Getting ready to go...

It's been a very busy couple of days since getting word that it's time to go. Our laptop decided to give out yesterday while we were in the middle of backing up files. As it turns out, I chose unwisely and backed up all the easy and random stuff, and was going to do all the important stuff (including all the paperwork for the adoption, all the current appraisal jobs, family tree info that I've been working on for months, pictures & movies of Griff & Hattie, all the financial stuff for my job) last. Turns out that wasn't such a good choice, as all the stuff that really matters got lost. I think the poor Geek Squad guy that gave me the bad news was completely freaked out when I burst into tears. Of course I followed that up by crying at Sam's and Best Buy (yes, I buckled and went in there-please don't give me grief about it) while shopping for a computer. Apparently I'm very emotional right now. Tad had to send me to bed, and I needed it. Unfortunately the computers nowadays come with Windows Vista, which is not compatible with the appraisal software. As if we don't have quite enough on our plate right now. And the car has also decided to not run properly -that started the same day as the computer fiasco. What next?!

BUT....none of that really matters as in 4 days, I'll be meeting our little boy! Yay! I'm very excited, and can't wait for Tad to get there too. I think it will be a wonderful experience, and I'm sure we will learn alot. I've gotten a couple of emails from the other family that will be over there at the same time also. They have been there 3 or 4 times before so I'm sure they will be able to help me if I have questions. I am out of practice on travel and am dreading the long flight. Sometimes I can't believe I'm the same person that went to Hong Kong for a long weekend. Well actually, that was in first class, so that might have something to do with it -coach is beastly. I fly from here to Denver, then to Munich and on to Tirana. I'm not a big fan of Denver as it's too bumpy, not to mention the wrong direction, but what can you do? This was the most reasonable fare on short notice. I'll stay in Tirana the first night, and then 3 1/2 hour drive down to Vlora the next day. Tad will do the same thing the following week.

Griffy is not sure what is going on, but he knows something is up. He has been pacing around and can't stand to be alone right now. I'm thinking after he stays at mom & dad's and Linds & Jason's for the next couple of months he won't want to come back - the other dogs will keep him very happy, I'm sure. Not to mention, I don't know what he is going to think about having a new member of the family.

Court Date!

We started the day off today with an early morning call letting us know that we have a court date! Woo hoo! It is scheduled for November 12, however they want us in country for a couple weeks before that so that we have some time with Will before the first court appearance. What this means is that I will have to travel myself next week (on Halloween) and then Tad will have to follow a week later, since he is on deadline and under contract. Hopefully they will be OK with him not being there for the full amount of time before the court date, otherwise we may have to have an additional date set after he's had more time to be with Will. Tad is worried about me going by myself, and I'm worried about him going by himself, but we'll figure it out. I'm disappointed that the first time that I meet our baby, Tad won't be there with me, but I understand that it just has to be that way. I think it will be even harder for him, knowing that we are there waiting for him.

The rest of the day today was of course CRAZY. All this time we've been waiting to hear, and now here it is a week away, and I feel like I haven't taken care of all the things I need to do. Another bit of good news today is that we went to the Immigration place and they took our fingerprints - we'd been worried as they were not wanting to do that since our others weren't expired yet. It's good to know that we can cross that off our list.

Today we got our Skype account set up and Cydil helped me try it out this evening (thank you thank you!!!!! It was fun to see you "in person" after all of our emails). I haven't figured out how to work my webcam yet, but Rome wasn't built in a day - and when it comes to computers I think I'd be better off trying to build Rome than figure them out. Anyone wanting to communicate with us while we are there, please go to Skype.com and download it - it's free.

Shower!

There was a shower for us last weekend and we now have lots of great stuff - very cute clothes, toys, books, etc. Everybody was so nice and sounds like they can't wait to meet our little Will. His bedroom is getting full - it's starting to look like a little kid's room. Tad is having a hard time not using the softie that my parents gave him -he says that he thinks he should "break it in." As for me, see that little red container by the bookcase? That's all bath toys and you how much I value my 2 hour baths -I think that might have to change in the near future!

We showed the video to our families too and everyone is excited to meet him. We are/were worried because when they were calling his name in the video he didn't seem to be paying attention, but my sisters tell me their kids do this all the time and they hear just fine. We'll see. The doctor that we had review the video says it is hard to tell from it whether or not he has a hearing problem or if he is just delayed in language as is typical for children in orphanages. I guess we just have to wait and see and hope for the best.

