The notary strikes again…

I picked up our psych eval today as promised.  Did I mention I loved our psychologist?  He actually had it finished on Friday, but we were out of town.  It looks pretty good.  I am described as charming and stable.  I got a chuckle out of that–so did my friend.  Kind of an odd combination….better than alternatives.  In a fit to satisfy my OCD I decided to try out the apostilling procedure for grins.  Why not, I was feeling lucky.  I happen to have a number of other items that needed to be apostilled, so I decided it was time.  I drove downtown to the Secretary of State where I came face to face with the first competent government worker during this whole process.  It was refreshing–until he told me that some of my documents were not the right type of notary.  Huh?  It seems that you have to have a notary junkit-or something like that-to have documents apostilled.  Luckily, I took the news well.  I have learned that I don’t really have a choice sometimes.  At least I got some documents finished.   On the mass chaos front, a.k.a. my life before vacation, things are slowly coming together.  I am taking it one day at a time and doing only what needs to be done in order for the next 24 hours to go smoothly.  I have to travel to Searcy, AR tomorrow to give a presentation and a lunch.  I really feel that this is the last barrier to my freedom.  I can’t wait for 1pm…..

Weekend Reflection

We made it back!  It was a fun weekend, it is always great to see family that you don’t see often.  We just relaxed and participated in my favorite past time.  EATING!  I love food.  I think it was also good for me to get away this weekend so I didn’t just run around the house like a chicken with my head cut off, neurotically checking things off the list to do before vacation-4 days-then adding another task to the end of the list.  I equivocate the situation to be similar to a mouse running on the wheel in his cage.  The drive back was even relaxing, I must have had extra chocolate today.  I am in a bizarrely calm mood, considering the massive list I made on my blog just 2 days ago.  I supposedly pick up the finished product of our psych eval tomorrow.  I have faith in this guy that it will happen.  I gave him the *warning* before I gave him the check, but after he was done assessing me.   He said that he expects to have it done Monday, unless something happens.  I told him that I will be fine up until Wednesday, then he probably won’t want to take my calls.   Wonder if that will turn up in my evaluation?  Controlling AND demanding.  :) 

On a very sad note, my friend who was in a coma passed away on Saturday morning.  I am happy that she is in a better place, but feel for her family and friends.  Death is always something that has been hard for me to grasp.  One day you are on the way home from work, then it is all over in an instant.  I know that there is a reason for everything, but that doesn’t necessarily ease the pain, especially for her parents or her spouse.  I wish them strength and peace during these trying times.

Tell me about your childhood…

You guessed it–the famed psych eval was today.  I never really thought I would have one of those in my life, but you never think you will do a lot of things.  The day started mundane enough, but then we got lost on the way to the psychologists office.  It was in the same building as some dentists, but not marked on the outside as such.  You know dental hygiene and psychiatry–one in the same?  So we made it, albeit late.  Which I hate.  I am on time almost to a fault.  I have been told that will change with children.  We were interviewed together, then separately, then administered a personality test.  The psychologist was very nice.  He wasn’t real intrusive.  I did feel bad because when he asked why we were there, a loaded question IMO, I said because it is a requirement.  Looking back, maybe I should have said it is to discover more about myself.  But honestly, I have *discovered myself* way too many times during this process.  I am sooo over it.  The personality test was interesting.  They asked the same questions in a different format for most of the test–all 360 of them.  Then there was my personal favorite.  True of False:  Your favorite sport to watch on TV is high jump and you like to collect stamps.  Or even better, You get annoyed when you receive junk mail.  You can defiantly tell that some of the questions are geared to find out if you are narcissistic (a.k.a. John Edwards syndrome), a random idiot on the edge at all times, or that you like to sit alone and cry–and drink.  It was a very sad test.  It will be interesting to see the results.  Will I be classified as a random narcissist who likes to drink alone while watching the high jump and collecting stamps?!?  I am going with no.  Hopefully I did not get off a line when answering my true/false questions.  You know the excuse I am talking about.  It is how you explain away a bad ACT score to your friends–”I got off a line”–yeah right.  After our soul searching we had lunch at Maria’s downtown.  They have great fried tacos.  I love them.  Unfortunately, my brown fat loves them too, so much that they stick with me.  Oh well!  We then left for Topeka, KS which is where we will be all weekend for a family reunion.  Hopefully I will have some funny pictures to post!

