Please Help Natasha!

So, today being the last day of November, it is also the last day of National Adoption Month.  I hope you all read my earlier post and took it to heart!

Recently on my FRUA Families for Russian and Ukranian Adoption) Facebook page, this little girl was profiled as needing a home.  The woman who posted the entry is Russian and is a volunteer with a foundation there to help abandoned children.  Everyone who has met this little girl says she is an absolute joy.  She's had some VERY serious medical needs, but is doing very well after having numerous surgeries and is cognitively just fine!  I cannot stop thinking about her, wishing I could go scoop her up and bring her home.  But I can't.  I cannot save every Russian orphan, unfortunately.  So, in an effort to help find her a home, I'm posting about her here.  If you can help with a donation through Reece's Rainbow (tax deductible) or know somebody who may be interested, please spread the word and/or contact the agency she's offered through, HAPS New Jersey International Adoption Agency.  Or you could even email the woman who posted about her, Natalia Zimina at sobachka02@yahoo.com.

So, without further adieu, here is a link to Natasha's profile (her nickname is Tera!).  Please help if you can!

http://reecesrainbow.org/28060/tera

Please, Consider Adoption!

As I sit here and write (for the second time in a month!), my kids are upstairs sleeping.  Sleeping, in their warm beds, with food in their bellies, clean from a bath, knowing, finally, that they are loved.  Some people would say they're lucky. I say we're lucky to have them--we got the family we wanted.  But there are many children in the world who DON'T have the family they want.

We've had the kids home 9 months, and just hit our one year anniversary of meeting them, and November is National Adoption Month.   These things are making me very introspective about the journey we went through, and about all the children who got left behind.  And there are LOTS of them.

Here are some sobering statistics.  In the U.S. alone, there are over 500,000 in foster care, several hundred thousand of which are available for adoption.  At least 13 million children worldwide are true orphans, without the care of either parent or any family members.  In Russia, where our children were born, there are over 700,000 children in need of a family, most for social reasons.  SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND--and Russia has half the population of the US.  Russia is one of the top three countries from which Americans bring home children, the other two being China and Ethiopia. 

The fact is, nothing good awaits these children in other countries if they are not adopted.  These countries have no social safety net, and there's no way to get an education there without a family.  Once the kids age out of the system, they are pretty much invisible people.  The most recent stats I read for Russia stated that every year, 10,000 children age 16 or 17 leave Russian orphanages.  85% of those children turn to crime, drugs, and prostitution.  500 every year commit suicide because of the hopelessness.  I would bet my life savings that the statistics are not much better for China and Ethiopia.  And, the fact is, its not much better here for kids who leave foster care.  

So, my plea is--PLEASE CONSIDER ADOPTION.  Whether it be domestic infant (there's a special need for homes for minority children!), U.S. foster care, or international, children need homes.  Yes, most adoptions cost money (U.S. foster care adoptions are generally free), but I'm sure, honestly, many people could evaluate their lifestyle and realize they have a lot more than they realize.  How many lattes do you drink a week? Or energy drinks? How many trips do you take?  Do you feel the need to have a new car every 2 or 3 years?  These things may seem important, but they're not.  Not when you think about the fact you literally could be saving a life.  And I can tell you from experience, I cannot imagine loving kids more than I love these kids.  Every person I've ever talked to who has bio kids and adopted kids has told me there's absolutely no difference in the love for an adopted child vs. a bio kid.  From the moment these kids were brought to us in a hotel room at 9 am on a Tuesday in Arkhangelsk, Russia, they were mine. 

So, before I get off my soapbox, here are  few links to different websites.

Our agency, Adoption Associates, does both domestic infant and International.

http://www.adoptionassociates.net/

Bethany Christian Services is another well respected agency that does both domestic and international.

http://www.bethany.org/

For info on U.S. Foster adoptions, check out the link below or talk to your state Department of Social Services.

http://www.adoptuskids.org/

Fun Stuff!

We've been home a little over two months now and I realize all my blog posts have been "Oh woe is me, this is so hard, etc, etc." So, I figure I should make a post about the fun stuff we've been doing/learning to show it's not all doom and gloom in the Nault house!

Our guest room has officially become Tania's room, which wasn't what we intended, but I guess, what's the big deal right? I hung a decorative plaque in there with her name and birthday on it that says "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, do you know how loved you are?" It's pink and was a gift from our friends Steve and Nancy Moriarty from Indy. Cola has one too that's blue that I want to get up! Brian and I also hung light blocking curtains in both of their rooms, hers are bright pink and his are navy blue, which work perfectly color-wise with what they like, bedding, etc. I am still sleeping in there with her, which is okay. She's been doing GREAT lately with sleeping, consistently better all the time. For example, two nights ago I got up to check on Brian and Cola and left her and she woke up. She didn't scream for once, she just called out to me twice! It was great! Then, she and I went to Brian and Cola's room and she kissed Brian on the head and we went back to bed. It took her awhile to fall back asleep, but that's normal. I sang to her. We do that every night, singing, that is. It used to be "Twinkle Twinkle," now its "Hush Little Baby" with a line about a pizza pie in it, so she calls it "Pizza Pizza." It's funny. Cola's crib has been turned into his full sized bed and he and Brian are in there, so at least they're out of our bedroom! That's honestly really nice to be able to go in my bedroom after they're sleeping and put my PJ's on, brush my teeth, shower if I want, etc. Cola is still sleeping crappy, but such is life. It's gonna take awhile. He just can't express what's going on in his little head and it keeps him up, I think.