We are of course STILL waiting to hear when we go. In the meantime, we found out that our homestudy is expiring, so now we have to get all that updated. We also need fingerprints for the state of MN (because they can't use the ones we already did for the US government -of course they can't, that would be too easy and cost effective) so we got fingerprints done. We also have to go to immigration on Monday morning to try to get them to let us get our fingerprints taken again for the US government (so even though we just this week had them taken for the state, now the state can't share those with the federal) because they will expire in December when we are (hopefully) in Albania. If they expire, we'd be stuck in Albania because the child we've adopted we couldn't bring home. Here's the catch, since they aren't expired yet, they don't want to do the fingerprinting until they are expired, and they aren't quite getting the fact that we won't be here when they do expire. They also say that fingerprints don't change, but that they expire after one year - it makes me wonder how they convict people on fingerprint evidence years after the crime, but I guess I have enough to worry about without starting on that.

Where's our little boy? We've got the room, the clothes, the toys, the blankets, the car seats, the little plates, cups & silverware -now we need the baby! We are so impatient to get him here and help him get settled in and get any help he needs for his eyes & hearing. I hope he likes us!

Video!

We finally got the video from the September assessment - I ran to the door and stood there waiting as soon as I heard the UPS truck come around the corner on our block (it's pretty crazy that I recognize it by sound, but it comes down the street almost every day!). He is very cute and we now really can't wait to get over there. His strabismus is more noticeable in the video and he does seem to have some trouble seeing because of it. We're hopeful that doctors will be able to help him with that here. His fine motor skills are a little fuzzy, but maybe because he can't see well. As far as gross motor skills he seems great! He runs around, plays and is very strong -we saw him moving cribs in the bedroom. From what we've seen he likes to have attention, wants to be picked up, held and touched. When he wasn't getting attention, he would get mad and slap at their feet, so we'll have to work on that. We are concerned about his hearing - it's hard to tell if he can hear and is ignoring them, or if he has a problem hearing. Some of what we have been reading says that this could be a problem with receptive language (listening skills?) related to the strabismus. We'll obviously have to get that checked too. In the video we also heard our first words in Albanian -we'd better get used to it as we'll be hearing a lot of it very soon! We've ordered some language CDs and a dictionary so we can start practicing.

Still waiting to go.....

I'm not feeling very patient! Tad and I are both at the point where we just want to know when, it's getting harder and harder to wait. Work is staying very busy for both of us and since we don't know when we leave, we haven't wanted to start turning it away. I have a feeling that we will be scrambling once we get the OK.

We've heard that we can stay in Vlora if we want, but we'd have to stay in a hotel and we should expect that no one (including the orphanage workers) will speak English. Our other option is to stay in Tirana and go to Vlora (3-3 1/2 hours drive one way) a couple of times a week for visits. We're thinking that this doesn't make much sense since a large part of the reason you have to stay so long is to bond with your child - how are you bonding if you only see him a couple of times a week? They did say that we could play with the other children at the orphanage in Tirana, however I believe it is going to be VERY hard to leave the other kids there (and no they won't let you take them all home -or one or two more) as it is, so spending 90% of our time playing with kids we can't take with us sounds like a recipe for disaster.

They did say another couple got a referral from Vlora too recently so maybe they would be there at the same time to at least talk to in our own language. We don't know when they are going over either....sounds like they are waiting just like we are.

We've decided we are going to name him William Juri (after Tad's dad) - that way if he gets older and wants to use his birth name he can and giving him a family name will hopefully make him feel even more part of the family. We'll call him Will for short. When we've been having hard times lately Tad says "Where there's a Will there's a way" which keeps us focused.

We've been told the video from the most recent visit in mid-September is in the US now, they are working on getting it to us. It will be good to see him a little more "in person." Can't wait to actually meet him!

Woo Hoo!

Sara from Bethany called us today to let us know that the AAC officially approved us-yay! Now we wait to find out when the court date is so that we can know when to book our travel. Tad says he wants to go a week early and go to Croatia (where his grandparents are from) first. We'll see how that goes since that would mean another week on top of the 7-8 we're told to expect in Albania. We're very lucky that his job is flexible with however much time he needs and that I'm self-employed. Now too bad we can't win the lottery in the meantime so that we aren't totally broke when we come back!

Decorating the bedroom

Still waiting for news from the AAC on when we can go...they are supposed to be meeting today, although that doesn't mean we will hear today. We are trying to be patient and just doing what we can to get things figured out now, so that when we get the word it's time to go, we'll have most things in order.

We've been working on our little boy's bedroom and have the basics all ready. We thought we'd have a twin bed in there in case he has as hard time as he is probably used to having someone sleep in the same room. Also, given the fact that Tad & I can't seem to pick one room to sleep in (we had been using three depending on our mood) it will still keep our options open if one of us needs to have choices too. You know those nights when you just can't get comfortable?

The room looks pretty bare as yet, but I'm sure it will fill up with lots of toys soon enough. Now that we've got this part done, we can start shopping for books, toys, clothes, etc.