Craziness Ensues.

I know their comes a time right before vacation, when it feels like everything breaks loose–and we are right in the midst of that time.  Work is starting to become insane, our adoption is becoming insane, & our life is becoming insane.  Maybe this all happens to make you look forward to vacation more.  I dunno.  I was in Edwardsville, IL during the past 24 hours for the diversity event, it was really good.  The speaker was engaging and knowledgeable.  I didn’t have to break out any caffeinated sugar–a.k.a…chocolate.  We also received our authorization to get our fingerprints.  I will say that it only took a week to get our authorization.  Mildly impressive.  Note to all 171H or whatever they are now goers:  THE KC OFFICE ONLY DOES FINGERPRINTING FOR ADOPTIONS ON WEDNESDAY.  That is what our paper says, so maybe that is why we couldn’t get fingerprinted when we went up–it was Thursday.  So what is contributing to my OCD flare up?  Well….

First, our adoption.  We are so close to getting our information into our agency to be sent to Colombia but unfortunately, not before vacation.  We also can’t make it up to KC for fingerprinting before vacation.  While these are not bad issues, I want to be stress free “down under”. 

Second, my job.  I love my job.  I deal with people all day long and I am a people person–I think.  Part of my job is to be on pharmacy campuses-mostly in the fall and spring.  Before I go on vacation, I will set up a number of dinners, commit to a number of donations, clear out my 60 emails, return 10 voicemails, make a trip to Little Rock, and give a presentation.  Keep in mind, there are 5 working days before I leave.

Third, my life.  I love my life.  I would not ever trade my life–but it is wearing me down right now.  My friend was in a serious car accident yesterday–she is in a coma.  I have a family reunion this weekend in KC (in addition to the above travels), I have a psyc eval tomorrow (could actually be filed under adoption), my trip is not finished yet, I have so much laundry I can’t walk into the laundry room, and my house is a mess.  I have a HUGE HUGE HUGE issue with leaving my house in a mess before vacation.  Almost to the point, where it could drive me mad.  Keep in mind I have 3 days at home (including eveings) before I leave.  Did I mention we aren’t packed?

Am I having a panic attack?  Probably.  Am I OCD about the above things? Definately.  Will I get over it when the plane leaves the airport (minus my friend’s condition)?  Absolutely.  Until then all bets are off. 

The Clock is Ticking…

Unfortunately I am not speaking about the wait to our referral, but the next best thing (which is a distant second)–vacation!  9 days.  What will I count down obsessively once I go on vacation?  Hmmm…hopefully then it will be our referral.  Yet another lazy week.  Things are getting crazier at work, so I find myself with less time on my hands.  Oh well, I knew it was coming.  I will be traveling to a diversity seminar at SIUE tomorrow, so that should be exciting.  I am going to keep an optimistic outlook!  If you can’t already tell, I have a photography addiction.  Unfortunately, I don’t have much time or a plethora of subjects, but I like it none the less.  I especially like to photograph babies.  They are so cute that it should be really hard to mess up a shoot–unless they are fussy.  Below are some of my favorites.  I hope you like them!

Weekend wrap up

We had another relaxing weekend.  I am happy about that as it is going to be the last one we have at home for a while.  We have a family reunion in KC next weekend and then we leave for vacation!!!!  11 days.  I absolutely love it when we get to the under two week countdown.  We spent Saturday cleaning out our upstairs office.  We have accumulated so many books, then combine them with the leftover books from pharmacy school and that is just too many books!  So we boxed some up and moved them out of the house.  I am a purger, my husband a keeper–it made for a good marriage building exercise.  On an unrelated, but ironic note, the government strikes again.  I swear they have my name on a post it note to remind them to make my life hard.  A couple weeks ago, I had sent for certified copies of our marriage license and birth certificates.  I had requested these documents with a letter for the marriage license and the two appropriate forms for the birth certificates.  Along with $45 ($15 for each document).  So for my $45 what did I get????  THREE COPIES OF MY MARRIAGE LICENSE AND NO BIRTH CERTIFICATES.  Are you kidding me?!?  Chocolate!  Chocolate!  Bring on the chocolate!  I was in disbelief, but yet not surprised.  So I will get the pleasure of talking with the state on Monday.  I am looking forward to it.  The day ended on a fun note, we went to a friend’s graduation party Saturday evening and had a great time–it was a luau.  I love Hawaiian themed parties!  Aloha!