The kids love their new playroom (which used to be our formal living room). We've gated it off from our dining room, which is my sanctuary/office. I think its going to work well for a long time. We play with the ball hut (gift from the Fontanas!), play with blocks, do puzzles (which Tania appears to be getting good at), do tickling and horsey rides. It's just nice to get the toys out of our family room, so when Brian and I sit down to watch TV at night, we don't have to look at that crap!

I seriously wish the weather would get warmer consistently. It was SO NICE for those two days, we were outside half the day and they had a blast running around and playing on the neighbors playscape. They slept so well on those nights! We also have had a blast visiting friends and going to the mall and BounceU to play. I am going to start taking them to story time at the Library and Borders, but this morning just didn't feel right. We got a late start and it would have been rushed. Maybe next time on Friday.

So that's what up here after two months! We can't believe its been that long!

Sleepless in Michigan!

But hopefully not forever!

The title of this blog actually refers to the kids, not necessarily Brian and I. We're doing okay, because adults can survive on 6 or 7 hours of sleep. But kids at age 2 and 3 cannot survive on 9 or 10. It's simply too little. So, I sought some advice on this subject from an expert we've met at our support group meetings.

From what we've read, these issues we're having (having to lay with them, them unable to fall asleep for long periods of time, frequent waking, not sleeping long enough or consistently) are totally common for new adoptees. Sleep is the most frequent reason post adopting families seek help. She actually stated that given the trauma, upheaval and fright our children experienced for the first 2 and 3.5 years of their lives, it could be a lot worse. Right now, I am still sleeping with Tatiana and Brian deals with Nicholas. Cindy, the psychologist, stated that we have a good strategy right now and are doing all the right things. She endorsed our plan to turn Cola's crib into his full sized bed and for him and Brian to sleep in there, instead of our bed. I need to keep doing what I'm doing. Then, we can EVENTUALLY transition ourselves out. But, that can't happen and this situation won't improve until they feel really comfortable and totally trust us, which can honestly take up to a year, as Cindy informed me. That is a bit daunting, but we have to be in this for the long haul. And bedtime will continue to be a long process for us, so don't expect to see Brian or I out at night for ages. Bye bye social life!

Cindy reassured me that this WILL get better. Like I said, the LONG HAUL. We haven't even been home 2 months, I keep reminding myself! It feels like a lot longer, quite honestly. I am so happy that the weather is breaking and we can get them outside. After being outside, Cola has shown signs of wanting to lay down in the living room and maybe go to sleep on his own, but Tania bothers him!! It's so frustrating. Hopefully, when they're BOTH out running a ton consistently, she go down for some quiet time/nap so he can too and I can quit wasting gas in the darn car every day!

If any of you care to look, here's a really good website I found that lays these issues out really well and explains why this happens with adoptees.

www.adoptmed.org/topics/sleep-and-adoption.html

Thanks for the support all!

More than One Month Home!

So, I meant to do an update when we hit one month home, which was February 26, but things have been nutty. So, now it's more like, 5 and a half weeks home! Things are slowly adjusting, but it's still hard, honestly. But, it is getting better. I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's very dim and far away!

The past week was challenging, as Brian had to travel for 3 nights for his first trip away. He had to go to Copenhagen, Denmark, of all places and it ended up being a total disaster here. The kids had their first round of shots the day he left (a DTAP, Hib, and Pneumococcal), plus a TB test. Tania had a very bad reaction and had a high fever. I was up all night with her, and Cola was up part of the night too, because she was crying so much. I felt so bad, there was nothing I could do. The Motrin didn't touch the fever for quite a while. She kept crying in Russian that she was hot, had boo boos, and hurt. It was awful. I had to call in reinforcements--my awesome aunt Margaret came down and stayed with me quite a bit to act as back up. It helped tremendously. Now, Brian is telling me he has to be gone one night this week again, and I am irritated. I thought he wasn't going to travel much for a long time! Lies. At least the kids' TB test came out negative, but that gives us another reason not to trust the immunization records we were given. You see, in Europe and other countries like Russia, there is a shot they give kids that is sort of like a TB vaccination. And if you've had this shot, your TB should come out positive because you'll have antibodies. We were told the kids had this shot. Well, clearly they haven't if their TB came out negative. So, we are starting the vaccines totally over from scratch, but with Tania, we'll have to take it slowly to avoid another night like Monday.

Sleeping is still our biggest issue here. They just give us a hard time going down, we have to be with them until they fall asleep, which can take a long time, and its not until 8:30-9pm. Then, they don't sleep very long, maybe 10 hours is the consistent average, which for kids their age is not enough. The only way to get them to nap is riding in the car, so I'm going to be spending the summer of high gas prices driving my kids around aimlessly and throwing money out the window. Tania is doing better with the sleeping--she's getting a lot more peaceful, hardly restless anymore, which is wonderful. Cola is bothered by something and we can't figure out what. He just wakes up quite a bit. Right now, she still sleeps with me in the guest room bed, and now Cola seems to want to sleep in our room with Brian. So, instead of ME in bed with my husband, there's a tiny little boy there. And we bought and were gifted all this nice, expensive furniture for them, and guess what? NOBODY'S SLEEPING IN IT.

So, that's what's going on here. Keep us in your thoughts as we continue to adjust to life with them, and they adjust to us!

