We're BAAAAACK

We're back from vacation. It went by very quickly. I will upload photos a little later today and post some. It'll take a bit to figure out the video stuff though. But I had to post a quick post to mark 18 months on the waiting list. I can't believe it's been 18 months, but I guess we're getting there. Been wondering if he's actually born yet. I'm over the wait and there seems to be no end in sight. Anyways....later today I'll tell you all about it and post some pics....til then......we made it to 18 months!!!!

It's official....

But now we just have to wait to leave or they won't let us in the door. We still have to pack, but can't leave for a couple more hours.

Poor surgeons yesterday got a countdown of how long they had til I went on vacation. I kept telling them they had to finish because my vacation started in 3 hours, then 1 hour, then 15 minutes. There was no pressure for the resident to close incision, I wasn't breathing down his neck, watching every painstakingly slow stitch. No I didn't. I wasn't turning off the OR lights before he had dressing on. I DID NOT clean up the room and disconnect everything before the official surgery was over. I would NOT do that!!!

Okay, maybe I did, just a little. But darnit they were running behind and it wasn't my fault.

All the batteries are charged, got a new memory card for the camera. We can now take more then 8 pictures at a time, finally. The video camera is set although we don't know how to use it. Jon's about to get us coffee. He is being a little mean and says he won't swim near me in the ocean, lest I attract sharks. Give you two guesses to what that means. Why does that always happen on vacation. I swear God has a wicked sense of humor!!!

Anyways.....gotta pack!!!

WE ARE OFFICIALLY ON VACATION!!!!

T minus 6...

First off my apologies to everyone who has to deal with hearing the most annoying daily reminder that we are going on vacation. And after another 10 hour call day I am reminded of the fact that I REALLY need a vacation.

Been trying to get ready for Jon's sister who will graciously be staying at our house to watch the dogs. She'll surely have her hands full with her 2 year old and our 2 "children". I apologize now for their spoiled behavior. But they will LOVE having the baby around.

We'll be taking our new video camera to practice so when we do eventually get back, you all will have to watch video of us, which won't be too exciting, but we need the practice of uploading video and such. Not much else.....T minus 6 days and counting!!!

That's where our children are....

My father just sent this to me. Please say a prayer for all the families. My Dad said "This is the projected path. It is expected to be a cat 5 before it strikes Taiwan."

The arrow is pointing straight to Taipei, where our orphange is at. I hope they are prepared.

Vacation....BACK ON!!

We couldn't hang with not having a vacation again, so we bit the bullet and booked a week on the gulf. Now it's not the Bahamas, but we just couldn't swing a trip to the Bahamas this time. So we decided to take a trip to the beaches on the gulf. We can drive there and most importantly there is a hurricane policy. AND with a little itsy bitsy storm a brewin' off of Africa and heading this way, this was important. So pray that we either avoid all storms or it takes a direct path to our destination. The warranty only works if the National Hurricane Center says that a hurricane is going "to HIT Jon and Ann's condo!!"

Just a little glimpse into my husbands mind. The above picture is what sold him on our rental. It's a 700 foot lazy river on the resort grounds. We are on the bottom level and from my understanding we have very easy access to this little "river" from our room. So I will have to stock up on Corona and an inner tube, that way as Jon floats around the "river" as he passes by I can pass him another. Okay so does that make us sound like lushes? Really we're not. We're just super excited about our vacation. So less then three weeks to go and we're basking in the sunshine, floatin' down a river, chillin' on the beach...and anything else related to the water!!

Just calll me Super Girl!!

Okay so the title has nothing to do with the post, but I liked the picture. Our homestudy visit was fine. Our homestudy coordinator is soooo nice and very laid back. When ever she comes, it's like visiting with an old friend. She has two children adopted from China, so I always feel very comfortable with her in our home. She was right, she didn't look at anything and the visit was very informal. We have all the paperwork done and now all she has to do is wait for the DCF and FDLE to come back which should be in about 3-4 weeks.

On another note, it is blazing HOT!! And our AC went out again. Thankfully Jon's brother is a wiz when it comes to AC and hopefully our house will delve below the 85 degree mark tonight.

Time to break out the toothbrush!!!!

So seriously, I get to spend Friday night cleaning like a fiend. I got a phone call from our homestudy coordinator at 5pm tonight. She tells me that she's going to be in town tomorrow to do a post placement, and can she stop by to do our update?

UMMMMMM!!! I know that I said that I wasn't going to clean, but come on. Did you really think that I wouldn't do anything? And with about 17 hours til she gets here and our house in disarray(it is Friday and well by Friday our house is a little disheveled after a long week) we will be the Merry Maid squad.

Jon has decided that he has to do the lawn and I can't really not clean up the dog hair. So for our relaxing Friday night we are going to clean-even though she told us not to. She said she wasn't even going to look at our house. But she'll see it even if she isn't looking. So despite her trying to convince us not to clean, we are. I'm breaking out the proverbial toothbrush and I'm getting to the scrubbing!! Wish us luck!!