On the Rebound

I have rebounded from the pain inflicted by our government yesterday and am now a happy camper.  I woke up this morning and received a call from the counseling center who we have selected for our psych eval. It turns out they can do the whole evaluation next Friday.   Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  I love it when life throws me a bone.  One more thing to check off the list…..I had lunch with a friend downtown at Millie’s cafe.  It was pretty good.  If I had to classify the cuisine it would be American fusion.  I generally am kind of a picky eater, but I like to branch out now and again.  I try to live my life with the outlook that I will try anything once.   It makes it more interesting and I have found various hobbies that I was not so sure of at first glance-like surfing.  It is much harder than it looks and you have to paddle for your life to get out far enough, which is way too far from shore, but the ride in is good.  Unfortunately since we are land locked here in the heartland, I only get to do this on vacation.  And I am not sure I will be doing it in Australia, shark attack capital of the world.  As you can imagine, I am not Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush.  Just a crazy midwesterner that gives the locals a laugh and myself a board rash.    After a nice lunch, I had a pedicure.  Also very relaxing, especially because I am friends with most of the women.  So it was great to catch up–and for a laugh–while I get my feet reshaped into what resembles human anatomy.  I then decided–it’s time for chocolate.  Chocolate is the one item that can make it all good, especially brownies.   It’s like natural Xanax.  And really to top it off, it’s Friday!  Friday is my favorite day of the week.  It’s the thought of the coming two days all to yourself and the potential that they hold.  So what does the weekend hold you ask?  Oh yeah, the bain of my existence….home improvement.  At least I have chocolate…..

At least we had BBQ!

If I was to describe our experience today it would be….. at least we had good BBQ.   The morning started out innocently enough, but as we all know, visiting government offices can change that in an instant.   We arrived at Arthur Bryant’s to have some tasty BBQ around 11:00.  It was gooooood and sooo busy at 11am.  It is featured in the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, by Patricia Schultz.  It’s a fabulous read.  I use it to help plan our vacations and it has never let me down–a must have in the travel library.  So after eating beef at 11am, yes I know-I don’t really care for beef, let alone at 11am, we made our way to immigration.  Let the fun begin.  We made it through security without a problem to a HOT waiting room that was filled with individuals waiting for their deportation hearings.  Which, BTW, at 1pm, they were finishing up the 9am dockets.  You can imagine how restless the natives were getting, let alone their lawyers.  So when our appointment time came, we made our way through the sea of people to a small window that, of course, was bullet proof glass.  I told the gentleman that we were here to file our home study in accordance to our 1600A.  The look of ignorance on his face, was my first clue this wasn’t going to end as I had planned.  He then has an epiphany–he starts spurting information unrelated to the situation.  Your I600A hasn’t been processed because your home study wasn’t turned it with it, blah, blah, blah.  I told him knew that already, that is why I am here to turn it in.  He then asks me if I have paid for it.  Um, YES-about 5 months ago, then he asks for the receipt, which is like a register receipt, but being my old OCD self, I, of course, had it in the packet of papers that I am now clutching like a stress ball.  So he then tells me to take a seat and disappears for 15 minutes doing what?  Tax payer smoke break? I have no idea.   When he calls me back he says he can accept my home study (duh) and I am free to go.   I then tell him I am not finished with him.  You can imagine how that went over.  Long story short, we had to change the country on our I600A, which he told me I had to have an 824 form for.  TOTALLY UNTRUE.  Again, being my OCD self, I had the instructions for the I600A in black and white that the 824 is only required for the second change of country, this was our first.  He then mumbles something to himself then disappears.  Must have been smoke break number two.  When he comes back, he says it’s fine, then dismisses us.  My normally passive husband was then starting to become agitated.  Not good.  It turns out that they do not do fingerprinting the same day like they used to, you still have to wait for the authorization in the mail, even though this was verified before coming.  My husband then exchanges some polite but irritated words with the gentleman about how this is not true because of A, B, C, etc..  The gentleman, who was very hard to understand, kept mumbling he has never heard of that-or something to that effect.  He then hands me another receipt and tells me to keep it.  Okay–I didn’t pay for anything.  He then tells me we will have to drive back to KC to get our fingerprints but only on Wednesdays.  What?!?  At this point my husband is becoming increasingly irritated and I whisper to him there are two possibilities of leaving this place 1) we leave or 2) we make a scene and leave in handcuffs with the popo.  Pick your option.  So we left without handcuffs.  Now, I am not a normally political person, but can you imagine the government running our heath care?  Oh, I am sorry ma’am, I know you have driven 7 hours to your appointment to get your broken leg looked at, but we only do x-rays on Wednesdays, so while it is definitely broken, you must come back once we process your paperwork.  Then you can have your x-ray–on Wednesdays only.  Ciao!  I am all for equal opportunity health care, but not when it is run by the government.  In an a perfect end to a perfect day I had to listen to my husband complain about socialism in our government all the way home.  I then decided it was time for ice cream.  So in the end, it will all be okay.  I just am thankful that we have the opportunity to adopt and that some parts may make me want to freak out, but overall, it’s all good!  At least we had great BBQ…..

