Monday, June 29, 2009

It's Gone, It's Gone

I got an email to say that my file has flown the country. Yahoo. It is on it's way to Kazakhstan. I wonder how long until I hear that my file has reach over there.

Time to start setting up the baby room.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Dossier to Embassy

It's gone! It's gone! My dossier and Diane's have gone to the Embassy.

At 4:51 this afternoon Diane called me. Her first question was if I had read my email today. I started to get excited and say, "Did they go? Did they go?" Poor Diane was trying to wait until I read the message myself as she sort of knew they were to go today as she was bugging Krista at our Agency on Friday. She didn't want to spoil the surprise. But I was in meetings all day and just checked my email twice (wasn't I showing incredible restraint only checking twice). I was online at 3:32, I know because I sent an email out at 3:32. The email from Krista came at 3:45. I wasn't online at that time.

Okay, calm down, deep breath, now tell the story properly. It is a good story, well at least to me. Diane and I have been taking turns bugging Krista at our Agency. One week I ask about our files and the next week she would ask. On Friday Diane decided it was her turn to bug so she sent an email to find out if there was any action on the horizon. Krista responded by saying she'd just heard from the Consulate and the agency would be able to send files on Monday (today). Being the good friend she is, Diane asked if the files being sent would include mine. So poor Diane has known all weekend that they were to go today, but as I said she wanted me to have the joy of reading the email. And on many days of the week I work at a computer with my email open all day and would have heard the 'ping' of new mail. As soon as I was on the phone with Diane, I checked my email and there was the message for me, subject line: Dossier to Embassy.

Well for the rest of her drive from work to Ciera's day care we talked a mile a minute about a dozen issues, but I'm afraid I hardly remember any of them. Actually I was dusting a couple of shelves while I was on the phone. I don't know why I was dusting, it's not a normal activity. But while on the phone with Diane I got a rag and the lemon oil and took all the books off the shelf and dusted. Is this what cocooning is like? Am I beginning to nest? Will I change out of my 'laissez faire' style of house work and become a clean freak????? Yikes, I have no idea what the coming months will bring.

Anyway, dossier's next stop is to be authenticated and then off to Kazakhstan.

I'm so excited I can hardly think straight. Now, let see, so far I've told my brother, Loretta, my friend Anna. That leaves...the rest of the universe. Yahoo!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

No News This Week

Another week passes and another week without news. Diane and I exchange phone calls and emails as we await the news that our files have finally been sent to the consulate. I'm sure when we finally hear that the remarkable event has occurred everyone will hear our cries of "about time" across our respected cities.

I haven't been posting that much because ... well nothing is happening (have you caught that thread yet????), but last night I realized that 'nothing's happening' is not the truth. Something happens most days. And if nothing actually happens during the day I will have read or think or dream of something. Will it be worthy of sharing? Maybe not. But it will be worthy of recording to remind myself of everything when I'm finally a mommy.

I was on the phone last night with Loretta. She and Alex survived and thrived through their first week with Loretta back at work. Alex is the sweetest little boy. I keep teasing that I want the Alex- Mark 2 for myself. He is almost 14 months old and nearly walking independently, he takes a couple of steps and looses his balance or confidence and down he goes. Alex is very observant. Last weekend when I was at Loretta's house, Alex saw the flicker of reflected sunlight on the ceiling. It was just a tiny patch of light, but Alex pointed it out to us all. At Loretta's mother's house Alex noticed when the light fixtures were replaced and more remarkably, Alex noticed two clocks on the wall had been swaped. I've been in and out of the house and I don't think I'd have ever noticed if it hadn't been pointed out to me. Both are roughly the same size and colour, just a slightly different shape. It is incredible that children who can't verbalize can get across what they are thinking and noticing.

Alex was also very cute with my sister Kathryn. Kathryn is incredible shy and especially around little children. She will not make eye contact with little children, she never has and I doubt she ever will. Well, last weekend I was holding Alex while sitting beside Kathryn. Alex tried to make eye contact and Kathryn wouldn't look at him. So Alex began to very gently pinch Kathryn's arm. I wonder what Alex was thinking during this exchange. I also wonder what Kathryn thought. She didn't seem to be bothered by me holding and playing with Alex. A hopeful sign for when she becomes an aunt.

As Alex grows out of clothes Loretta washes them up and sends them on to me. I know that it is more likely that I will adopt a boy in Kazakhstan rather than a girl, but if I do adopt a girl she might suffer from gender identity difficulties as all her clothes will be boys clothes. LOL

It's Saturday morning and Kathryn is training me for being the mother of a little person. We talked about getting up at 4:15 this morning, and again at 5:20. Finally at 6:10 she was determined to get up, so we've been up and watching her favourite, Lawrence Welk, since 6:10. Lots of chores around the house have been ignored for most of the week, so I guess I should stop procrastinating.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Still Waiting

D. and I are still waiting for our files to go to the Embassy. It's been over 6 weeks now. D. said she can understand waiting when the paperwork is in Kazakhstan, but having it here in Canada is driving her crazy. I totally understand. I'm beginning to go insane. I knew this process was going to be a total roller coaster, but I didn't realize I was going to be going insane at each stage.

D's file is the first file to go for her program and mine is the first to go for my program. As they are both at the head of the line, I really, really, really hope that they both go to the embassy and on to Kazakhstan together. It would just kill the other if one file went and not the other. You know we are going to take it personally. Our friendship might not take the strain... ya right, I don't think so, we'll just get on the phone and bitch to each other like...usual.

I spent a lot of time with L and her son in the past couple of weeks. That's sort of over now that she is back to work. Unbelievable that it has been over 9 months since she left to travel to Kazakhstan to meet her son. He became a Canadian citizen last month. But according to a letter in the Citizenship package, he doesn't have full rights of a citizen in that he is considered to be a 1st generation Canadian and as such his children if born outside Canada will not be granted automatic citizenship. Okay, I know it is REALLY strange to be worrying about the offspring of a 1 year old, but we were told adopting using the old Immigration process the child would have full citizenship. But this letter says the opposite. We'll have to look into it more. Another hassle for children we haven't even met yet.

I really hope we have good news this week. I know I'm driving myself around the bend thinking and talking about this process, so what I'm I doing to my brother, friends and co-workers. They are probably avoiding me so as not to have to hear what I have to say again. I sound just like a broken record because I keep saying the same thing over and over because nothing has really changed for the longest time.