So Excited!

One of the happiest things happened to me on Christmas Eve...Hubby and I announced to our family present on Christmas Eve that we are in the process of adoption!!!  There were tears on my part and by several family members, all were thrilled to hear our news.  One of my Great Aunts told me now she has something else to look forward to next year (well referral at least!) aside from her granddaughter's wedding.  It was so great to FINALLY tell some more family.  I think my Dad, his wife and my Auntie were very happy we finally spilled the beans.  Can't wait to let the rest of our family and friends know.  They will be receiving a New Year's card and letter from us. It feels sooo good!

In adoption news, I have one more section of the essay to complete.  I have spent about hours if not longer on it so far and will need to go back and edit tomorrow morning. I am very anxious to get our application sent off. I was originally hoping tomorrow, but it might end up being Thursday.  Got two of my test results I had been waiting for from my Dr this afternoon and everything else is pretty much done. I will make copies of paperwork.  I also talked with the director again at the placing agency and she was able to clear up a few questions.  I look forward to meeting her in person in the near future, she seems so nice on the phone.

On Christmas my Mother-in-law gave me a card with some gift cards and a check for $500.  On it was written baby gift.  My emotions (already frayed) could not be spared and I got all teary.  I was glad she was there to see my heartfelt reaction and she came over and gave me a big hug.  I am hoping we get some time to sit down with Hubby's parents soon and answer any questions they may have.  They seemed a little quiet about it last night and I felt a little weird about it.

So I survived Christmas.  One of my favorite gifts was a Hallmark Ornament from my sister.  It looks like a shell and is heart shaped.  On it is written "Always remembered. Always in our hearts."   I cried, I loved it and had seen it at the store a few days before. Love you twinnie.

gift tag

Some Very Good News....

and how fitting this is my 100th post...kinda crazy!

  So Hubby and I went to our happy place this Wednesday..you guessed it...Dis.neyland!! Happiest Place on Earth and so chock full of awesome Christmas decorations I may have actually been in Christmas cheer mode for two days!! We had great time and it was a great break from everything we need to do back home (even though I am anxious for that..more in a sec..) Hubby and I talked about how we can't wait to take our little one there. I teared up about that at the park as well. Holy moly....emotion city.  Ahh but happy tears.

Sleeping Beauty's castle...I cry everytime...so beautiful and magical!!

In the clam shell on Ariel's ride. <3

While driving down to Anaheim ...Hubby driving, me playing on my dang phone (cough..FB) and checked my email. I was elated to see an email from our placing agency telling us they had just reviewed our homestudy and other than a few minor changes, it looks good. Whee!!! So our homestudy is sent back to our homestudy agency (who are on vacay til the 3rd! --like me..can't complain too much.....) and they will take care of those few things.  Yay!

Next step is finishing the application...working on the essay tonight.  I had wanted to get that done before, didn't happen with the end of school, so I let it go. Had my doctor's appointment today and more lab work and prefiling with USCIS (paper is almost complete..will be done tonight and we will send it off on Monday). Hubby's dr is also on vacation til the 29th so we can send his document in later. Our placing agency will get everything ready for review, review it and then send us our contract. Once the contract is returned we are all set and will just be waiting for our referral! I am so, so excited and I cannot wait for the day our dreams come true!!

In the meantime, even though I am down in the dumps about Christmas this year and am very much missing my Christmas spirit, I wish you and yours a very Merry one. Or as one of my students wished me "a Very, Merry, Happy Holiday"

A hard 24 hours

I have found a bit of a sad spot. I cried myself to sleep last night.  I am blaming it on the imminent arrival of AF, not feeling the best and stress from work.  And even though I'm not counting weeks I still am very aware or what could have been and what could have been going on.  I have two girlfriends that are pregnant and one found out last month she's having a boy and the other finds out this week if I remember right. She is the one that was just ahead of us. I can't wait to hear what she is having and how she is doing.  I miss her and wish I could rub her belly....it doesn't help she moved to Idaho and I haven't seen her in ages!!!! 

Today I attended the baby shower of yet another pregnant teacher at school.  Even though I haven't felt like going to any of the "recent" showers at school, I have gone to every single one because I felt like I should go. Today I may have changed my mind for the time being.  I fought hard to keep the tears from pouring out (more than once and even had to wipe them out at one point so they wouldn't stream). I think our librarian noticed. She randomly started talking to me about our upcoming vacation.  Thank god for her and the call numbers to stare at. Unfortunately that only lasted a few minutes. I can't explain how I felt today. I have been thinking about it all evening and I think, perhaps, that even with the sometimes tough emotions of previous baby showers, I have not been to one where it feels out of my league.  I know this isn't "true" but today I sure felt it.

