The Latest with Us

Hello All,

It has been a long time since our last post. This month is just flying by. Overall things are going pretty well. For the past few weeks Kyle has been working nights which has been disruptive to all of us, including Rosie. Luckily he is able to work from home most nights but that means I can usually hear him on the phone sporadically throughout the night. Rosie is also so confused that Kyle is up all night and doesn’t want to stay in the bedroom with me as she normally does. She wants to be out in the living room just in case Kyle happens to eat something! She is always so hopeful that she will get some scraps. Anyway, he stops working nights on Tuesday but then heads to Chicago next week. I’ll be alone all week. I don’t think Kyle has gone away on business since we’ve been married so it will be weird.

Kyle and I commute to work together so for the past few weeks I’ve had to leave a lot earlier. I’ve realized how spoiled I am because when we commute together we get to take the carpool lane and Kyle typically does all the driving. I am realizing how much I take my hubby for granted. I need to appreciate him me and tell him that too.

We are still working on the adoption process. Three out of our 6 personal recommendations are in. I need to start nagging the 3 that haven’t sent theirs in yet. We are 99% sure that the country will be Vietnam. Now I am still making calls to various placement agencies, all out of state, that work with Vietnam. So far, I’ve found one potential agency in North Carolina. Last week they sent me a list of personal references that have adopted from Vietnam, so I need to email them and find out about their experiences with the agency. I have another potential agency that is in Ohio. I will contact them again next week.

We had a nice Valentine’s Day. Nothing really special. Kyle got me roses and some new clothes and I got him some yummy dark chocolates. I must say that the most special part of the day was the meaningful card Kyle gave me. It was simply beautiful!

Below is a cool thing that my friend Joie posted on her blog:

Reply to this post, and I will list three things I love about you. Maybe more than three.Then repost to your own journal and spread the love.

So, I’m reposting what she wrote about me below and if any of you want me to share the love with you, just reply!

I love your:

Independence:

You also moved across the country to attend school in California and to chase your dreams. You always stand on your own despite roadblocks and kick butt doing it. What's not to love?

Perseverance- Let's be honest, you haven't had the easiest time of it, but you just keep on going. I remember your troubles in love so many years ago, but you didn't let them get you down, you kept right on looking for Mr. Right and found him!

Faith- You have boundless faith and I love and admire that about you.Caring- You were always a kind and caring friend with good listening ear and a kind word. Your capacity for caring about others is inspiring.

Still Searching for the "Right" Placement Agency

Hi Y'all,

Just wanted to update everyone as to where we are in the adoption process. This week I made numerous calls to adoption placement agencies. To give you a little background info in case you don't know how it work, here is how it goes. In order to adopt a child you need to have an approved home study. We are about 3/4th done with our home study. We are somewhat at a standstill until we find a placement agency. The agency that we are using for our home study is also a placement agency but they are not taking any more families on their waiting list for Vietnam. Oh yes, it looks like Vietnam will most likely be the country we adopt from. Apparent Lutheran Social Services isn't getting a ton of referrals (babies) from Vietnam and therefore are not putting more families on their waiting list. This is a pain for us because it would be a lot easier to just work with one agency. Plus, there is an inter-agency transfer fee of $750 if we go with another agency. Errr. Anyway, for the last week I've called about 10 different agencies, mostly out of state that do Vietnam adoptions. If they are accepting families they I have requested information packets. Once we get those we will review them and narrow it down from there.

Yesterday I was really annoyed because I spoke to a placement agency in Oregon and the woman on the phone was super nice until I mentioned my disability. She told me she needed to put me on hold and make sure that Vietnam would accept Paraplegics. Ugh! Doesn't she realize how much research we've already done. I just can't help but take that personally. I feel like they think I have some contagious disease that they might even be able to catch over the phone.

I just want to find an agency that is warm and welcoming to us.

We'll keep you posted on the process.

Nothing special planned for this weekend except a movie and dinner out. We really want to see the Daniel Day Lewis movie, There Will Be Blood. I saw him on Oprah yesterday and he seems like such a nice guy. Anyway, that is about it.