At Last

We are thrilled to announce that we have a referral for a beautiful baby girl! More details to come soon.

My Playboys

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Easter!
A quick, funny story:
The first Easter after we brought Chipmunk home, we took a picture of him with the bunny ears on and sent it to our agency's Moscow office. We just wanted to wish them Easter blessings and include a cute, updated photo of Chipmunk. We never thought anymore about it after that.
When we went to the Moscow office the next year, during Monkey's adoption, we were showing updated pictures of Chipmunk and several office workers kept referring to our little playboy. We figured there was some language barrier and just nodded and agreed with what they were saying. A few minutes later, the director walked us over to the board filled with childrens pictures and pointed out the Chipmunk's Easter picture from the previous year. She proudly said "Our playboy." Turns out, they had never heard of the Easter bunny in Moscow and their only association with people wearing bunny ears is Hu*gh Hef*ner's Playboy bunnies. That is what they thought Chipmunk was trying to be with the bunny ears on!! We quickly explained how the Easter bunny is an American tradition. We all laughed about it for awhile. And the office still jokingly refers to our boys as "their playboys". We make sure to send an updated playboy picture to them every Easter.

Winter Wonderland

What better way to pass the endless days of waiting than with 7-8 inches of snow! Over the weekend we had a big snowfall. We are used to getting between 1-3 inches of snow. So when the boys woke up on Saturday morning and saw the winter wonderland in our backyard, they were thrilled! We immediately suited up in winter gear (the Monkey does NOT like the cold weather much so he was wearing several layers; very reminiscent of the brother in A Christmas Story) and braved the cold and had a blast playing outside for several hours. I'll include a few pictures of our fun snow day:





Of course, now we are paying for all of that fun. The Monkey has come down with a bad case of croup and pneumonia on top of that. Poor little guy. It seems like he has been sick all winter. We are so ready for spring to arrive!

No news on the adoption front. I still have a feeling that something is going to happen soon, but of course, I've felt that way for almost a year now and we're still waiting:) But seriously, I really do expect to see some movement very soon. I would LOVE to have a referral before Easter but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'll be sure to post as soon as I hear anything.

Anxious

I'm not sure why but this past week has found me extremely anxious about the adoption. Not in a bad or depressed way; I guess I should call it more anticipation that anxiety. I don't know if it's because we have several good friends traveling to meet/pick up their children (both in Astrakhan and in Kyrgyzstan). We love following their journeys and hearing updates about their travels, but it is bringing up all of those memories of how exciting/overwhelming/exhausting the trips can be. Seeing pictures of the new families simply makes my heart melt. I'm sure knowing that we're near the top of the list isn't helping my patience level either.
Whatever the reason, this week has definitely brought a new level of anticipation to this process. I "feel" like something may happen soon. I have a need to finish so many of the projects that I've been putting off. I have a major case of nesting going on. I'm dying to start on the nursery, but I've promised myself that I'm leaving that project to undertake between our trips.
We've been on this journey for well over 18 months and have been waiting to meet our HotDog for almost 15 months (in both Russia and Kyrgyzstan). I feel almost a physical ache to hold my little girl in my arms.
The Chipmunk and I are heading to Atlanta this weekend to visit family. It will give the Monkey some good one-on-one time with his daddy, and will hopefully get my mind off of this craziness for a little while.

A Short and Sweet Story

I just had to share this sweet moment from this weekend. We had roasted turkey for dinner one night and, as always, I searched for the wishbone for the Chipmunk and Monkey. After breaking it, Chipmunk got the bigger end and I told him he could make a wish. He thought about it for a moment, and then said "I wish that HotDog comes home soon."
Me too, buddy...me too.

The Waiting Game

Many of you have asked when we can expect a referral. The short answer: Who knows?!
The longer answer: It is difficult to know when to expect a referral in Kyrgyzstan because there is no central database listing available children (as opposed to Russia). The children are referred as they enter the orphanages or in some cases the maternity hospitals. What we have heard from our agency sounds very promising. We are currently 4th in line (with our agency). However, our agency is expecting 2 referrals to come in this week, which means we will move up to number 2. And because we are very open in our request for a referral (regarding age/race/etc), there is a possibility that we will get a match ahead of the family in front of us. Does that make sense? So we are near the top of the list with our agency! Yeah! Of course, it could be several more months before any more referrals come to our agency. But knowing we are getting very close to seeing our little HotDog's face has me VERY excited. I'll admit, I've been sneaking peeks at all of the clothes for little girls. They are so cute! Especially the adorable little bathing suits. But not to worry (especially you, Stu!), I will resist the impulse to buy anything until we get our referral and know what size she is and her age. But after that, all bets are off!

The (Second to) Last Piece of the Puzzle

Today we received our updated I-171 with our country change! This was the very last piece of the dossier and we didn't expect to receive it for several more weeks. We were actually concerned that it might hold us up since the CIS is definitely not known for sending documents in a timely fashion. We were thrilled that we received our new 171 less than two weeks after sending in our change request. In addition to quick service, they let us know that they allow a one-time change of country for free. We completely expected to pay $340 to do this, so this was a wonderful bit of news. They also said we could go ahead and request an extension to our 171 at the same time (since it was due to expire in a couple of months) and they would take care of it all at the same time. Seriously, our local CIS office ROCKS!
Now the only thing we are waiting for is a referral. Sigh.