Sunday, April 21, 2013
I discovered what is NOT my true calling...
In case I needed solid evidence, I discovered yesterday that my true calling in life is definitely not to become a firefighter, or any other emergency personnel for that matter. While I was pre-heating the oven to bake muffins (a typical and once- thought safe activity), the oven started to make the most awful noise, like metal objects were flying around inside of it. Then a whole bunch of sparks flew out of the oven, followed by some smoke. My first reaction, of course, was some wordless screams. After that I had collected myself enough to scream specific things: "FIRE!", "MATT!", "SPARKS!", "MATT!". By the time Matt got to the kitchen, the sparks had died down and he was able to bravely turn off the oven. It turns out the "heater thing" in our very old oven broke and was sending electricity everywhere. I"m just happy it didn't happen while I was out walking the dogs and nobody was home. So, there is no more baking right now for me and definitely no applying to firefighter jobs!
Saturday, April 20, 2013
We Passed Court!
The last week has been tough on me. We hadn't received any updates on our baby in a month and our agency kept promising us new pictures of him, but we never got any (and checking my email 100 times a day didn't help any either). We still do not have any new pictures, but we received even bigger news yesterday: Our adoption has been approved in DRC court. This came as quite a surprise since we did not know our case was even ready to go to court and nobody told us we had been assigned a court date. I don't know all the details of how it worked out. All I know is that a process that is estimated to take four months only took one month for us. Even our case worker said this all happened "miraculously fast". It is definitely nice that something happened faster than usual and helps make up for the fact that our home study stretched on for seven months instead of the usual four.
The post- adoption documents are now being translated into English so we can begin our work with the US Embassy. Next week we will begin filling out the I600 immigration paperwork. While we work on that, the process of obtaining a passport for our son starts. After the 5-6 weeks it takes USCIS to approve our I600 paperwork, the Embassy finally begins their 3-6 month long orphan investigation. It does seem backward that the Embassy investigates an orphan's eligibility for adoption at the very last possible stage of the process. You would think that would be the first thing done, but I guess they don't want to invest too much time in a child until a family is working on adopting him.
Anyway, when the Embassy can verify that our baby meets US orphan status, they will issue him an US immigrant visa. Then we can finally fly to Congo and bring him home. We still have some long waits ahead, but we are finally on the last stretch of this process. Right now we are figuring we will bring our son home sometime next winter.
The post- adoption documents are now being translated into English so we can begin our work with the US Embassy. Next week we will begin filling out the I600 immigration paperwork. While we work on that, the process of obtaining a passport for our son starts. After the 5-6 weeks it takes USCIS to approve our I600 paperwork, the Embassy finally begins their 3-6 month long orphan investigation. It does seem backward that the Embassy investigates an orphan's eligibility for adoption at the very last possible stage of the process. You would think that would be the first thing done, but I guess they don't want to invest too much time in a child until a family is working on adopting him.
Anyway, when the Embassy can verify that our baby meets US orphan status, they will issue him an US immigrant visa. Then we can finally fly to Congo and bring him home. We still have some long waits ahead, but we are finally on the last stretch of this process. Right now we are figuring we will bring our son home sometime next winter.
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| there is no better way to celebrate than with homemade chocolate cake |
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
We are home (tired, but happy) from a wonderful 12 day visit with our families in Virginia and North Carolina {and, yes, it did take three modes of transportation to get from Idaho to everybody's houses on the East Coast.}
First, we flew to the Washington, D.C. area to visit Matt's family over Easter weekend. It was so nice to visit with Matt's parents, his younger brother, older sister and brother- in- law, two very cute nieces, and uncle and aunt. Most of the time was spent catching up, but we managed outings to a children's museum in Baltimore and Shenandoah National Park. I am ashamed to say we were quite unprepared for our trip to Shenandoah. It was in the 60s and sunny when we left the house, but a storm blew in that afternoon. There was still some significant snow on the ground, which surprised us, and the storm quickly made the temperatures drop and created some very gusty winds. Matt and his brother braved a short hike in the snow while Matt's parents and I waited in the warm car. We had a nice scenic drive and a frigid picnic and called it a day. I guess you never know what to expect in springtime in the mountains.
We decided to take Amtrak from Washington, DC to Raleigh, NC to visit my dad and his wife. Usually we rent a car and drive, but our trips always became much longer than expected because of bad traffic or getting lost. With Amtrak, we didn't have to stress over traffic or directions, but we still arrived close to two hours late due to engine trouble. We are still looking for the best way to travel from Virginia to North Carolina....