Doctor's Appointment

On Tuesday, we made the long journey downtown to Children's Hospital at the DMC to have the kids fully evaluated medically. The appointment was at 9am and we had to leave this house at 7:20 to make it there on time. Which sucked, because we had to wake the kids up early, and they were having their best night of sleep yet. Also, on the way down, Tatiana completely upchucked all over herself in the car, so that was pleasant to deal with. Half digested yogurt and bananas, yuck. :(

We made it to Children's and got in with the doc about 9:20, I think. The front desk seriously didn't know how to run our private, excellent health insurance, because I'd be willing to bet all they deal with is freaking Medicaid (the Adoption Clinic is run out of one of the general pediatric clinics there, and the clientele seemed, let's say, ghetto fabulous).

The appointment lasted 2 hours. The doctor was very thorough, as she should be. She asked us every question under the sun, measured them a ton, and gave them full physicals. She was generally pleased with the state of their health, and with the things we've been doing with them. She also has twin sons adopted from Kazakhstan, so she totally understands what we're going through. Cola is in good shape overall, he's just tiny. He's not even on the growth chart. He is 2 now, and is the size of an average 12 month old here. Little lady Tania is good sized, but has issues like decayed teeth, a lazy eye, and something called funnel chest/pectalis, which means her chest, right in between where her breasts will be, is concave. This will most likely resolve itself, but it may not. They are most likely also developmentally delayed, and I have the school district working on coming out to evaluate them. They are certainly emotionally stunted. We're working on that.

Also, they had a ton of blood work ton. She took it like a rock star, but he screamed like a banshee. It was awful. It was 1:45 by the time we got out of Children's. We also have to do a urinalysis and a fecal test (3 times for the poop) to check for parasites. Fun for Heather and Brian. But these guys need to be checked for every little thing.

So, that's what happened with the doctor's appointment. Things are rolling. I honestly think taking them to medical appointments and getting out of this house may help our mood!

Thank You All...

For the tremendous support I got from my last blog update. To all of you who emailed me, or Facebooked me, sorry I haven't replied in person, but this blog entry is hard enough to get done. All of you that wrote sent lovely messages of support and offers to call you. Trust me, I may take some of you up on that at some point. Right now, I'm calling people who've specifically been through an adoption process, because they have the most insight into the specific things we're dealing with. I'm having a very bad day today, so writing this short blurb hopefully will help me stay sane.

The sleeping is not going much better, but at least the jet lag is over, I think. The white noise helps them go to sleep somewhat, but it only lasts 90 minutes on my iPod, so Brian ordered a white noise machine that we can play all night. I think that may help. They both are still waking repeatedly, which could go on for months. Basically, our poor babies have never had anyone comfort them in the night, and now that's all they want for a while until they realize that we'll always be there if they need us. Nicholas is SO hard to get to sleep, and the stroller is the only thing that works fairly consistently. So, we're going to go with that. We have to meet him where he is. At least Tatiana hasn't had any more night terrors, but she thrashes and wails in her sleep. I think she's having nightmares. Poor thing. We're trying to remember what these babies have been through in their lives, which, at 3 and a half and 2, is more than most of us will ever have to endure. But, its still difficult to deal with when we're less than our best.

Food is also a huge issue. If they see food, they will scream and wail for it, even if they ate 5 minutes ago. Food preparation around them is a difficult situation. I think they've been hungry quite a bit in their lives and now are just craving food until they explode. This is common and takes time to subside. We've had to bungee cord my pantry shut so they don't get into stuff.

We do see improvement and we hold on to that. Her tantrums are getting better, as she seems to be getting more of what's expected of her behavior wise. A huge problem we have is sharing/sibling rivalry, but that's normal for any siblings. It'll take time. Also, we've had them since January 18, and we can already see them filling out. They are getting little bellies on them! We love that, since we could scarily see their ribs A LOT when they arrived to us. I think T will always be tall and thin, which is fine by me! I wish N would grow height wise a bit. We have the full eval at Children's Hospital downtown on Tuesday and we'll see how that goes. I think they're in pretty decent shape overall. Next step will be getting T treatment for her lazy eye. I talked to the Adoption Medicine specialist today and she was very encouraging. She has twins from Kazakhstan and she reassured me that everything we're dealing with is normal and will subside, but it could take months. So, we have to be in it for the long haul.

Thanks for the support and encouragement everyone. We know that in the near future we'll hopefully be able to look back at this and go, "Wow, that sucked, but we made it through." Hopefully, that's sooner rather than later!

Since You've Been Asking

Hi All. This will be a short post, but many of you have been asking how it's going, so I decided to try to give a blog update on our situation.

We are, of course, thrilled to have the kids home. We made it home on January 26, barely avoiding the storm that hit the east coast, which we are grateful for. It was a very difficult day, though. On an 11 hour flight from Moscow to NYC, the kids slept less than 2 hours. So, they were exhausted and we were exhausted. It was 10 pm by the time we got home, and we put them to bed. Then, the jet lag you all have been hearing about on Facebook hit. I think that's getting a bit better, thank goodness. However, due to other issues, we are still not sleeping in the Nault household and may not for a while.

The kids wake up repeatedly in the middle of the night. This is not uncommon for adopted kids. They are in a totally different environment, after having experienced a lot of trauma in their lives. Nicholas (nickname Cola) wakes up and takes a long time to fall back asleep. Hopefully the white noise I downloaded will help. It helped them fall asleep last night. Tatiana (nickname Tania) also wakes frequently, but more importantly,experiences ferocious night terrors. It's awful. Last night we thought she was going to kill herself by accident. She was jumping up on her bed and throwing herself down repeatedly. We thought she was going to hit her head and die. This lasted for 40 minutes, then she did it again, albeit shorter and quieter, 2 hours later. Brian and I thought she was going psychotic, until we called a few people this morning and found out that this is not uncommon. Awful, but not uncommon. Ugh. Hopefully this will wane as she gets comfortable in her new home and environment.

