Happy 3rd Birthday Little Man!

 Our First Family Photo

 Newborn Photos

 Birth Announcement Photo

 6 Month Photo, it is priceless!

 1 year photo

 Just taking a snooze, home from the hospital 1 day

Oh, it's suppose to go in my mouth?!?

Just a few pictures of my little miracle man early on in life.  Today he turns 3, I can hardly believe it!

Floating in the Breeze

So after my last post I was feeling like I was in Limbo.  I even called and spoke to another agency about switching.  This agency told me that most likely they could get me a referral for a GIRL by late fall, there wouldn't be much to switch, but their Russia fees are significantly more than our current agency.  Randy and I haven't had a chance to really talk about them yet, but today I got a call from the director of our agency and he sincerely apologized for no one calling or email me back.  So now I am not so upset with our agency and still want to give them a chance, but I am still on the fence.  I think I will wait a few more weeks and see what happens, but I do have a great option.

Frustration

So I have been trying to reach our agency all week.  Granted it has only been three days, but they only are open 4 days a week.  I just have a simple, but important question to ask them about our I-171H.  As I have mentioned previously, our coordinator has been gone for the past 5 weeks, she will be back in the office on Monday.  The lady covering for her is who I have been trying to contact.  Every time I call she is on the phone, so I leave a message asking her to call me back.  No call back, so today I sent an email to her, our coordinator, and the director of the agency, first of all asking my question, and second, expressing my disappointment on not receiving a phone call, etc.  Surprise, Surprise, no email response back yet.  Tomorrow is their last work day for the week, they are closed on Fridays, so we will see if I get anything.  I know a lot of companies have a policy on a certain time frame that they have to either call or email back, my school district was 24 hours.  Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow.  Knowing my luck they will call while Camden and I are at swim lessons, in the FREEZING water!  It has been so beautiful out, 78 and sunny, but it makes for a miserable time in the water because it is so cool, Camden freezes to death!

I-171H

Well we got our amended I-171H in the mail today with our new fingerprint information and our amended information raising our age range to 3 to accommodate siblings.  The only flaw is that they did not give us our extension.  I filed for it so that we would not have to get a new copy of our homestudy, it has to be dated within 6 months, which we MIGHT squeak by on that one by like 2 weeks.  We received an email last week that they were approving our fingerprints again, and amending it, but we were not allowed to file for our extension until it is 90 days from expiring.  I filed for everything at once to save 1. on time, and 2. on Apostilling.  We have to get each one apostilled so I was hoping to save myself $10.00.  Oh well, that is the least of our worries now.  Maybe we won't need to file for the extension??  P.S. I scanned the pink sheet that they send with the form and no where on there says that you have to wait until you are 90 days away from the expiration of the form to apply for the extension.  I think it is silly that our fingerprints expire after 15 months, and our form 18 months.  A lot of extra work on both sides.

Thank you...

For everyone's comments and prayers.  I was having just a really horrible day!  Those days are the days that I know Satan just attacks me and goes after my heart and I get the selfish ME ME ME going.  I think I am going to try Sarah's advice and not read any blogs for awhile, while I will update my own, I am going to just try to enjoy our summer together before the school year starts back up again.  Our coordinator is suppose to be back in the office on June 27th and I figure I will give her two days to read her 1 billion emails that I am sure that she will have after being gone 5 weeks, and then I am going to start annoying her! :-)  Maybe she will just get so sick of me that she will call Russia and BEG them to give us a referral! 

LOL, if only it was that simple.  Our summer fun should begin on Thursday, we are picking up Randy's brother, whom he hasn't seen in over 2 years, from the airport and we are headed to the lake for a long weekend, and I also get to go to my beautiful friend Kym's wedding down in Arkansas.  Kym went to Africa shortly after I got married 4 years ago, and I got to see her briefly after she got back last September as she was driving through.  So excited that I get to go to her wedding.  It all worked out beautifully!

We are also going to celebrate Camden's 3rd birthday this weekend.  Even though his birthday is not until the 26th, this is the only time that all the family will be together before his birthday.  We did not plan a huge party this year, because we were hoping to be in Russia, just coming back, or getting ready to go, but it will be great all the same.  Next year when he turns 4 he gets a monster party!  Have a great week everyone!

Sick and Tired...

I know that I am going to sound like I am whining, and it's because I AM!!!!  I am getting so sick of this whole adoption issue.  I am tired of seeing people who started after us already HOME with their children.  I am tired of reading about all the experiences that they get to do with their kids that I don't because every spare dollar we have we put in our adoption fund so that we can pay for this crazy thing.  Every blog that I follow, which is about 50, every person has their child.  I can't even find a blog of anyone starting the process, so that I can talk to them about the process.  I kinda feel left behind.  We have been on this roller coaster for 18 months, DTR for 13 months, and I am just sick and tired of waiting.

There are many positives going on though, we are getting so close to having this thing fully funded.  Which means NO LOANS!  We are paying cash.  Most in part to the grant we have received.  That was the ultimate blessing, no doubt.  I keep thinking, tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be the day when we get the call.  Nothing happens though.  I was so excited when we got that initial phone call about the siblings, now I wish we hadn't turned them down, because again, our agency is dead in the water.  I know way back when we started that picking the right agency was the most important thing, well I think we goofed.  They are just too small and are not in the right areas to move us along.  I think day after day, we need to change agencies.  Then I start thinking about ALL the stuff we would have to change, Homestudy, I-600A, grant information, not to mention all the money that we have already paid them.  In my heart I know we can't change, but my head is screaming CHANGE, CHANGE!! 

There are so many things we are wanting to do, we want to buy some land so that we can build our dream house, but we can't because every penny we have is reserved for our adoption, and you can't get a loan out here for land because of the economy, so you have to pay cash for it.  We want to just get away, but we can't. 

I also feel guilty, during the school year, I really felt like I was contributing, I was working, bringing home a very meager salary subbing on Randy's days off.  Since school has been out, I just feel like a lazy slob.  I never even felt like this when I was working and I had the summer off, maybe it is just the lack of free activities out there.  Most of all I am just stressed, and I feel for Camden and Randy, I feel like I am just very stressed and tense, and I get annoyed by the smallest things. 

I am also scared, I am scared because we are very comfortable in our family of 3.  Yes I want more kids, but what is that going to do to us?  How is Camden going to handle it, how are we going to handle it?  If you could just pray for some peace for me I would greatly appreciate it. 

Not Adoption Related, sorry

I know I have been absent from blogging lately, but when nothing is happening I just don't want to bore you with my whining, so I thought I would show you a cute video of Camden "cutting" with his scissors.  Usually he is very fast, but he was distracted by me filming him.  Sorry it is sideways, I took the video on my phone.

Our coordinator is on vacation for a month, we are two weeks in, so I seriously doubt anything is going to happen until she get back at the end of June.  Have a great week.