In North Carolina we had a nice time visiting with my family and enjoyed some lovely spring weather. We spent a lot of time in downtown Raleigh exploring historic areas and museums. We also visited an old gristmill, an old cotton farm and went on a hike at Raven Rock State Park. The hike was fun, but the crowds were a shock. Hiking outside of Raleigh is much different than hiking outside of our tiny Idaho town, where we might come across only a couple people and a pack horse. But, we couldn't beat the company or the pleasant weather.
All of the travelling was tiring, but all in all we had a great time visiting with everybody. It was so nice to see how excited our family is to meet our Baby Boy. We soaked up everybody's love and interest and excitement to give us the emotional support we need for the rest of our adoption. We can't wait to bring our baby home and have him meet the rest of our family.
First, we flew to the Washington, D.C. area to visit Matt's family over Easter weekend. It was so nice to visit with Matt's parents, his younger brother, older sister and brother- in- law, two very cute nieces, and uncle and aunt. Most of the time was spent catching up, but we managed outings to a children's museum in Baltimore and Shenandoah National Park. I am ashamed to say we were quite unprepared for our trip to Shenandoah. It was in the 60s and sunny when we left the house, but a storm blew in that afternoon. There was still some significant snow on the ground, which surprised us, and the storm quickly made the temperatures drop and created some very gusty winds. Matt and his brother braved a short hike in the snow while Matt's parents and I waited in the warm car. We had a nice scenic drive and a frigid picnic and called it a day. I guess you never know what to expect in springtime in the mountains.
We decided to take Amtrak from Washington, DC to Raleigh, NC to visit my dad and his wife. Usually we rent a car and drive, but our trips always became much longer than expected because of bad traffic or getting lost. With Amtrak, we didn't have to stress over traffic or directions, but we still arrived close to two hours late due to engine trouble. We are still looking for the best way to travel from Virginia to North Carolina....
In North Carolina we had a nice time visiting with my family and enjoyed some lovely spring weather. We spent a lot of time in downtown Raleigh exploring historic areas and museums. We also visited an old gristmill, an old cotton farm and went on a hike at Raven Rock State Park. The hike was fun, but the crowds were a shock. Hiking outside of Raleigh is much different than hiking outside of our tiny Idaho town, where we might come across only a couple people and a pack horse. But, we couldn't beat the company or the pleasant weather.
All of the travelling was tiring, but all in all we had a great time visiting with everybody. It was so nice to see how excited our family is to meet our Baby Boy. We soaked up everybody's love and interest and excitement to give us the emotional support we need for the rest of our adoption. We can't wait to bring our baby home and have him meet the rest of our family.
Monday, March 25, 2013
We are a Police Family
Matt and I got married when we were 21 years old. He started his career as a police officer a couple months before our wedding so I have essentially been a police officer's wife my whole adult life. Because this is all I have ever known as an adult married woman, I tend to forget that our life and schedules can be a little unusual. While it has just been the two of us all these years, it hasn't been such a big deal- I try to be flexible and have generally adapted to it. I am used to the crazy schedules, eating alone, police gear everywhere, lonely nights, dirty work boots, phone calls in the middle of the night, the disturbing, heartbreaking, and frightening stories and a stressed out overworked husband. However, we will eventually be adding a baby to the mix. Thinking about how all that will work out has made me reflect on the last seven years of our marriage.
For the vast majority of the past seven years, Matt has worked night shift. He goes to work at 5 pm and works until at least 3 am, sometimes until 6 am. I have always been a night owl myself and since I have lived with Matt's schedule for so long, I have (unintentionally) adjusted myself to a more moderate night shift schedule as well. I suppose that will have to change somewhat when we get our baby.
During most of our marriage, Matt has worked every Saturday. I can't remember ever going to an event, party, or festival with my husband on a Saturday. On most Sunday mornings he is asleep or on call. For the past couple of years I have gone to church by myself 90% of the time. I really hope Matt will be able to go church more often in the future since I think it is important for children to see their fathers go to church (even if they are spiritual leaders in other areas).
Matt has been on call most years for Christmas and Thanksgiving. This means we have to turn down invitations to other people's homes, don't want to invite people over, and we spend our holiday meal hoping the phone won't ring. For just the two of us, it is not usually a huge deal, but I truly hope not many future holidays will be ruined for our children because of a call-out. Matt has worked and will always work on New Years Eve, July 4th and Labor Day weekend. I have always missed celebrating those holidays with Matt and I wish in the future he could spend them making memories with his children.