Arthur B's

 

Jer at Arthur B's

Gwen at Arthur B's

 

Twas the night before filing

Twas the night before filing and all thorough the house, not a creature was stirring–not even The Ralph;

 

The home study was laid out on the table with care, in hopes that our I-171H would soon also be there;

The happy couple was nestled all snug in their bed, while visions of KC barbeque danced in their heads;

With Gwen in her ‘kerchief and Jer in his cap, we had just settled down for a not so long nap;

When in Gwen’s REM sleep a dream rose such a clatter, I sat up in my bed and asked myself “what’s the matter?”

Away to the table I flew like a flash, tore open my passport and let out a laugh;

The moon shown on the table of all our documents below, is my identification expired?-it can’t be–oh no!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear, my second source of identification-my Army ID-it’s here!

With my large chubby feet I hopped and I skipped, I knew in a moment it was all just a trick;

More rapid than eagles I went back to bed, while more and more dreams all formed in my head;

I moaned and I groaned about the past four months, all the while wondering why are some people a dunce?

I thrashed and I rolled and I called them by name–all of the forms, all of the games;

On family regisistry, find tax returns, get certificates and Hague training, all of these little steps-sometimes are so draining;

But one last good dream finally came to my mind, we had gotten our referral, it was our time;

She/He had a cute little face and a little round belly, that shook when she/he laughed like a bowl full of jelly;

She/He was perfect and beautiful in every way, my how we waited so long for this day;

I laughed when I saw her/him in spite of myself, I would not have made it if it weren’t for some help;

I sat up in bed and checked out the clock, yes-I get three more hours-sleep rocks!

And with a twinkle in my eye and a dream in my head, I pulled up the covers and snuggled into bed;

But I said to myself as the lights drifted out of sight, happy filing to all, and to all a good night!

The bird has landed

While this is a very exciting week for us, it has been pretty uneventful.  I have solidified my work schedule for the fall and I will be living in an airplane for about 2 weeks, so I guess that is a development.  It’s all good!  I picked up our home study from our agency today and it is very good.  I am very satisfied!  At this point I look back at the last four months of our adoption process and can’t believe it has gone by so fast.  I hope I can say that once we are on the waiting list.  There have been ups and down and at times when each week went by without any progress it was equivalent to getting stitches without pain medication.  Isn’t that how adoption and life is anyway?  I am also very satisfied as we leave for vacation in 2 weeks and 2 days.  Every morning I get up and repeat that to myself.  Yes, I talk to myself.  Just admit it–you talk to yourself also.  I am also currently trying to finish reading my adoption book.  It has turned boring.  I think it is a good read until about chapter 4.  As the title states, it is the “whole life adoption book” and my child’s “whole life” could be a while.  So instead of making myself forge ahead, I think I will read applicable parts to myself now and save the rest for a night that I have insomnia.  I think I will switch to reading Three Cups of Tea.  It has won a couple of awards, so I think it will be a good read.  I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of our journey.  At times, it is what keeps me going-and our future child!