing to see. Granny was his life and he was hers.
I've got an appointment tomorrow in Frankfort to have all of the papers apostilled. I wanted to cancel until after the funeral but Mom and Martha are making me go. They said that's what Granny would have wanted. So I've called Charlotte to go with me in the morning. I just don't want to go alone. She redily agreed. So tomorrow, as hard as it's going to be, I'm off to finish the last phase of the dossier process. Then I have to meet Mom and Martha at the funeral home to decide on arrangments.
This has been the hardest day of my life.........................
We all just sat in the family area comforting one another and trying to understand why. My poor Popal was devastated. His whole life as he knew it.......gone in a flash. They had been together for more than half of their lives. Michael and I have only been together for 7 years, but I can't imagine life without him. I just can't imagine what my Popal is feeling right now. Mom and Martha are beside themselves with grief. I can't even begin to imagine what's it would be like to loose your Mother. I'm absolutely devastated over this.
Later we had to go by the house and start making preparations for going to the funeral h0me tomorrow. We wanted to make a picture board, so we got out lots of family pictures and talked about what a great woman Granny was and how much we all loved her and how deeply she was going to be missed. Popal seems to be in a fog. I can understand why. I've never seen my Popal cry and it's not an easy thing to see. Granny was his life and he was hers.
I've got an appointment tomorrow in Frankfort to have all of the papers apostilled. I wanted to cancel until after the funeral but Mom and Martha are making me go. They said that's what Granny would have wanted. So I've called Charlotte to go with me in the morning. I just don't want to go alone. She redily agreed. So tomorrow, as hard as it's going to be, I'm off to finish the last phase of the dossier process. Then I have to meet Mom and Martha at the funeral home to decide on arrangments.
This has been the hardest day of my life.........................
It's here the I-171H 4/10/04
Oh what joy when I went to the mailbox today and guess what was there??? The paper that has been holding us up for the last month. The I-171H!!!!!!!!!! Now I did have another snag yesterday afternoon. The homestudy agency license will expire within the next couple of months and I am going to need a new one. So Monday I will have to call Karel and see where they are on getting new license. That is small potatos now though. I am going to call the Secretary of State's office on Monday and set up an appointment to get all of the papers apostilled. Apparantly it could take a great deal of time to do them all. I've got around 70 documents to have done. Wow that's alot.
Tomorrow is Easter and we'll be going and having dinner at Martha and G.W's with the family. It's going to be so great to be able to tell them that things are really moving along. Depending on when I get the appointment to go to Frankfort, I should be able to send off the dossier in the next week to week and a half.
I'm actually looking forward to some down time from all this paperchasing. I didn't think I would but I'm mentally exhausted from this. God love my husband he's been great support, but he's also just been the "where do I sign?" person through most of this. I don't think I'd change it if I had to do it all again because I'm such a control freak that I probably wouldn't have trusted him to do anything anyway. Sorry honey.
Tomorrow is Easter and we'll be going and having dinner at Martha and G.W's with the family. It's going to be so great to be able to tell them that things are really moving along. Depending on when I get the appointment to go to Frankfort, I should be able to send off the dossier in the next week to week and a half.
I'm actually looking forward to some down time from all this paperchasing. I didn't think I would but I'm mentally exhausted from this. God love my husband he's been great support, but he's also just been the "where do I sign?" person through most of this. I don't think I'd change it if I had to do it all again because I'm such a control freak that I probably wouldn't have trusted him to do anything anyway. Sorry honey.
More waiting...............4/6/04
Yesterday I emailed my congressman about the I-171H. Which was advised by my homestudy agency. Karel no longer had the "connection" that she once had and was getting nowhere. She was told to send a written request in to them and they would reply to that. Good Grief.