Also, she has terrible tantrums in the day, up to 6-8 times a day, mostly we feel due to us not being able to understand her when she talks and her not being able to understand us. I feel really badly for her, but we also have to set limits. It is not okay for her to hit me or bite Brian. I feel badly because Nicholas is not at all getting the attention he deserves, but I guess it is still much better than being in an orphanage, right?

There are other issues going on too, but that's the major stuff. I feel its important to be honest and not sugarcoat this stuff. We've been honest about everything we've dealt with thus far, so this post is a continuation of that. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to post that things are getting better. To all of you whom I've called and cried to, thanks a lot.

THREE WEEKS!!

I cannot believe that in THREE WEEKS the kids will be home! We leave a week from Saturday and will be home January 26! It is so nutty around here trying to get everything together. Brian's been installing baby gates, I'm getting paperwork together, and I need him to help me organize their room and put a bunch of toys downstairs. Everyone has been so generous with clothes and toys that some of the toys need to be put away and taken out slowly. These kids are NOT used to having an abundance of things and it can really overstimulate them. That's also why we did not decorate the room very much. Decoration can come with time! Also, thanks to Holly and Jill, I have full drawers for Nicholas and TWO sacks of too big clothes in the closet for when he grows! We also have plenty of clothes for her right now, thanks to my lovely aunts Holli and Margaret, and it'll be cheaper and easier buying for one kid on down the line than both of them!

I am SO NERVOUS, but obviously excited too. Hopefully, now that this blog is linked to Facebook, I'll be motivated to post more in the new year. The kids themselves will provide motivation too--everyone wants to see pictures! I can't wait until I can oblige all of your numerous photo requests!!

Things I Learned in Russia

I know everyone wants to hear about the trip, and there are some things we can discuss and other things that we really can't. I hope you all understand that. So, in light of that, I decided to do a quick rundown of lessons learned from the trip, both silly and serious!

1) I need to invest in whatever stores or companies sell women's knee high black boots in Russia! Seriously, they are the footwear of choice of every freaking woman there between the ages of 10-40, and even people younger and older! I seriously saw a 5 year old wearing them. If you go to Russia and want to fit in, wear your "hooker boots" and a short black skirt, and you're good to go.

2) I learned I can pee in a hole in the ground if I need to! Seriously. The toilet at the airport going to Kotlas (the town where the kids are) was a sink basin sunk into the ground. I ended up stripping from the waist down and then squatting. I stripped because I had a huge fear of peeing all over my pants, and then I would be screwed. I figured if it went down my leg, I could clean that up! Sorry if this is gross, but its true. Brian warned me, so I was somewhat prepared at least. :)

3) Sanitation standards in Russia are not what they are here. Sometimes there's soap, sometimes not. Sometimes the toilet flushes well, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes there's paper, other times, no. And the paper they did have--well, it hurts your bum and they don't flush the paper. I guess the pipes can't handle it. So, there's a trash can next to every toilet and there goes the paper. It's gross. Sorry, I can't wrap my brain around that one.

4) I can fly in crazy small planes and not get sick or scared. The last plane we took was a 21 seater double propeller Soviet era thing, where your luggage just goes in the back of the plane, and the cockpit is wide open. No lie. It was INTERESTING, to say the least.

Now, onto more serious things....

5) The orphanage was a lot nicer than we thought it would be, and the workers, the doctors, nurses and caregivers, really care about the children. They absolutely want the best for them. It was reassuring. And everything we'd been told about the kids 100% seemed to be true, everything seems completely above board.

6) Regarding their surroundings, they kids are definitely not kept in cribs all day and ignored like some of the stories you've heard. It's just not true. They have music and art and exercise and playtime. They also get a decent diet, not as much fruit and dairy as we'd like, but it's nutritious and there's enough of it. So that's also reassuring.

7) Can't say too much about the kids, but I learned it is completely possible to get super attached to kids you only met 3 times. It was sad, so much sadder than we thought, to leave them. Now I'm frantically trying to get paperwork done to speed the process as much as possible. But, just so you know, we won't be going back until January or February. Unfortunately.

8) So this is really fun to announce to everyone, not really something I learned, just an announcement. Our daughter is going to be Tatiana Louise and our son will be Nicholas Brian! The first names are Americanized versions of their Russian names and the middle names are for my mom (she's Marie Louise) and for Brian, of course. :)

9) The last thing I learned was this--we have a CRAP TON of baby proofing to do! OMG--we are bringing two small Tasmanian devil like creatures into our house in the near future. :) Let's hope the house survives it! Oh, and us too. :)

So Much To Do, Even With No Work

Wow, so much stuff is going on these days! Despite being off work for probably the months of July and August, I have been going, going, going! While Brian's at softball tonight (I skipped due to my dislike of being rained on), I thought I'd let you all know what's been going on!

We did get the furniture for the kids and it's all in the room and set up. If I had bedding, tiny little Russian babies could sleep in it tonight. On one wall, there's the crib and nightstand we bought, along with a toddler bed donated from our friends the Hills (tons of thanks to them!). On the other wall is the tall 5 drawer dresser and a tall 3 shelf bookcase. SO EXCITING. I literally go in there 5 times a day and look at it, pull out the drawers, and walk to the crib and imagine taking a small person out of it. Sappy I know, but I think these are the things that pregnant moms do, and I am pregnant in the only way I'll ever really experience it. So, I'm indulging myself in all those things and NOT FEELING BADLY ABOUT IT. :) My next project is to buy some bedding for the beds and start decorating. My wonderful friend, frequent reader A, has graciously volunteered to make me some sort of quilt for the children (I'M SUPER EXCITED), and I'll be going to see her soon to pick out fabric. I actually need to talk to her about this, because I don't know exactly what she has in mind, and I need to know before I buy bedding. So, A, if you're reading this--CALL ME. (When the stuff regarding Grandma is settled, of course. Hope you're doing well.)

