Here we go again

Weathermen cannot predict the weather!  Last winter was AWFUL!  We had almost 50 inches of snow and very cold temps.  This winter they said very mild winter and we would be lucky to get 10-18 inches of snow.  They were right in the beginning, November and December were wonderful, very mild.  Then January hit!  Two storms totaling 20 inches of snow between the two of them within two weeks. 

So I am thinking, okay we are done, nope.  We are suppose to get about a half of inch of ice overnight tonight, which may not sound like a lot, but when mixed with cars with people who don't drive with caution it is a huge mess and headache.  Then following the ice, 8-12 inches of snow to follow on Tuesday with very cold temps, around -10 on Thursday morning.  They might have to cancel school just because of the cold, let alone the snow! So, we are heading for another above average snow fall for our area again, and they say that we have global warming!  Though, I would gladly live here rather than the Northeast where they are measuring their snows by the feet every time, not inches.  Those poor people, the snow might melt by May up there!

1 Year

Well we have made it to our 1 year anniversary.  Exactly one year ago today we filled out our application for our international agency and applied for our Russian Program.  While I knew that adoption would be hard, I NEVER in my wildest dreams thought it would be this hard.  We are heading forward and are looking on.  We have had our ups and our downs.  One major up is that we are about 2/3 funded.  We are getting there.  While there have more downs than I can list the worst is that we still have a long road ahead.  We are sticking it out.  Keep praying and hoping that no more "incidents" happen.  That the agreement is signed, and that things start flying in Russia. 

Paka,
Denise

Russian Blacklist

For those of you who don't know what the Russian Blacklist is, it is a list, a LONG list of home study agencies that they put together for every country that adopts from their country.  It is a list of agencies that have not "followed" all the rules.  Whether it is the agencies fault or not.  After every adoption you have to have 4 post-placements reports.  At the 6 month timeline, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years post adoption.  If that report is not filed or lost, or some other paper is not filed, or worse the parent does not follow up with their due diligence, due to agency error or not the agency is put on the blacklist.

While reading another fellow bloggers blog about waiting on a court date and their home study agency was put on the blacklist, I decided to look it up, not that I was worried, but just curious, and what do you know, our home study agency is on the blacklist!  We are due for our update in less than 2 months so I started to worry a little, what if it isn't a mistake, where are we going to get another $2400 for ANOTHER home study agency.  So I sent them an email.  They had not heard this news yet, so they are working with our international agency to see if they can get this problem dealt with quick and easy.  If not they said that they would transfer us to another home study agency.  I am assuming by them saying this we would not have to pay again, just the updating fee, which we have budgeted for.  I am praying that it is something simple that they can get taken care of very easily, but either way, it seems that it will work out.  We don't need any more bumps in the road, we have had enough.

Praying for the Victim's

This is a horrible thing, what are these people thinking, those people did nothing to them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/world/europe/25moscow.html?_r=1&hp

Praying for the victims and their families.

Yes, we are alive...

But barely.  We have been so sick it isn't funny.  Between the snow and the sickness it has just been a horrible week.  Last Wednesday Camden started getting sick which I thought was just a cold.  But he got to coughing so bad that he would throw up, so on Monday I took him in to the peds office.  Pneumonia.  Yeah!  Monday also Randy came down with a nasty cold.  Hoping I would avoid their illnesses like I have for the last year and a half, I thought I would be fine.  Nope, Tuesday I was down and out!  All three of us sicker than dogs, plus in the past two weeks we have gotten about 18 inches of snow, it has not been a great week.  Today is the first day that I can actually breathe on my own without the aid of medication.  Camden is back to his normal self, and Randy is almost back to normal also.  Which is good since I picked up a 5 day subbing job for this week.  I haven't worked since the first week of Dec. so the last thing I wanted to do was to go back to work sick. 

In the adoption world, we did brave the roads on my birthday and got new marriage licenses and got them apostilled and sent off.  The rest of our paperwork is not due until April, so we are in no hurry.  It seems that most people that we started our journey with have already completed their adoptions or are almost done, very disheartening, but we will get there.  Keep praying as we do every night!
Denise

Peanut Brittle Fundraiser is Done

What an amazing fundraiser this was!  We were so busy up until Christmas that Randy made Peanut Brittle every day that he was home.  Our house constantly smelled of Peanut Brittle it was almost to the point of annoying, but by far the best fundraiser we did.

We still have two order to fill, but other than that we are done.

So the totals are:

Actual Peanut Brittle Sales: $1603.33 
We invested in the initial start up of the products that we needed for Peanut Brittle, after that we paid for ingredients out of the profits of our fundraiser.

Actual Peanut Brittle Sales Plus Donations: $4195.12!!!! 
People are so amazing and generous it is unbelievable!  When we started this venture we thought that we would sell maybe a 100 bags of Peanut Brittle.  In the end we sold close to 700 bags of Peanut Brittle, and were so blessed by such amazing people!

We have used around 130 lbs. of Spanish Raw Peanuts, close to 200 lbs. of sugar, and around 10 gallons of Karo Syrup.  We are getting close to our goals, we are getting there.  If you were a part of this, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Updating Documents

Yep, we are at that point, we have to start updating our documents.  BUT, I found out that almost half of them we do not have to update until court, so that is a lot of money saved for us!  So the original plan was tomorrow to go get a new marriage certificate and go get it Apostilled, copied and mailed all in one day, there is an office on the MO side of Kansas City that will Apostille, and we got married in Missouri, so that would save a week mailing it off to Jefferson City.  We were suppose to get this all done before the snow hits, but now the snow has been moved up to tonight and tomorrow morning 4-8 inches of snow.  So all plans are off because I do NOT drive on snowy days.  Not because I can't, but because others cannot.  See evidence below.

This happened one snowy morning in February of 2008, when I was right around 22 weeks pregnant with Camden.  Car was totaled, so I call Randy to come and pick me up and take me to the OB's office just to make sure that everything was okay.  20 minutes later I get a call from Randy asking if I was in that wreck up there with the white car.  I say yes, and he said look back about a 100 yards, so I look back and see this

Some lady lost control, side swiped him, spun him around and he got hit by an oncoming car and even though it doesn't look like it, his car was totaled also.  It did major engine damage to his.  We had just paid off his car the week before and didn't even have the title to it yet! 

So yes, we lost both cars within 20 minutes of each other about 100 yards apart from each other.  The insurance agent was in disbelief, never in his 25 years in insurance had this ever happened to a couple that he worked with!  So our documents will just have to wait a few more days until the streets are clear, and I will venture out into the streets among the crazies!  Good thing I don't work!

On a side note, ended up having to take an ambulance to the hospital, but all was well with baby Camden!

Happy Russian Christmas Eve

Today is the Russian Christmas Eve with tomorrow being the Russian Orthodox Christmas.  While these holidays are going on all government offices are closed from the first of January to the 10th.  January 11th, my birthday, is the first working day for Government officials of the new year.  Hopefully when they get going again, referrals will also.  Hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and Christmas!