Someone had a crazy hair day!

In a passport photo that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the 80’s have come back into fashion; I saw an updated photo of Jude today.

Amazing. I will never be able to describe it well, but since I still cannot post a photo: there is mohawks and cowlicks and multicolored hairclips and neon pink. NEON PINK EVERYWHERE. I can seriously imagine that Madonna’s “Lucky Star” was playing in the background. Still, I am quite relieved to know 2 things: 1. I am now not the only member of this family with a highly embarassing photo from my early years that could go on awkwardfamilyphotos.com and 2. I am now not the only member of this family with the craziest hair, like ever.

Her hair has grown quite a bit since December, and perhaps she has grown a little (tough to tell from the photo). But it is easy to tell that she is healthy, happy and having a great time.

COURT DATE!!!

Monday May 12.

We are sooooo excited. Actually excited doesn’t really do the feeling justice. There has been happy dances, smiles, cheers, hugs.

Roughly 6 more weeks until we are reunited with Jude. FOREVER.

Pleading for Movement

3 days. Something needs to happen in the next 3 days. After that the Bulgarian courts will shut for a week. I am serious when I say I have reached the end of my rapidly fraying rope. Tomorrow makes day #17 we have been waiting since we have gotten our signature. I know of other families who got signature on the same day, were notified of there court appointment and have already passed court.

We need to be done with the madness.

Jude needs to be home with her family.

I cannot say it any more plainly than this.

We have officially lost our ever-loving minds!

This is how my nephew eats his applesauce. I see logic in his method. The spoon is really quite inefficient.

In case you haven’t already guessed, we are still waiting for a court date. Yup. And I have officially cracked under the pressure. I was overdue. How have I cracked? Let me count the ways.

Perhaps the most obvious is that little Tristan here is now my favorite conversation partner. He has an equal wit and strange sense of humor. For example our recent dinnertime conversation in which Tristan was expressing his like of the cuisine by humming…
Me: (In response to the humming) “Are you singing us the song of your people?”
Tristan: (Briefly pausing from his modern art piece; medium: mashed potatoes in progress) “Whaaaaat people? Hehe.”
Well played, sir.

My boss says I am doing well at work (miracles happen!) but concerned about my mounting stress levels I am now allowed to leave work 10 minutes early every Wednesday evening for a yoga class from now (well last week) until Jude is here.

I haven’t really been doing any exercise at all this winter (thank you ankle for that) but I have lost 38 pounds since October and am only about 16 pounds away from “goal weight”

Also under immense stress, at age 29/30 I managed to grow 1/2 an inch. HOW DID I DO THIS?

I made a ridiculous goal to chew through the pound of bubblegum someone gave me for my birthday anytime I felt stressed. The gum is more than half gone.

I didn’t realize until I got home this evening that I failed to put on socks today. It really wasn’t warm enough to go sans socks this morning. I obviously didn’t notice.

The multitasking feature on my brain is starting to seriously malfunction. I can now only safely handle 3 things at once. Add a 4th and epic disaster is imminent.

A funky waiting vortex

So remember when I said that once we got our signature we should hear about our court date almost immediately?
When has anything in this adoption been typical and normal and predictable?
I am in a funky waiting vortex at the moment. Still waiting for a court date but extremely happy and relieved that as of Friday the Ministry of Justice has issued their final consent to Jude’s adoption.
Seriously, any day now…something is bound to happen.

(SURPRISE) Adoption Shower

So I arrived at a critical point in the adoption process at noontime today. I have documented my oftentimes bizarre responses to the surprises that this journey has afforded me. This luchtime’s shock sent me cowering behind a skeleton decorated with a poinsettia garland (seemed like a good idea at the time), but when I recovered my wits I found myself surrounded by about 75 colleagues in the midst of an adoption/baby shower for Jude.

I thought I was going to a meeting. I may never truly trust lunch meetings again.

But it was amazing. And I still can’t believe I work with such an incredible bunch of people who really are more of a second family than anything. They are all just so anxious and excited to see Jude come home. Just to have that outpouring of support is everything, but their generosity knows no bounds and they have literally left Jude and I wanting for nothing.

A fellow nurse said it best: The only thing missing now is Jude. This is true, but I desperately hope that I won’t be without her for too much longer.

Nothing is happening

And it is slowly driving me mad.

Seriously, since my last post nothing more has happened.

I have organized closets.
I have refinished woodwork.
I have cleaned absolutely everything.

Still nothing on the adoption front.

I go to work. I wait for the email. I come home.

Nothing.

Then I go to bed.

I get up in the morning very hopeful and optimistic thinking this could be the day I get a court day.

Silence.

I watch the news daily praying that I can get back to Bulgaria and get my child before all of Eastern Europe goes completely apeshit. Coworkers now keep stashes of Tums for me for moments like yesterday when I read news reports of Russia violating Bulgarian airspace. We actually saw this happen a few times on trip 1 (it was amongst the things I said upfront that I was editing from the blog; I guess now that it is an international news story it is OK to write about it). Let me just say it is more than somewhat disconcerting to have a fighter jet pull a “Maverick” on your hotel and have that be how you wake up from a nap on the day that you (apparently) broke your ankle. I passed it off as one of those “Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore” moments until a day or two later when we were walking back from lunch with our translator and the same flipping thing happened. When a native ( heck when ALL THE NATIVES) stop literally dead in their tracks, you just know that ain’t normal. Sad thing is if it has been going on for 2-3 times a week since we left, they are probably used to it by now.

We just really need a court date before I owe my medical assistants too much Tums debt to pay off.