Fourth of July weekend was pretty quiet, which is fine for me, but I think Brian was bored. He felt left out of other parties, etc. He truly feels that certain folks are not inviting us places anymore because we don't have kids. I feel other factors are in play, and it doesn't bother me as much as it does him. But he hates being bored, so he was a bit crabby that weekend. Plus, his parents were ill and canceled on having dinner with us on Saturday, so he was upset at that too (they don't come down often and he was excited). Poor guy. He's having a bit of a hard time lately. It was very nice to have the Meese's over for dinner though. We truly enjoy having company, so please come visit us people! I also baby sat Oliver Meese this morning while Candace went to the doctor and he is my favorite (and only) godson, as always! Then Candace and I had a very nice lunch at Applebee's, in which Ollie squealed his favorite word "Eeewww!" the whole time and flirted with waitresses. Typical man. :)

Finally, the other stuff I have going on is that a week from today I'm leaving to visit Ruth in California! It's going to be so much fun! I've only been to visit her out there once and only get to see her probably once every couple years, so this is great. I can't wait to see Nathan again and meet Hannah, who's a year old. I'm going Thursday through Sunday and then the Sunday after that, Brian and I leave for our week of vacation in the UP again! We're camping with my fam again Grand Marais Sunday through Wednesday, then two nights on Drummond Island, finished with two nights on Mackinac with the Meeses! We plan to ride our bikes as much as possible and just relax! I think my husband needs it, and I hope we get some more awesome pictures!

June Fun-ness!

So, here I am blog, back visiting you after a pretty long period of ignoring you. Let's see if I can keep the visits at a more regular pace from now on, but there are no guarantees! I'm here to tell you about the fun I've been having throughout the month of June!

1) Brian and I were in Mayville a lot for a few weeks--Grant graduated June 6 and then his Open House was June 12. Both events went off without a hitch, but it was weird to me on many levels. It was weird to be in the gym at Mayville High School again, weird to be in that buildings. I DO NOT miss it. Weird to see people I went to high school with that have 10 year old children, etc. Grant's class was only 73 kids, as opposed to mine, which was 95. People are just bolting that town, nobody's left around that has any sort of decent job. Then, the next weekend was his Open House,which was like a big family reunion. All sorts of people I haven't seen in years where approaching me, saying things like, "Oh I hear you're a lawyer, oh I hear you're married!" Yeah, as in, I moved on with my life, folks. Mr. Fox, our 7th grade bio teacher was there (he's married to my mom's cousin), and he's been retired about 5 years now, and was very interested to hear what's up with people that I could tell him about, like frequent reader A, Kat, Michele, Holly, Mary, Kathy, etc. So that was fun.

2) MY BIRTHDAY WAS JUNE 13!!! It's the most wonderful day of the year! And this year, it was extra special because Season 3 of True Blood premiered that night too, so it was great! We had a few people over to barbecue and have DQ ice cream cake. Everything was delicious and I'm loving True Blood being back on for the summer! By Tuesday, I'm already hoping it was Sunday so I could watch another episode!

3) Jimmy Buffett's yearly concert at Pine Knob was Tuesday. We had a blast, other than dealing with a decided lack of bathrooms and Pine Knob parking Nazi's. Jimmy is always great fun and I love hearing those songs, dancing with Brian in the aisles (or on the lawn), and just enjoying the party. I was totally tired at work yesterday, but a good night's sleep puts a better shine on things today.

4) Finally, our kid furniture is getting delivered today between 1 and 4! I wish I could be there to see it right away, but I have to wait until late tonight, because Holly is having a Pampered Chef party right after I'm done with work. Oh, I want to see it so bad! It finally feels like small people should be in the house! Yay!

Umm, I Seem to Have Missed March....

Well, after my last post that detailed how bored I was, the month of March was anything BUT boring. I was working, working, working, and when I'm busy and on my computer all day, I really don't want to come home and blog about being on the computer all day. It really is feast or famine with me. Now, I'm currently on break for Easter, which is nice. So, I'm spending my days catching up on things and hanging out. This week, I'm going to see both April (we need to talk to plan our day!) and Candace (who's currently in KY visiting the fam).

Like I said, work has been super busy again, which is nice for my pocketbook, but sucky for my social life. We've been deciding a bit more on furniture, which I hope to order soon, considering it can take 3 months to come in. I think we've decided on Natart, but we need to be sure on what style we want, and get our hands on some Buy Buy Baby coupons and go order it. I'll take 20% off for the stuff we're looking at. So, that's our next order of business.

Nothing major is going on here, other than I think we may go to Toronto for a weekend in May. I don't have my work schedule yet in May, so I hope its not crazy. We want to go see "Rock of Ages," which is a new musical set to 80's hair band music, and it tells the story of the small town girl, and the boy born in raised in South Detroit in Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." We may also hit a Blue Jays game and Niagra Falls, too. Brian and I can't really plan any big trips now, because we never know when we're going to get a phone call, but we're trying to get in some weekend trips this summer and really continue to enjoy our time together alone while we can.

