Damn you, Target

I just needed cough drops.

Target is quite possibly the most addictive place for expecting parents. Someone needs to start meetings or something. Went in this afternoon to get cough drops (because according to my Facebook news feed about 70% of the office has developed this same cough over the weekend, so at least I won’t be Typhoid Mary tomorrow morning) and Target had these on $5 clearance.

Next time it might be safer on my wallet to go to the sketchy pharmacy that gets robbed every few months.

Paperwork

My fingerprint clearance has returned from apostilling today. Yeah. This is the last document needed for court (date still to be determined). So it along with the other collected documents will be sent off to One World tomorrow.

Got great news today that I will be able to get translated copies of the specialist appointments that Jude had shortly after we left last month. I should see these in a few weeks.

Last night I went through her records a little more thoroughly and confirmed that she is delightfully up to date on all her vaccines (Happy Nurse/Mommy on that discovery). Even though Bulgaria doesn’t list Hepatitis A on the vaccine schedules I could find listed for the European version of the CDC, she has already gotten her first one and isn’t due for the second one until the spring. I am absolutely giddy with joy over this. I was dreading the idea of potentially trying to catch up on immunizations. It looks like worse case scenario we will have 1.

An update from my Baby!

I seriously need to get back to blogging as things happen.

Tuesday I jaunted over to the State House where the Secretary of State’s office is located to get 2 documents apostilled. Not my most favorite of adoption chores and it typically takes forever to. I stole a move a saw another guy pull off the last time I was there (Not sharing the secret) and was done in enough time to eat, pee, and get back to work on time. WIN!

On Thursday I got notification that I fell victim to the Target hack because Jude’s baby/adoption registry was orginally there (Before I got too frustrated with navigating the website and moved it to WalMart. I think this is the moment I need to apologize to my sister for my “For heaven’s sake, it’s just creating a baby registry, how hard can it be” comment from 2 years ago. Sorry. I HAD NO IDEA!). Luckily none of my financial information appears to have been compromised, just personal information. Which puts me at-risk for identity theft. It kinda got me wondering who on earth would want to steal my identity at this moment in my life? I have been fingerprinted and investigated by every state and federal agency half a dozen times over the last 18 months. About the only testing I haven’t had done is a colonoscopy and I am so un-fun that my bank notices “deviations in my spending habits” when I made a purchase at Best Buy at Christmastime.

Friday was AWESOME. I finally got an update from Bulgaria. From my baby. It was this deliciously long e-mail which I have read literally 50 times since. But the short and sweet of it is: She is healthy (got over her illness), she is happy. What more could I possibly ask for right now? How relieved was I at this news? I slept Friday night. Probably the first time I have slept well since arriving home from Bulgaria. I slept straight through for 14 hours and didn’t even notice!

Yesterday I got notification that USCIS received my I-800 application and messed things up again. Just like they said they were going to do, so it didn’t come as a suprise this time. It will be at least 10-14 days and more likely 3-4 weeks (assuming no more delays) until we are through the process with them. I will be relieved when it is over. Every delay caused by them is weeks (at this point) that I will never get to spend with her. But they don’t seem to understand that. Or care. I still try to stay focused on the positive. At least things ARE moving now.

We have movement

Monday night saw the arrival of the long awaited I-800A approval letter. That little 1 page letter!

It came and the the adoption was off to a running start again. The I-800 application and the I-864W was submitted early Tuesday. I got a second suprise on Thursday evening when my FBI background check came back. Seeing as this is the last document needed for the (to be determined) court date I whisked it off down to D.C. to be apostilled. The rest of my documents I will personally walk into the Maine State House next week for apostilling here.

There are a few documents here and there to be done, but this should wrap up the bulk of the paperwork chase (I think, I hope) for this adoption.

So I a very “Paperwork Pregnant” at this point. Very. Very-Very. At it’s peak I gained 57 pounds sitting on the sofa in the evenings (or at the dining room table) doing paperwork for this adoption. Holy Yikes.

