One Quick Due Date

Hi Everyone-

Imagine you decide to start trying to have a baby. You get all your little ducks in a row- get the house baby-proofed, nursery decorated, get your job prepared, figure out how to get time off work and how to add a child to your insurance, buy all the bottles/clothes/monitors. You do all those things that people who have babies do. Then you find out you are suddenly pregnant. And that you’re due in 10 days. And you are going to give birth in a country located halfway around the world. You’d be a little stressed out, wouldn’t you? Please tell me it’s not just me but I am totally FREAKING OUT in a big way! I know that things are not set in stone or anything but I have been trying to go through the list of things we will need to bring with us and there is still so much I need to get done! The email that followed the phone call this morning said that we would need to be in the city where our child is by the 18th or maybe even the 17th, which means that we would have to leave here the 16th or maybe 15th. It’s now the 4th- holy smokes! And I found out that we have to get some letter from Peter’s work attesting to the fact that we have health insurance. It, of course, needs to be notarized/apostilled and his employer is based in Arizona which means that we will either be frantically FedEx-ing stuff back and forth from them after they type it up and get it notarized (hopefully correctly on the first try), to us in DC, back to AZ to the Sec of State’s office who we hope is not on vacation and will put the stamp on it really really fast and FedEx it back to us OR we are going to need to hire someone to pick up the letter from his work and personally take it over to the SOS office, wait for it, and then overnight it to us. How do we even do that? Is it possible? Aaargh! Peter offered to fly me to AZ to get it done- it’s insanity! And of course then there’s the passport visa to enter Kaz itself which will be totally last minute. I am wondering though if I can just bring it to the Kaz Embassy which is about a 15 minute drive from our house. Hmmm… And we have to get Rin’s passport which is going to have to be last minute and a giant pain in the rear. I guess I need to dig up all his original birth certificates and stuff. And we have to do this all while still taking care of our adorable but very attention-seeking preschooler. I am glad that it is last minute though. It gives me less time to worry about all the things that can go wrong. And there are things that can go wrong- but we’re not thinking about those right now. I am just keeping my eyes ahead and looking forward to seeing that sweet face for the first time. I just get the chills every time I think about it. I want to know what he/she will look like and what the little personality will be. If the powers that be are listening, I would like a calm one this time please. That’d be great thanks.

Love to all -m

When I got word about the possible upcoming trip, I was actually in the process of writing a blog post about how we hadn’t heard anything yet. I included it below just to show how your world can turn around with one phone call. I still can’t believe it. More news to come soon. We’re hoping it’s good.
Hi all-
I know. I haven’t blogged in forever. I have to be honest with you- I was waiting for news on the adoption front. I haven’t even bought plane tickets to Kazapalooza because I keep thinking we’ll get word soon. Still no word but we are hopeful it will be soon. Sometimes I have to remind myself that despite my best efforts, I am not actually able to mentally will it to happen by telekinesis. I am not one to sit around and wait for things to happen. I am lazy- this I admit- but once I decide to do something, it gets done. But in adoption it doesn’t really work that way. The fact that I am not in charge sort of hit home on the way to the lake this weekend. We left at Rinat’s bedtime on Thursday thinking it would be great to drive while he’s snoozing in the backseat so we don’t have to hear the inevitable “Are we there yet? I want a lollipop.” a million and a half times during our 5 hour drive. That was smart planning on our part- if only we had looked at the weather report. We hadn’t gotten even an hour outside of the city when it began to rain. OK, rain’s no big deal, I just figured it would just take a little longer to get there. Then it got heavier and then heavier as I leaned closer and closer to the windshield to try and see what lay ahead of us. People began to slow down from 70 to 40. As it got worse, they eventually slowed down to 20 and put on their hazard lights. Then we saw some people who had stopped underneath the overpasses to wait it out (how smart!), then people pulled to the side of the road. Then the ENTIRE highway- 4 lanes of traffic- came to a dead halt as we were unable to see further than 5 feet in front of our car. Peter eased the car over to the side of the road and put it in park to wait it out. Before we knew it, the rain got louder in a way that we knew it was no longer just rain. We looked out the windshield and hail the size of Skittles bounced off the car’s hood and piled up. I looked above to make sure the sunroof was covered in case it was shattered by the storm. The noise as it pummeled our car was so deafening that Peter and I could hardly hear each other talk. I had never been outside in the middle of anything like this (OK in the car, but still) and it was truly scary. There was literally nothing that we could do but sit there and wait while it raged around us. All of us people, sitting in our cars, given over to the amazing power of nature. It sort of makes me rethink the whole idea that I am in charge of anything. And then, miraculously, it cleared. The hail slowed and stopped, the rain lessened to a drizzle, cars began to tentatively creep back onto the road and into the travel lanes, my heart began to slow down its frantic beating, and all was back to normal. I then realized that I had heard not a peep from the back seat. I turned around and our sweet, exhausted boy had slept through the whole thing. Oh, to be young again…

Once we made it to the lake after 2 in the morning, all was well and we had a fantastically relaxing time. The weather was sunny, the lake water was warm, and the daiquiris were ice cold. It was fabulous. My cousin and his wife joined us with their 1 year old and I just spent the whole time thinking that hopefully soon we will have another little one of our own. A cute, sweet one like him, please.