The only other thing going on is that I've been having really bizarre dreams lately. Last week, I dreamed that I had just given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and Brian and I were getting ready to go to my check up appointment. I'd first like to say that I haven't had a dream where I'd given birth in AGES, so I don't know what's up with that. Second, it was weird, because we were going for my 6 week check up, but these babies looked 3-4 months old. Another weird thing is that, in the dream, since giving birth, I literally felt like my insides were going to fall out of my crotch onto the floor. Maybe that is what it feels like after, I don't know! Brian and I weren't living in our house here in Brighton, we were living in a duplex owned by Sam Merlotte (Sookie Stackhouse's boss in TrueBlood) and also, the house had a toilet in the kitchen instead of a sink. THEN, to top it all off, Angelina Jolie came in and was going to kill me, until I convinced her not to, because I had boy/girl twins like she does. And then I woke up. SO BIZARRE. Brian laughed his head off when I told him that one.

Hopefully I won't wait another month to blog! I'll try!

Bored, Bored, Super Bored

In case you can't tell, I'm pretty bored at the moment. It's 9 pm on a Friday, and normally Brian and I would be hanging out, at dinner and/or a movie, watching a movie here, doing SOMETHING. But that jerk is in Key West with his buddies this weekend, and I'm here all by myself, being bored. And its not like I haven't tried to find things to occupy my time around here, but I'm trying to spread the projects around so I have something to do tomorrow. Today I have already worked out, cleaned half the house (upstairs), read half of Sookie Stackhouse book #5, snow blew the driveway and played in the snow for a few minutes, talked to my mother, texted with Candace, watched way too much TV, and was on Facebook for probably 2 hours. And I'm STILL bored.

Like I said, I'm spreading around the things to do, so I'm not twice as bored tomorrow as I am today. Tomorrow I will go to yoga, finish cleaning, re-blow the driveway if need be, and probably read a significant portion of my book, if not finish it. Sure, there are other things to do around here, but most of them are in the nature of things that I need Brian around to do. Like clean and organize the basement. Could I do it? Absolutely. Would he be happy with the results? Probably not. I would most likely throw away things and organize them in a way that would not please him, so that'll have to wait. Only, we've been meaning to get around to that for the past year or so. Oh well. Yesterday, I did some shopping for the house, and got a new mop, springy patterned tablecloth, and replaced a few items of makeup that needed to be pitched. Nothing too crazy.

I didn't work this week, so I had time on my hands. Earlier in the week, Candace helped me start the process of looking at cribs and bedroom furniture sets. I think our plan is to have the kids share for a while, even if we get a boy and a girl (in the tan room, for those of you who have been here). The reasons behind this are several. One, it'll be easier for us for a while, and cheaper to only have to fully furnish one bedroom at first. Two, one of us may have to sleep in the room with them for awhile, because we expect they'll frequently wake, possibly with nightmares, nervousness, etc, for the first period of time. This is normal with children who come from orphanages. And three, also related to sleeping, since these children will be used to sleeping in a room with 10 other children, and NOT used to being alone, we think it'll be more comforting for them too. So, we've decided we'll be shopping for a convertible crib, dresser, etc, for the room, so the young one will have a forever set of furniture. Then, we'll get a cheap toddler bed and mattress for the older one and just put it in the same room. When they're ready to separate, we'll buy a complete bed set and set it all up in the other bedroom (the one that's now green, but used to be blue, right across the hall from the other one).

So, that is literally all that's going on here right now. I've been reading the Sookie Stackhouse books on which "TrueBlood" is based, and they are pretty fantastic, I've been flying through them. It's gotten me thinking that I could totally write something along those lines. I've always wanted to write a book, but have never had the guts to start. April, perhaps a collaboration???

Thanks for letting me alleviate my boredom!

Time Flies...

when you're having fun. Or so the saying goes. Not that I haven't been having fun, just have had a lot of things going on. I know I say that all the time, but now it actually seems true! So, here's a brief rundown of what's been happening of late.

1) After my tooth fiasco and car fiasco, I was ready not to have anything like that happen again any time soon. Well, its not AS serious, but I chipped my right front tooth last week! ERG, what is up with my teeth?! Anyway, its not serious, I'll wait to have it fixed until I go to the regular dentist for my check up in April, unless I have a compelling reason not to.

2) Last weekend, we had a very nice dinner with Jeff and Candace at Andiamo Novi in honor of Jeff's birthday! Delicious food, and great company, so it was a good evening all around! Yesterday, Candace and I watched "Anne of Green Gables" on DVD, that I got for Christmas. I love that story! I also got "Anne of Avonlea," and we're going to watch that too, but that'll have to be split into two days. It's almost 4 hours long!

3) On Tuesday, we had a conference call with our adoption agency. The call was for all the waiting families in the Russia program. It was a good call, and the upshot it that wait times for a referral are dropping because there are only half the families in the agency's system as usual because of the economy, and fewer Russian families adopting, so things are going fast right now. So, we were being told 6-12 months, but now we're hoping it goes faster! In light of that, I do not want to dawdle with getting things together. We need to get a room ready, learn the Russian, and get in contact with the various medical professionals we need to work with on this. It's a lot to do, but very exciting, and its starting to feel more real!

4) I'm going to Saugatuck with Kate this weekend to go to the spa!! So exciting!! I am having a message, a facial, and a chocolate body wrap. Yes, you read that correctly--a chocolate body wrap. I am very excited to do this stuff. Brian is having 20-30 boys over here that night to play poker, drink beer and play Rock Band, and I am soooo glad I'll be with Kate and not here! Although, if I weren't with Kate, I'm sure I'd be spending the night with Candace watching the aforementioned "Anne of Avonlea!"