I decided to make one last trip to Louisville and see what I could find out. Bless the little man named Edgar who I got to talk to. Turns out they couldn't find my application anywhere. The lady that normally does the processing has been off on an extended medical leave and they have divided her work up to 3 different people in 3 different departments. O.K so this is not looking good. I sat and sat and sat some more while Edgar feverishly looked for my papers. After almost an 1 1/2 of looking he calls me into his office. I almost fainted, I thought this cannot be good. Luckily he had found my papers in the basement. Yes I said the basement. It was in a stack waiting to be done, but that person was on vacation. Of all the luck. I was almost in tears at this point. O.K so I was in tears. Couldn't hurt right?? Edgar apologized all over himself and said that the papers would be processed this week and we would have our I-171H by next week.
I tell ya I could have kissed this sweet little ol man. I left there feeling a lot better than when I went in. Now lets just see if we get the paper next week.
I decided to make one last trip to Louisville and see what I could find out. Bless the little man named Edgar who I got to talk to. Turns out they couldn't find my application anywhere. The lady that normally does the processing has been off on an extended medical leave and they have divided her work up to 3 different people in 3 different departments. O.K so this is not looking good. I sat and sat and sat some more while Edgar feverishly looked for my papers. After almost an 1 1/2 of looking he calls me into his office. I almost fainted, I thought this cannot be good. Luckily he had found my papers in the basement. Yes I said the basement. It was in a stack waiting to be done, but that person was on vacation. Of all the luck. I was almost in tears at this point. O.K so I was in tears. Couldn't hurt right?? Edgar apologized all over himself and said that the papers would be processed this week and we would have our I-171H by next week.
I tell ya I could have kissed this sweet little ol man. I left there feeling a lot better than when I went in. Now lets just see if we get the paper next week.
Still waiting................04/01/04
Well, today is April fools day. Still no approval letter from INS. I've been patiently waiting, but now I'm going to have to start looking for some answers. I drove down to the INS office since you can't reach anyone by phone. Wasted trip. They wouldn't tell me anything. Said that the homestudy agency would have to make an inquiry. So I stop by Adoptions of Kentucky while I'm in Louisville and Karel said she would give them a call and find out where we were in processing.
This is just so frustrating knowing that the only thing keeping us from turning in our dossier is 1 little piece of paper that I have absolutely no control over. Everything else I did at my own pace and when I wanted to. This is really hard. I just need to get used to the waiting though. Even after we turn in our completed dossier to our agency they have to send it to Russia to be translated which could take up to a month and then the "real" 6-9 month wait begins. So I guess I'd better just acclimate myself to the waiting now cause I've got a whole lot more waiting down the road.
This is just so frustrating knowing that the only thing keeping us from turning in our dossier is 1 little piece of paper that I have absolutely no control over. Everything else I did at my own pace and when I wanted to. This is really hard. I just need to get used to the waiting though. Even after we turn in our completed dossier to our agency they have to send it to Russia to be translated which could take up to a month and then the "real" 6-9 month wait begins. So I guess I'd better just acclimate myself to the waiting now cause I've got a whole lot more waiting down the road.
Dossier complete 3/19/04
Well, I finished up all of our papers for the dossier and faxed everything to AAi to look over and give the O.K. I faxed everything yesterday and they got back to me today that all is O.K. We now just have to wait on INS for the I-171H. We cannot submit our dossier without it. It's been 4 weeks since our fingerprints were done and they said to allow 6-8 weeks. So I've got at least 2 more weeks before I can legitimately gripe about it not being here. Everything else is in order, all documents are signed and notarized and have the notary authentication from the clerks office. I am going to wait and make one trip to Frankfort and have all of the documents apostilled at one time. The less running I have to do at this point the better.
We did get the crib in on Tuesday. Whoopppiii. Michael is going to put it together this weekend. I think now that we are just going to be waiting on that one piece of paper we may start to have some fun and thinking about decorating. We may go to BabiesRUs this weekend and look around. We have to decide on something neutral since we requested either a boy or girl. We need something that will work for both.
We did get the crib in on Tuesday. Whoopppiii. Michael is going to put it together this weekend. I think now that we are just going to be waiting on that one piece of paper we may start to have some fun and thinking about decorating. We may go to BabiesRUs this weekend and look around. We have to decide on something neutral since we requested either a boy or girl. We need something that will work for both.