Matt works for a very small police department so whenever another officer is sick or out of town, he has to be on call, sometimes for a week or longer. You have to experience being on call 24 hours a day for days on end to truly appreciate how stressful this is. Even on Matt's weekends (and he is not on call) when we are watching t.v. at night, sometimes we receive a call from dispatch- sometimes by mistake and sometimes because there is no other available officer in the area.
When we first moved to this town, people used to come to our house looking for various police services: to report crimes, complain about tickets, etc. We had to put a sign on our door telling people how inappropriate this was. The sign has helped, surprisingly. We always have to use a little extra caution because there is a chance a disgruntled person will come to our home looking to do us harm. This has happened to other officers and Matt has received threats.
Being married to a police officer isn't all gloom and hardships, though. It is a fairly stable job, compared to some. It is a job that will demonstrate the importance of serving others to our children. Plus, we have a family plan for when the zombies attack (you can never be too prepared).
Some things will have to be adjusted for our future children and some things our children will just have to adjust to. Matt is not just a police officer, we are a Police Family- the job affects all of us and we are all in it together.
For the vast majority of the past seven years, Matt has worked night shift. He goes to work at 5 pm and works until at least 3 am, sometimes until 6 am. I have always been a night owl myself and since I have lived with Matt's schedule for so long, I have (unintentionally) adjusted myself to a more moderate night shift schedule as well. I suppose that will have to change somewhat when we get our baby.
During most of our marriage, Matt has worked every Saturday. I can't remember ever going to an event, party, or festival with my husband on a Saturday. On most Sunday mornings he is asleep or on call. For the past couple of years I have gone to church by myself 90% of the time. I really hope Matt will be able to go church more often in the future since I think it is important for children to see their fathers go to church (even if they are spiritual leaders in other areas).
Matt has been on call most years for Christmas and Thanksgiving. This means we have to turn down invitations to other people's homes, don't want to invite people over, and we spend our holiday meal hoping the phone won't ring. For just the two of us, it is not usually a huge deal, but I truly hope not many future holidays will be ruined for our children because of a call-out. Matt has worked and will always work on New Years Eve, July 4th and Labor Day weekend. I have always missed celebrating those holidays with Matt and I wish in the future he could spend them making memories with his children.
Matt works for a very small police department so whenever another officer is sick or out of town, he has to be on call, sometimes for a week or longer. You have to experience being on call 24 hours a day for days on end to truly appreciate how stressful this is. Even on Matt's weekends (and he is not on call) when we are watching t.v. at night, sometimes we receive a call from dispatch- sometimes by mistake and sometimes because there is no other available officer in the area.
When we first moved to this town, people used to come to our house looking for various police services: to report crimes, complain about tickets, etc. We had to put a sign on our door telling people how inappropriate this was. The sign has helped, surprisingly. We always have to use a little extra caution because there is a chance a disgruntled person will come to our home looking to do us harm. This has happened to other officers and Matt has received threats.
Being married to a police officer isn't all gloom and hardships, though. It is a fairly stable job, compared to some. It is a job that will demonstrate the importance of serving others to our children. Plus, we have a family plan for when the zombies attack (you can never be too prepared).
Some things will have to be adjusted for our future children and some things our children will just have to adjust to. Matt is not just a police officer, we are a Police Family- the job affects all of us and we are all in it together.
Friday, March 22, 2013
First Care Package
Our agency allows us to send a care package once a month to our son. The first care package is sent in a plastic container that will be used to hold his belongings while he resides in the transition house. We bought him a bunch of onesies (in a couple of different sizes because we don't really know how big he is right now), some socks (I discovered that baby socks are just about the cutest things ever), a very soft and cute giraffe lovey blanket, a teething toy and a couple of other small toys, and all the other necessities: baby wash, powder, lotion, oil, diaper rash cream, and liquid vitamins. It was so much fun preparing this care package for our son. We realize that most of this stuff will end up being donations to the transition house and we will never see it again. The most we can hope for is to be sent a picture of him wearing an outfit or holding a toy we sent him. But, even more than that, we hope that these small items make his life more comfortable while he waits for us.
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| Our son's first care package.....so much fun to buy the stuff....so sad we can't be there when he uses it |
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