Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Our trip up north was an overall success. No breakdowns (vehicular or mental) and no illness/accidents to report. Marina gave us one scare at a rest stop-- when the automatic toilets triggered her fight or flight reflex and she ran pell-mell out of the john and into the parking lot--but other than that, we were good. The extended family embraced us all with warm affection. And I am glad we went. Grandma kept saying with conviction, "It is so good to have you here," and I felt ashamed that we have not visited more often. The kids reveled in having cousins to the infinite power and the food was wonderful.

Here are some pics of the famous Grandma Z and the kids down (or is it up?)on the farm.

Happy Thanksgiving

It is almost midnight and I am waiting up for the master to come home from a frenzied evening of stocking vending machines. We are trying to get them stuffed full and in tip-top shape before leaving for Illinois.
That's right. We're headed to Illinois for Thanksgiving. We leave Tuesday night. No offense intended to any extended in-law relations who might be reading this blog, but I'm not looking forward to this trip. Do you realize it is stinking COLD in Illinois? We are still wearing shorts down here. My kids do not own coats. We have wind-breakers for the two days each year that temperatures drop below 50. The master is estimating the cost of fuel for our voyage in 'ye olde 15 passenger will run around $400. Yikes!
I keep telling myself, "It's for Grandma Z____. It's for Grandma Z_____." Grandma Z______ is an amazing woman. She raised 10 children, has untold number of grand and great grand children. And she never forgets a birthday! Every year, for every child a birthday card arrives right on time. Even one for me. The interloping spouse. K met her first as a toddler. Then on our last trip, the kids were five, three, and one, respectively. Yet, a week does not pass that the children do not make fond mention of her or wonder aloud when we will see her again. Marina is excited that she is finally going to behold the famous "Grandma Z_______."
The only question is: will seeing Grandma Z________ be enough to keep them pleasant for 14 hours of driving?

Digging In

Today we were supposed to send our first payment to the facilitator in Ukraine. We were going to wire it, and he sent very specific instructions with detailed information, account numbers, etc. that we took down to our bank. Unfortunately, we live in Podunk, USA. They don't send too many of them thar forin money teli-grams.
They thought that maybe they would need some routing numbers. Though he provided the swift account #'s. The master was like, "This man has done this thousands of times! I'm sure he has provided you with all the necessary information." But they wouldn't listen. Humbled, I had to e-mail the facilitator and tell him we failed in our very first mission.
Welcome back to the world of international adoption.
Then this afternoon our homestudy packet arrived. It is a large notebook. I thought I would be excited, but instead I felt a sense of dread as I flipped through the plethora of paperwork that has to be filled out, all the financial information that has to be tracked down and tallied, the medical exams, the copies...I closed the notebook and walked away. I looked around the dinner table and thought, "We are such a nice family. We are happy. Content. Comfortable. Now why did I want to change that? International adoption is such a hassle. So expensive. So draining."
Right now we would only be out $50 bucks. I don't think the church folks will even remember. Oh sure, a year from now, someone may make the off-handed remark, "Hey, weren't ya'll going to get another one?" But we could always drum up some church excuse like, "Well, we prayed some more about it and decided it wasn't what God had for us." Easy. I could just go in and delete a few drafts from the blog and that would be that.
Then tonight I read Tami's blog and she posted this video. **Grab some tissues before you click**
Ukraine here we come!

Moving along

Today is a big day in the adoption. I found out our home will pass as is. We are within income requirements. Tomorrow we will mail off the application for the homestudy. And our facilitator will e-mail the list of dossier documents. It seems like we are doing this all backwards--dossier BEFORE homestudy? But he is the one who has brought hundreds of orphans home. I've brought one. So I will do whatever he thinks is best.
He is planning to get our file on the list before the "big ones" come through (homestudy and INS). Even so, we will not travel before August. Which is fine with us. That is a good time frame. But we learned with Marina, "time frame" is an oxymoron in the international adoption world. There is no such animal. So we shall see...