Passports! 3/15/04
Today when I got the mail our passports were here. That was fast. It's starting to seem more real that this is going to happen. The 10th came and went and no crib. Tomorrow is the next date they gave us for delivery. We'll see. I've got a few more things to finish up for the dossier and it will be complete except for the I-171H. I'm hoping to have everything but that done this week and then it will be time to sit back and let the agency do it's work. I feel like I've been going a hundred miles an hour to get everything done so that it's not us holding up the process and making it take longer.
Although, I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself during the "wait". I won't know how to act not chasing papers down, and retyping this and that. I'll just have to control myself and keep occupied so that I'm not bothering the agency every other day. It's not my nature to just sit back and wait so this is going to be hard for me. I've always got the bull by the horns per say. This is probably going to be good for me. I think. :-)
Although, I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself during the "wait". I won't know how to act not chasing papers down, and retyping this and that. I'll just have to control myself and keep occupied so that I'm not bothering the agency every other day. It's not my nature to just sit back and wait so this is going to be hard for me. I've always got the bull by the horns per say. This is probably going to be good for me. I think. :-)
Thursday, August 31, 2006
2nd Support Group. 03/04/04
We took off for Lexington again tonight for our 2nd group. It's funny the people that you run into. A girl that Michael had went to school with was there with their new baby. Such a small world. You just never know. It was good to talk to them and hear about their experience with domestic adoption.
There are usually different people there. Still a lot of the same faces but lots of new ones to. Everyone is so nice and it's really great to be able to share in the joy and pain. Tonight 2 different couples were there that had just been through a failed match during the last month since we had met. There were lots of tears as the birthmom had changed her mind after the baby was born. I just don't know how I could have dealt with something like that. It has to be devastating.
On a happier note, our crib has been ordered from JCPenny and should be in on the 10th. I'm really excited about it. It's our first nursery purchase. It's a convertable crib, so it will last him forever. I can't wait. We still haven't decided on decor yet. We've got plenty of time for that.
There are usually different people there. Still a lot of the same faces but lots of new ones to. Everyone is so nice and it's really great to be able to share in the joy and pain. Tonight 2 different couples were there that had just been through a failed match during the last month since we had met. There were lots of tears as the birthmom had changed her mind after the baby was born. I just don't know how I could have dealt with something like that. It has to be devastating.
On a happier note, our crib has been ordered from JCPenny and should be in on the 10th. I'm really excited about it. It's our first nursery purchase. It's a convertable crib, so it will last him forever. I can't wait. We still haven't decided on decor yet. We've got plenty of time for that.
FMLA drama. 02/26/04
Well, let me tell ya. Today was the day from you know where. I never would have imagined that my employer could be so hard to deal with. The entire time that I've worked in the Lab we have been able to make up our time if we were out. This is what I'd been doing all along. I'd have to leave to chase down papers, I would take a lunch or I'd stay over. Well, apparantly someone's been abusing the fact that we have that option and the employee's down on the floor are complaining. So we get an email from our boss in the Lab that no more flex time. I broke down in tears and went into his office and asked if that meant I was just going to have to take points whenever I had to leave for the adoption process. Looks like it. At this rate I won't have a job by the time we get all of this done.
Luckily my Daddy was there for me to cry on his shoulder and we started looking for a solution. I had already been told my HR and Michael's HR that we would not be eligible for FMLA until after the adoption was final. WTF?? I had approached HR again before I ran crying to Dad to see if there was anything that could be done. Nope. We got on the FMLA site and printed out the rules of FMLA. Turns out that it covers anything up to and including the adoption that relates to the process. I mean I had been told by 2 different people that that wasn't the case. They never even offered to look up "policy". It was just going to be because they said so. Dad and I drug out the BIG yellow highlighter and made the important information very noticiable. If you know what I mean and I marched my butt straight to HR and laid it on her desk and asked her what she thought about that. I thought she was going to swallow her tounge. Needless to say FMLA papers were signed and all was right with the world again. For now anyway.
