MY TURN NOW

Got a call the night before last. Agency called - Vietnam rep had emailed and said province wanted me there for the G&R on the 12th of Feb. I said they've got to be kidding - as much as I want to go get this child, I couldn't leave on two days notice, don't have my Visa, kids have to be shipped out, dogs set up in kennel, tickets bought etc. Requested a delay until the 24th or 25th. They agreed. So now I am making list upon list of things I have to do, shopping for airline tickets and finding a hotel.
looks like I will be leaving on the 20th or 21st and returning on the 8th or 9th. Too much to do between now and then.
Visas, Tickets; hotel reservations; DS games for A for plane; new power cord for DVD player for A for plane (puppies chewed last one); small backpack with toys for S; couple of outfits for S; talk to A's teacher for school work for him to take; legal guardianship for the girls so the people they are staying with can take them to the Dr's if necessary; what do the schools need so friends can pick up girls etc while I am gone.

So many things to take care of

So little time . . . . .

Christmas 2008

So now we are up to Christmas. For some reason I just couldn't get in the mood as well as I have in previous years. Don't know why, could have been many things; letdown over not going to Vietnam before the holidays; puppies destroying all Christmas decorations that were in reach - therefore not being able to put up a big tree but making do with a small tabletop tree in the (mostly unused) formal dining room; sister and brother, for some unknown reason, cutting me off for the last year; not having the $$ to go all out for presents like I usually do; concern about financing the last portion of the adoption - with not finalizing this year, I'll have to wait an additional year for the adoption tax rebate- thus another year of very tight finances and several other things. Did my best to be upbeat for the kids but it really got blown away when my son opened a box that had his big gift from Santa in it. I had thought it was something else and was flabbergasted when I realized what had happened. Luckily A was suspicious about Santa after walking in on me stuffing stockings last year so I told him the truth. He was OK with it and felt somewhat superior to his older sister who still believes. Although I don't know how she can, she saw the gift when he opened the box and again from Santa.

Christmas dinner was a bust also - amusing looking back - I'm not usually such a poor cook. I had gotten another turkey breast and all the fixins. This time the kids decided they wanted some stuff that I didn't have and I found that I was out of fried onions for the green bean casserole. So off to the grocery I went. Fried onions were a hard to find item and I was almost ready to call it quits when I found a small bag and grabbed the last one. Back home I finished preparations then realized that the turkey had to cook a lot longer than I thought. Had everything but the turkey ready for a 6pm dinner. Son was starving so I decided to have our dinner on Christmas day instead of Christmas eve. Fed A and ate a bit myself. Girls nibbled. When the turkey was done all three kids wanted to eat, I wasn't hungry but what could I do. They fixed themselves plates and watched TV while they ate. At around 9pm. We put everything away and fixed it again on Christmas day, another casual meal in front of the Wii which was the kids big present from me this year.

Otherwise a very relaxed holiday. I had taken a few days off to make it a full two weeks for me and we just kicked back and relaxed. It was a wonderful vacation albeit not a Christmassy one.

Adoption update - none

Round about a week or so before Thanksgiving my adoption agency said that they had everything they needed and there was only one step to go before I could travel to get my son. A paper had to be signed by the provincial police then signed by the DIA (central adoption office) and sent back to the orphanage or provincial something, then the G&A (official adoption ceremony in VietNam) could be set. The adoption agency didn't quite think it could be done quickly enough that I could travel and return before Christmas (I didn't want to be away from my kids at Christmas) but expected that I would be able to travel right afterwards. Well, as far as I know, that is where things still stand. I called the agency a week after Thanksgiving and they had no more information for me. I called just before Christmas and still no information, they shut down over Christmas (two weeks as far as I could tell) so no information when I called again on the 5th. They keep telling me 'soon', but I don't know what that means. Unfortunately, I can't travel at the drop of a hat and need some time to finalize arrangements for my daughters and the pets etc, all are tentatively set but details need to be finalized when the date is set. I figure I need a minimum of two weeks before I can get on a plane and would like at least three weeks. Well see, maybe I'll get some news this upcoming week.

Thanksgiving

Have I told you that I am not a cook? I can cook, but am somewhere between adequate and ok in the cooking department. So, Thanksgiving dinner was planned to be a Turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean cassarole and pumpkin pie. With olives and stuffed celery on the side. Last year I cooked a whole turkey and ended up tossing a fair amount from the freezer as it had been in there too long. So this year it was to be only the breast as the 4 of us can't eat that much of a whole turkey. I decided to bake the turkey on top of the stuffing so the stuffing would pick up the juices. Don't know exactly where I went wrong, but the stuffing was either soggy mush (the part under the turkey) or burned crispy (the parts not under the turkey). So stuffing was off the menu. The rest of the meal was great and we made piggies of ourselves.