5) And finally, work is finally picking up a bit. I have 2 days of work each week for the next 3 weeks. That's actually a fine amount, not too busy, but enough to start to rebuild my freaking bank account. I am broke! (Brian and I aren't broke, obviously, just me in my personal account!)

Later!

Happy New Year, About Two Weeks Late

Holy crap, if 2010 gets any more interesting, I just might fall over. Sorry for taking so long to write my first post of 2010, but as many of you know, we've been pretty darn busy in the Nault house.

For New Year's weekend, we went to Chicago to visit our friends the Fontanas. First, we drove through a blizzard around Kalamazoo New Year's Day on the way there, which was not fun. On Saturday, Brian, John, and a bunch of other guys went to the Northwestern vs. Michigan State basketball game and had a great time. (John and Erica live right next to Northwestern's campus.) Then, they came back and we all watched the bowl game that the MSU basketball team was playing in. Sounds like a fun weekend, right? Well, it was, other than the fact that Friday night one of my wisdom teeth starting aching, and by Sunday, I could barely open my mouth. By Monday, I called the dentist, who referred me to the oral surgeon, and on Tuesday morning, with Candace and Ollie waiting for me, I had my upper wisdom teeth out. I'm recovering well and am glad I'm never going to have that problem again. For about a year, my dentist has been telling me I needed to start thinking about having that done, and I should have listened!

Then, on Tuesday night, Grant came down to spend the night so I could take him to the airport Wednesday morning early to catch a flight to Steamboat, Colorado to go snowboarding with our Aunt Margaret and our cousins Nolan and Emma. It was his first time flying and he's a minor still, so I made sure we got there plenty early. This turned out to be a good thing, as his flights were screwed up, and they were able to get him on an earlier flight so he'd make his connection in Chicago and get to Colorado on schedule. So that worked out well. But, on the way home, my low tire pressure monitor went off in my car just as I was pulling off the highway by my house. I managed to drive to the dealership where we get our service work done, and watched my tire lose pressure as I was driving 4 miles up Grand River (my car has electronic pressure monitoring). When I pulled in, my tire had 12 pounds of pressure. When I'd left the house, it had 28.

I was supposed to go to work that afternoon, but that didn't end up happening. When they pulled the tire off the car and did the soap and water test around the rims (this enables them to see where the leak is), 6 inches of my rim was totally destroyed and leaking like a sieve. My car was not driveable AT ALL. I took the shuttle home, and they managed to get me a new rim and fix my car that day so I wasn't stranded. I had Grant's little truck here, but it's a stick and I can't drive a stick! And Brian was gone in DC! So, there went another $400 down the drain for vehicle repair. Lovely.

And finally, this morning, we had to go WAY down in the ghetto part of Detroit to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration office to get our biometrics taken (i.e., fingerprints) for our childrens' immigrant visa. You have to do this in advance, or you'll be stuck in Russia forever while stuff gets processed. So, we drive over an hour one way, walk in, and it takes FIVE whole minutes to do what needs to be done. Then, we leave. URG. But, it has to be done, right? At least the roads weren't bad this morning, traffic was okay, and we made it fine. The folks working were really nice, asking us where we're adopting from, etc. And the digital fingerprint system they have is pretty freaking sweet. I almost expected them to do a retinal scan or something too, but they didn't.

So, obviously, we've been very busy the last few weeks. I'm hoping next week is quiet, with no car breakdowns or health issues. It seems Brian only has a one day trip next week, which is nice. He's going to be gone a ton the next few months.

I'll write again soon, I hope!

Our Dossier is on it's Way!

We have reached a very important milestone with the adoption! Our dossier is finally out of our hands and will be going to Russia in a few short days! This morning I emailed our consultant about our papers, and she apologized and said she'd emailed me on Friday and said they were good! We have no idea why I didn't get that email, but the upshot is that I went to Lansing late this morning and got everything apostilled (29 documents, 29 bucks, took about 29 minutes). Before they could apostille them, I had to run and make copies at a nearby copy shop. I wasn't aware that the apostille is a piece of paper and gold sticker seal they permanently affix to each document. You can't copy your document after. So, I should have make those copies at home before I left, but you live and learn! In the grand scheme of everything, $5 is not a lot of extra money!

After I got everything apostilled, I came home and ate my lunch and went to Fed Ex and sent all the papers overnight to our consultant in Grand Rapids. So, in the next few days, our file should go to Russia!!! It takes about 3-4 weeks for everything to get translated and certified, especially at this time of year. Russia celebrates New Years just like we do, but their Christmas is Orthodox Christmas, which is later, and is on January 7. Literally, everything is closed, all offices, etc, from December 31-January 10 for holiday. So, that may take longer than usual, but at least it's out of our hands. Depending on what the agency's Russia office thinks is best, we may register in a particular region, but we may not, as not all regions require registration. If they don't register us in a region, we go in the master pile, I guess, with all the other families who are also not registered in one particular region.

So now basically, the wait is on. They are telling us we may wait a year for a referral because we are wanting two very young children, but that's okay. We'll see how it goes. I have to think that perhaps not as many people are adopting right now because of the economy, so maybe that'll shorten our wait. (Hoping!) And there are tons of other things to do while we wait, some more paperwork, gather orphanage donations, learns some Russian phrases, find a special doctor to help us evaluate the children's health when the time comes, and others. So, we'll still be really busy! But its nothing that will hold up our timetable! We are so excited to be at this point, and plan on taking a break from this stuff until after the New Year! We've been, and will continue to be, so wrapped up in all this, a break for the holidays will be great.

Thank you everyone!

Just Waiting!