Luckily my Daddy was there for me to cry on his shoulder and we started looking for a solution. I had already been told my HR and Michael's HR that we would not be eligible for FMLA until after the adoption was final. WTF?? I had approached HR again before I ran crying to Dad to see if there was anything that could be done. Nope. We got on the FMLA site and printed out the rules of FMLA. Turns out that it covers anything up to and including the adoption that relates to the process. I mean I had been told by 2 different people that that wasn't the case. They never even offered to look up "policy". It was just going to be because they said so. Dad and I drug out the BIG yellow highlighter and made the important information very noticiable. If you know what I mean and I marched my butt straight to HR and laid it on her desk and asked her what she thought about that. I thought she was going to swallow her tounge. Needless to say FMLA papers were signed and all was right with the world again. For now anyway.
Fingerprints!!!!!!!! 02/20/04
Wow, that was fast. We got our appointment letter last week to have our fingerprints done today. Michael and I took off for the Gene Snyder Building in Downtown Louisville for our appointment. We got there early and let me tell you the place was packed and we had to wait forever, but what do you do but suck it up and wait. This is one step that we can't "skip". We met lots of adoptive parents while we were waiting. One couple had been in the process so long that their fingerprints had expired and they were having to have them redone. Apparantly they are only good for 1 year. Yikes!!!!!!!! What if it takes us longer than a year???
Turns out a big part of the wait was the fingerprinting machine was broken. Go figure. Once they got it fixed things started moving. We were there almost 2 hours before it was finally our turn. It wasn't what we had expected. I thought just the cop shows on T.V. LOL Black ink and white 10 card. Nope not at all. It was some sort of scanner that they rolled your fingers around on. No ink just some corn huskers lotion. This just all gets more interesting everyday.
After our fingerprint appointment was done, we went and ate lunch at Pizza Hut. Our favorite. :o) Then it was off to Walgreens to have our pics taken for our passports. It only takes a couple of minutes to get them and then we took off for the post office to drop off our passport applications.
Turns out a big part of the wait was the fingerprinting machine was broken. Go figure. Once they got it fixed things started moving. We were there almost 2 hours before it was finally our turn. It wasn't what we had expected. I thought just the cop shows on T.V. LOL Black ink and white 10 card. Nope not at all. It was some sort of scanner that they rolled your fingers around on. No ink just some corn huskers lotion. This just all gets more interesting everyday.
After our fingerprint appointment was done, we went and ate lunch at Pizza Hut. Our favorite. :o) Then it was off to Walgreens to have our pics taken for our passports. It only takes a couple of minutes to get them and then we took off for the post office to drop off our passport applications.
The Homestudy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 02/09/04
Whooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!! Today I am taking off work to pickup the homestudy and drop it off at INS. I am so excited I can't hardly stand it. Once they get the homestudy, we can get fingerprinted and then the wait for the sought after I-171H. Which is the approval to bring an orphan into the U.S.
I dropped the homestudy off early this morning and they said they would be mailing us an appointment for our fingerprints. Things are starting to move along much faster than I had thought.
I'm going to start working at Mom's office on Fridays to make some extra money and keep myself occupied since I'm not chasing down papers everywhere. I've gotten all of our papers for the regions typed up and ready to go, our physicals are in order, criminal background checks are in, police clearance is in, abuse check is in, homestudy is ready to go, employment verification letters are done, our social workers license, agency license, post placement agreement, our deed, am I forgetting something??? We have to send off to get our passports which takes about 6 weeks to get them back and the I-171H and we have everything. We've still got about 2 months to get those 2 things together and send off the completed dossier.
I dropped the homestudy off early this morning and they said they would be mailing us an appointment for our fingerprints. Things are starting to move along much faster than I had thought.
I'm going to start working at Mom's office on Fridays to make some extra money and keep myself occupied since I'm not chasing down papers everywhere. I've gotten all of our papers for the regions typed up and ready to go, our physicals are in order, criminal background checks are in, police clearance is in, abuse check is in, homestudy is ready to go, employment verification letters are done, our social workers license, agency license, post placement agreement, our deed, am I forgetting something??? We have to send off to get our passports which takes about 6 weeks to get them back and the I-171H and we have everything. We've still got about 2 months to get those 2 things together and send off the completed dossier.
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