I started to rectify the situation following the homestudy update, things (understandably, I was busy and nervous) got a little bit better just after we were matched. I have managed to lose 22.4 of those 57 pounds. I have joined a contest at work to motivate myself to get rid of the rest. If I win there is a cash prize involved (that is what is known as a “win-win situation”). My goal is simple: be back in the shape I was in when I started this adoption as I know that shape was perfect for chasing a toddler (as that is what I was doing the day before I started).

So now that things are moving again we start to look at rough timelines at guesses as to when we get to go back to Jude. Right now it looks like Trip 2 will happen sometime in May. Which would mean that court would happen sometime in April. And for that to happen that mean we would need to be done with the US immigration process and have our file turned over to the Bulgarian authorities within the next month or so.

Fingers crossed.

My favorite things

I still wait for Immigration. Maybe next week…

Until then, I have been busy. WITH FUN STUFF! It has been so bitterly cold outside, you just can’t go there anymore. I’m serious. It’s dangerous. It was 23 degrees below Zero when I woke up this morning. That has been typical for this week. It also unfortunately isn’t all that unusual for winter in Central Maine. Despite my love for outdoors, and being outdoors as much as possible (and making sure that Jude is outside as much as possible too) there will be days like this when it just won’t happen. Obviously. So a spacious play area in the house (or the ability to create one) was a MUST as early as when I was I was shopping for a house. This home is small for 4 bedrooms (1,620 square feet) so space is at a premium. But there is an awesome unfinished basement area that is in the final stages of being transformed into my Waldorf-esqe Playroom. I had a small budget for this project (less than $300) so most of what was accomplished was from items I already I had on hand from my Foster Parenting days, awesome lawn sale/craigslist finds (some of them were FREE!), donated items from co-workers and a few key new items from beloved Ikea. We are not done yet, there is a mural that needs to be painted on the walls, but after seeing Jude’s love of art we will probably wait and include her on this project when she is home. So I am debuting the photos of it now. While it is not strictly Waldorf, I love it just the same.

The Holy Grail of Car Seats arrived last night. Despite literally YEARS of research on this car seat (back as far when the company was called “Sunshine Kids”) this was the first time I had actually seen the seat in person. I was NOT disappointed. It is great. Looks like a flight seat that should be installed on the space shuttle. I trialed fitting it in the 2005 Toyota Prius (despite the bitter cold). It fits perfectly fine both rear facing and forward facing (without the much-talked about angle adjuster) behind the driver’s seat. (I’m 5’7″). For those who, like me had never seen this car seat in person it is very similar in size (if not identical) to the $40 Cosco Scenera that can be found at WalMart and Target. I have had no problems rearfacing the Cosco Scenera in the Prius before. The Diono is a little easier to install (despite the fact that it is heavier). So here is the big news. It will be going to Bulgaria. Still not sure how to safely get it there on the outbound journey (gate-checking hopefully). But it will be Jude’s carseat from the moment we pick her up in Hisarya through the ride back to Sofia then on the Transatlantic flight from Sofia to Boston then again on the nearly 3 hour ride home from Boston. I have also heard that we can attach this car seat to a rolling luggage cart and the resulting contraption operates as a stroller (if we need one). Bonus.

Shortly before the holidays I ventured up into the attic and dug out the diapers. I LOVE the diapers. And as you might have guessed by now, they are cloth diapers. Ask any Mama who uses cloth (or CD for short Cloth Diapering) and you are bound to find some EXTREMELY strong opinions. CD Mamas love their dipes and are VERY particular. I am no exception. I have used Flips through 2 foster children and cannot imagine using anything else. I struggle with senisitivites to a lot of chemicals used in many disposable diapers so the ones I can tolerate (such as Seventh Generation) are REALLY expensive to use all of the time. I like the Flips because I can use the cloth most of the time and then when I need disposable (such as on a transatlantic flight) they offer a disposable insert that is much less expensive that a full disposable diaper. That said, the cloth can be used in far more places than one would expect (see my photo from seaside camping a few years ago), and our plan in Bulgaria is to hopefully find an Apartment with a Washing Machine so my Flip Diaper stash can come along too.

Also coming back into commission will be the outlet covers, the baby gates, the ErgoBaby carrier, the booster seat in the dining room, and the bibs. Oh, and on sick days…The complete series of Fraggle Rock on DVD.