I'm Back - Happy 2009

Apologies to those who have been watching my blog, hoping for an update or some good news. Well there isn't any. By way of explanation, the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, but the last couple haven't been so good. We lost a beloved family pet last year, right before Christmas when she somehow managed to get to some chocolate that had been pushed way back behind some stuff on the kitchen cabinet (we were baking and had left it there thinking it was safe, to be used the next day), my brother and sister have figuratively pushed me out of the family and aren't talking to me and I have no clue why and the Vietnam adoption stuff didn't come together as I hoped. And finally, I couldn't decorate like I love to because the horrible little monsters (HLM) aka puppies tore everything up, so I was, while not really depressed, seriously bummed.

We had an OK holiday season and the kids didn't seem to notice that mommy wasn't up to snuff so they had a good Christmas. I'll do a synopsis of the holidays, but in a couple of posts so it isn't a mile long.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving is over and another Christmas season is starting. Thanksgiving dinner was edible and that was one of the good things. I didn't cook a whole turkey this year as I always end up throwing alot of the leftovers away. This year I cooked only a turkey breast. Which I just remembered (7 hours later) was still in the microwave where I put it to keep the cats off while we ate our dinner. Had to throw it away - hated to do it but I wouldn't want to eat it after it sat (unrefridgerated) for 7 hours. Too bad - at least there wasn't much left on it. Anyway, I wasn't going to cook stuffing as no one eats it, but the kids convinced me to cook some. I put it in the bottom of the pan and placed the turkey breast on top - I rembered doing it that way in the past when it was only me eating. Something was different this year though, the stuffing became dried out, burned bread cubes. That also got tossed. The rest of the dinner was very good. I'm not a cook, however so I was just glad that we got what we got. And I am thankful, that for all my whining about not having any money, we had a good dinner and didn't have to eat the burned parts.

Christmas is going to be interesting this year. I don't know if I am going to put up a tree or not. If I do, it will somehow have to be protected from the destructive duo (aka puppies). They chew EVERYTHING!. In fact, we will be going out tomorrow or Saturday to buy A a new pair of shoes. His seem to be the preferred chew toys - of course, that could be because he takes them off and drops them wherever so they are easy for the puppys to find. So far, nothing really major has been chewed but I don't think I'm brave enough to put up a Christmas Tree and put presents under it. This is really going to require some thought.

Puppies are going to puppy kindergarden and are really smart. We started teaching them to ring a bell on the back door to let us know that they need to go out and it didn't take an entire day for them to get the hang of it. Of course, now they ring it all the time just so they can go out - I also believe that they feel that they have trained us - look, we hit this bell with our noses and the big hairless ones run to open the door for us!

Bits & Pieces & I600 approvals

It has been way too long since I posted but life here has become very busy recently. The two pups are growing like weeds. I took them in for their 2nd round of puppy shots last weekend and they have more that doubled in weight. The harnesses we bought when we brought them home no longer fit. And, of course, as they get bigger, the more they can reach to get in to. They have already chewed the audio cable on the kids computer. and, also of course, since A plays all these fighting games and insists that he has to have the sound up, I haven't made a strong effort to get new speakers. Bad Mom!

Both A and C have had a couple of bad weeks at school. A because, for some reason, he just quit trying and started putting the first thing that came to him down as the answer without even making an attempt to read the instructions or the story that went with the questions or anything. This doesn't make for good grades - let me tell you. His teacher talked to him, I talked to him, I tried bribing him, threatening to take away things from him, nothing worked. Then his reading teacher found the key. She told him that she would be checking with his regular teacher and if he hadn't made a good effort on a paper, he would come in to her room and stay until he did his best on the paper. He'd miss computer time, specials, recess, whatever, until he had done the work to the best of his ability. This was the key, he is now back on track and doing better. I don't know what set him off, but he is an A/B student and for him to be bringing home 43's and 25's was bad. He is dyslexic, but they didn't think that was it at all. It may be related to bringing home little brother soon, he has said that he is a little afraid that LB won't like him and he is also loosing his 'baby of the family' status, but he always seems eager to go get LB.

C, on the other hand, is learning that she needs to ask for help studying for her tests. She has straight A'd it since coming home 3.5 years ago, but it has been on memorization alone. This year, in 4th grade, she is having to learn, to think, and to reason and since her comprehension isn't at a home-grown 4th grader's level, it is hard for her. For some reason, she just won't admit that she needs help or that she doesn't understand/know something. As a result, she is not doing as well as she could.

The furry babies are 3 months old now and start puppy kindergarten tomorrow. This should be an experience. I don't know if they will let me take pictures, but if they do, I'll post some.

And last, but not least! I got my i600 approval this morning. This means that the CIS has determined that LB is truely free for adoption under international adoption law and I will be able to get a visa and bring him home. They expect me to be able to travel in a couple of weeks, but I told them that unless I can be home in time for Christmas, I'd rather wait until after. If I could afford to take all the kids, I wouldn't hesitate to go for Christmas, but since I can't, I don't want to be away from them. So I can wait a couple more weeks. LB won't know the difference. We'll save his presents for him and have another smaller Christmas when he gets home.