One and half more days...I can do it!  And then I can focus on our adoption paperwork. I have an essay to write! Took my insurance paper to the district office today (she'll have it tomorrow) and even talked to our lady about leave.  Got some great ideas to work on over the next year regarding subs and long term sub plans.  That lady is so sweet and patient and has already helped us out so much.

Off to make my kids their "non-Christmas" presents. Hehe...it's a two night process. I make the same thing every year and love them.

I'll end with a kidism....the other day we had our first rainy day lunch recess which equals a movie. I grabbed Frosty the Snowman since it's fitting right?? Well it's a VHS and apparently not only was it not rewound (shocker!) but my VCR is dying. It took forever to rewind and I kept stopping it expecting it to be at the end. After the third try one of my kids tells me "Mrs. __, you should get On Demand...it always works!" hehehe

4 More days...

til Winter break!!! I know I shouldn't brag, but whoohoo! I am very much looking forward to the break. These past few weeks have been interesting....life is always this way. I'll see if I feel like getting into the friend drama but I could vent for a long while.....so onto the good stuff!

  We got the best news last Wednesday....as we were approved by Korea for our placing agency to work with us!! Even though I couldn't see any reason they wouldn't there was a teeny voice inside saying, "well..what if they said no. Then what?"  But thankfully, that wasn't the case. I had followed up on Tuesday and the agency sent a message to Korea. The next morning we received an email with a note saying Korea approved us and apologized for taking so long (3 weeks).  We received some more paperwork to complete, some of which we already did for our homestudy agency and I am clearing up which of those do and do not need to be redone.  Many of the documents we need are already done, so I am hoping this round of paperwork will be pretty quick.  I printed all the documents on Wednesday and now we are just trying to get through them as quick as we can. I have contacted our insurance and am waiting to hear back. My goal is to be done with all of it before the new year.  And since I have 2 weeks off, we should be golden.  We got a few done last night, which I feel really good about.

  I am anxious to share our news with our friends and family. Most of them have no idea about anything we have gone through, just immediate and close friends (and of course the family who gossip!!).  I was waiting to hear our official approval and now that we have it I am just trying to figure it all out.  This has been something we have wanted for so long, I want to put some thought into our announcement!

  I have also been thinking about some ways to fund raise and whether or not it's a good idea.  I feel guilty asking for "help".  Here are a few of my ideas....yard sale (asking friends and family to donate items to sell), opening an et.sy shop (which I think I would enjoy a lot and it would give me some fire for my creative juices), maybe coffee (need to look into that, but I have seen other people do this). What do you guys think? Any other ideas? I need to do some more researching.

  This weekend was my niece's 4th birthday party.  I can't believe what a little lady she is. She is such a smart and artistic bean.  Hubby and I helped my twinnie out as she was quite stressed so we stayed behind to cook soup (chicken noodle and french onion) and decorate. Fun! Hubby found these round, colorful lanterns and we hung streamers (pink and purple) and Hubby bought a dozen balloons. I think I was most excited about the entrance way....I cut streamers and placed them in a pattern hanging down in the hall.  =0)  My twinnie snapped some photos, I'll see if she can send me some.

Me and Big C on her birthday, December 7th

Liebster Blog

Just in time for the holiday season, there is some serious blog love circulating the blogosphere!


Liebster is a German word which means "dearest" or "beloved." It is also used to refer to as someone's "favorite" and the idea of the Liebster Blog Award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers that deserve more recognition and encouragement. So, this award is to share with those blogs that you love to love... you know... the ones that you can't wait to see a new post from because some how, some way, the blogger seems to always put words to things in a way that touch deeply to the core of us. 

Thank you so much to Amy for the nomination! 

Just as much as I wanted to keep the award for myself, there are certain rules that are to be followed:

• Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
• Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Copy and paste the award on your blog
• Hope that the people you've sent the award to forward it to their five favorite bloggers and keep it going!

So here are my nominations!! I apologize if some of these are repeats!! I do so enjoy reading your journeys and am so thankful for your support!!


1. M over at A Fine Mess
2. E over at Dreaming of Babies
3. Maria over at MISSION:Fertile Seoul
4. Waiting & Wishing over at Waiting & Wishing
5. JustHeather over at BattleFish

Overdue

Thanks for the nice supportive comments, I can't wait to fill you in on the next steps. I am currently being sucked dry with school and some major issues with another friend...wtf? I haven't had this much ish since middle school. I'll try to get on here tomorrow. Thinking of you all and crossing fingers for you ladies who had transfers today! oxo