So, I just wanted to do a quick update about adoption stuff. We have our home study in hand, and, on Friday, got all our documents signed and notarized! We came home and I immediately faxed one copy of everything to our consultant in Grand Rapids for her review. I am literally just waiting to get an email back from her saying the papers all look good. Once I get that, I can head to Lansing and have them apostilled, which is a state certification of the notary (as in, the state saying this person who notarized the documents is truly a notary). Once they are apostilled, I can Fed Ex all the papers and a big fat check off to our consultant and then, THEY GET SENT TO RUSSIA!!! So, we are almost to a big milestone!!

Thanks for reading and caring!

More Adoption Fun!

Hi All! Sorry that I haven't been blogging much lately, and when I have it's been all adoption, all the time. But, between that and work, that's pretty much all we've been doing lately! Brian's travel has been all over the place, and now its hunting for him later this week, so I'll be flying solo again for a while!

I wanted to write and update what's been going on with the adoption, since everyone has been so kind, and so interested. A lot's been going on with it, and its all been going pretty well!

1) Today we had our home visit. That's when the home study social worker, (Kris in our case), comes to the house and checks it out. (Probably to make sure you're not lying about where you live!) We also went over a few last things. She loved the house and thought it was great, and will be a great place for kids. We told her that's pretty much why we had bought it! She stayed for about an hour and a half, and we had a nice visit. She is SUPER nice, and I would honestly recommend her and Adoption Associates in general for anyone who is interested. The process has been overall smooth so far, with a minor bump here and there, but that's to be expected.

2) We had our psychological evaluation last a week and a half ago, and actually got the reports (one for me and one for Brian) in the mail today. I was so nerve wracked about it, but the reports are good! We were "Recommended!" Yay!

3) We have one last thing to do for our required education, and that'll be done tomorrow. We're attending a seminar in Lansing on Attachment Disorder. It's sort of presenting a worse case scenario with an adoption, which I think is good. We need to be prepared for the worst, and hope for the best. Once that is done, we're done with classes, and then the home study can be complete!

4) Once the home study is complete, I can send that along with some other additional paperwork they asked for to USCIS (United Stated Citizenship and Immigration Service), ie, the Department of Homeland Security. Gotta despise federal bureaucracy, but they hold the power to award us visas to allow our children to come home with us when the time comes. Also, when the home study is done, we can complete the dossier paperwork (99% done already), get it notarized (I'll need to make an appointment at the bank, because it's about 3 copies of 8 different docs and will take a while), and then apostilled (which is the state seal, so I'll have to drive to Lansing). After that, OUR DOSSIER GOES TO RUSSIA! We had planned to have this paperwork done by the end of the year, and I think, barring major emergency, that we definitely will! Once everything is sent, we can start doing other things, like contacting an MD who's an adoption specialist (more on that in a later post), learning some Russian, getting rooms ready, gathering orphanage gifts, and working on yet more paperwork. It will be CONSTANT stuff to do until we're done, but we're almost over the first hurdle!

5) On a final note, our neighbors 3 doors down, Dawn and Rob, are in Russia RIGHT NOW meeting their daughter for the first time. And they just LOVE her and wish they could bring her home immediately, but obviously they have to wait just like we will. But, seeing her blog and how happy they are, for me, completely validates everything we are doing even more! I can't wait until that's us, but we have to be patient, because we could wait awhile!

Late October...Feels like November Still!

I haven't written in a while, and that's because not much has been going on, or rather, the same old, same old has been happening. Obviously, we're still plugging away with the adoption. We still hope to have the paperwork out by the end of year, but I think it'll be sooner. I think that's good--if you're going to have to wait in line a long time, you'd rather be at the front of the line than at the back, right?

Regarding the adoption, we've finished our educational classes except for a seminar we're going to attend, and Brian has a book to read called, "Parenting with Love and Logic." I guess its a pretty famous book that lots of people have read. And its a book not just for adoptive parents, but for all parents. I think a lot of that stuff is pure hooey, but I honestly really liked that one. It's not all touchy-feeling, befriend your children crap. It actually says that you're NOT supposed to be their friends, you're supposed to be their parents. Also, it really focuses on letting kids learn from their own mistakes, and not fixing their problems for them. Sounds about right to me. The seminar we're attending is on Attachment and Bonding and what sorts of attachment problems adoptive children can have. I'm sure it'll be scary, but enlightening. Of course, they're telling you the worst case scenarios, we must remember that.

Also, Brian is thrilled that he got his first deer with a bow. Yay Brian, good job honey! It was a small doe, and normally I think he would have let her go, but he really just wanted to get over that hurdle. We still have some meat left from last year (almost gone), so he gave the whole deer to his sister, Erin, who could really use the meat and will happily eat every last bit of it. So, its not going to waste, thankfully. He's also been looking into how to donate deer to food programs, but I don't know if he's figured it out yet.

Brian has also been very good about keeping up with his physical therapy at home work for his shoulders. His actual therapy is done, and now he has exercises to do at home that he'll probably have to do forever. He's being very compliant, I think. His strength is increasing like crazy and he's getting some guns on him from the weight work! Another gold star babe!

Other than that, I've just been working a lot again, which is good. Considering we have to pay $350 this Friday for a psych evaluation that will probably take 2 hours, I'll take every penny. That's another thing that kills me about this process--you'd think we were wanting to do espionage or something with as much stuff as the government is making us do. And, just to be clear, its not just us, its everybody that goes through this process. Seriously, Immigration people--go round up some illegals or terrorists or something and leave all us adoptive parents who just want to give kids good homes alone! :)

More later!