It's Always a Bunch of Stuff ;)

It's nice to have a bunch of stuff going on because I don't focus on the fact that A turned 3 months old and he isn't home yet. It makes for long blog posts though and sometimes the long ones are hard to read and get through.

I have been one busy mamma! I barely have time to keep up with the 50 or so blogs I like to read and certainly haven't had time to comment as much as I would have wanted to! So much is going on in my little Vietnam adoption world! 2 More to Love is settling in with her twins, Bring Me Mia is adjusting to life as a mommy with twins, Lawmommy has her daughter, Lan, Mrs. B is getting dumped on with snow, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is now home with her little girl, and so on and so on! It is all very exciting to me!

The latest we have been pondering is communication in Vietnam. We are torn between buying a cheap, refurbished laptop computer vs. a blackberry with international service. The other thing we need to figure out is if we want to get a quad band cell phone with a pre-paid Vietnam SIM card. Oh yeah...and we need to buy an outlet converter and adapter! Any advice or input on this topic is welcome!

I received an important letter from our Division of Child and Family Services yesterday. The letter says we have been approved to adopt a child in Vietnam and was sent to USCIS. This is a formality in my state and tells the USCIS to cable our final I-171H to Hanoi! Sure, we were "approved" to adopt a while ago, but this is the magic letter for USCIS to cable our approval. I will receive confirmation (or should) in a few weeks fro USCIS.

We also "know" our dossier was logged in two days ago (Friday Vietnam). Many PAP with my agencies were asked for documents or pictures late on Thursday (US time) because our agency was trying to get a bunch of dossiers logged in (and I know mine was one of them). My agency told me earlier in the week we would be LID this week. My guess at a travel date will be late April to early May. A will be between 6-7 months by then. It seems far away on the one hand and very close on the other!

As far as T's job opportunity, it is still there. We were told this would pose no problem with the adoption. The trick is going to be getting him AND his client out of their contracts. T spoke with a former employee of the company who went through this a few months back and needless to say it cost the client a pretty penny and the company was a hard nose about it. What is nice is T doesn't "need" this job and although he would love to have it, if it doesn't work out, that is ok too. He will talk to the client this week because he doesn't want to jeopardize his current job and needs to client to respect that if things don't work out.

I never did receive a call back from the surgeon even after I called everyday since Tuesday. Lefty is doing what she is supposed to do - drain so all is good there for the moment. The longer we wait to schedule surgery in January, the less likely I will be able to get a network exception. I plan on talking to my OBGYN this week and see if I can get a name or two of other surgeons who are already in-network to do the surgery. The goal is to get this thing over and done with BEFORE we go to Vietnam.

The nursery is coming along. I am going through old clothes of JT and seeing what may work in Vietnam. Of course, it looks like we may have a season difference, but that just gives me an excuse to get some new things for A! ;)

JT's birthday is next month and I have already started planning that. The invitations and party goods are ordered (I LOVE Internet shopping) and T and I are going to splurge on renting a moonwalk for the kids. The moonwalk is small enough that it can be set up in our garage. since the garage is attached to the house, it won't be too cold in there. I know it is extravagant for a 3 year old's birthday party, but he is worth it and the kids will love it.

And speaking of JT, the bedtime is getting a little better, but he is still giving us a hard time about going to sleep. Boy am I glad we moved him to his new room and bed in December! This gives us plenty of time before A comes home! One adjustment at a time!

Any accountant will tell you that this time of year is rough. Between my workplace having a fiscal year that ends December 31 and trying to get our own taxes in order so we can have extra money once we return home from Vietnam is tough.

WHEW!

Stay tuned for my weekend update - T and I are going on a "date" tonight and tomorrow we are celebrating my MIL's 60th birthday!