Join me in celebrating

17 months!! Okay, so I'm really not that excited about 17 months, but we have made it this far and that's nothing to scoff at. There have been some referrals(not from our agency), but referrals none the less. I did find the motivation to get most of the paperwork for our home study update done. Everythings pretty much done except our local background check which will probably be done tomorrow or Monday. Everything is mailed out and now all we need to do is have them come to our house and write up the fact that we are still waiting...I mean still qualified to be parents, oh and pay that little "update" fee. We haven't murdered or molested anyone this past year so thumbs up to us. Do I sound a little jaded? Okay let me try again....

**what this post should say**

YAY!!! We have made it to 17 months. Isn't this exciting. I can't believe that we have made it this far. We continue to be elated at the prospect of being parents and can't wait until we learn of our little one. We have been using these past months to get our house in order and spend quality time with eachother. We know that once little baby is here, free time will be sparse. Our marriage has grown stronger as we have waded through this process of adoption and we know that when we finally get our referral news this will all be worth it!!

(is that better?)

I'm just not motivated

Nope...just not feelin' it. We are starting our homestudy update. Our agency let us wait a bit(wasn't that nice) so we wouldn't have to do two homestudy updates. Now when she gave me the list it didn't seem that bad. Not a big deal. I let it sit Thursday and Friday and put it aside over the weekend, thinking I'd start tackling it today. So I pulled all the forms I printed and was feeling like I could breeze through it, have hubby sign here here and here and be done with it.

You'd think that we hadn't done this before. The forms make no sense and I really have NO desire to even fill them out. Isn't that sad. So I just put it away again. You'd think that I'd be in a hurry to get this all done and over with again, but I'm just not that into it. I don't even think I'll clean the house before they come again. Can you picture it....dust hangin' like a cloud in the living room, hair bunnies in every corner, evil creature eyes peeking out from the corner, unidentifiable things hissing from behind the couch(wait that's me), our creeepy bulgivonia plant overgrown by the front door. Nope I'm not trimmin' it. Yep, that's gonna be our home. I really should care, but I just don't. I don't even think I'm gonna mop. Last time, seriously I cleaned the floor with a tooth brush....yes I did. NOT this time. Can you tell that I just don't want to do it. Oh well one day won't hurt, I'll get to it.......

....eventually.....

I'm sadistic like that...

My poor nephew has to have an Aunt who enjoys things like this. A little bit ago he had to have a few staples in the ER after a mishap at the skate park. For reasons that make absolutely NO sense to me, his primary would not take out the staples. My sister was told she had to follow up with the physician that put them in to get them out. For them that meant another trip to the ER, many hours in the waiting room and another copay. That's were I came in......can you just picture me, rubbing my hands together in excitement, snickering that evil nurse laugh....all the while my nephew is scared and saying...

"no Mommy I don't want Aunt Ann to do it...I want to go to the hospital"

Ye of little faith.

Mind you I haven't acutally taken staples out before, but I did stay at the Holiday Inn express. I looked at the little device to take out staples, and well I'm a smart girl...looks like you insert staple here and squeeze..simple...so I was like "okay let's do it...drop your drawers!!!"(evil nurse laugh again)

"NO MOMMY>>>>>I WANT TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!!!!"

...device in, pop..pop..pop, staples out.....Hey this is fun!!! That'll be $25.

Anyone need staples out? I'm cheaper then the ER!!

I'm over the CAR DRAMA

Okay...so I am over the whole car situations!!! Now mind you my car is still in the shop being repaired from being rear ended. Seriously I thought Jon was going to have a complete meltdown in the parking lot. We were having a great weekend. My BF was in town, we got to do some scrapbook shopping. We hung out at her parents, did the whole oyster shack thing. Jon and I were relaxing, watching some movies. Decided to catch a flick at the movie theater today. We met up with our friends. Watched a fun movie, had some starbucks, went to our new truck...you remember the one....the one that we haven't even made a car payment on yet...when I hear JON yell...."WHAT THE F*!#" And there it is. The side front light is smashed, and theres a 6" scratch on the side. I thought he was going to cry in the parking lot....he started doing that whole pacing thing...that pacing that scares you because you know that at any minute he's going to FREAK!! At first we thought someone hit the car, but then I saw a rock under another parked car. I swear my husband has the worst luck with cars. This is the guy that had someone throw a bowling ball on the roof of his car. He started trying to figure out if he cut someone off or ticked someone off going into the parking lot. But none of that happened. I'm sure it was just some Punk ass kids thinking it was funny. We totally understand that a car is just a material possession and that it really shouldn't upset us. But this is his new car, and it would have been nice to have it nice for a while. At least not to have to fix it before we made the first payment on it. I just feel bad for him. He deserves to have something nice for a while. So tomorrow he's off to the dealership to see what this is going to cost us. With all the money we've been draining Murphy's law should be giving us this referral very soon, wouldn't ya think?

I did NOT wreck the Honda!@**!!

Who was driving?

I was

So you wrecked the honda!!

No!!!! I'm the one who got rear-ended!!

But you were driving!!(as Jon laughs...)

I don't know what it is, but this is the second time in about a year that I have been rear ended while I was stopped, waiting to turn left. I was minding my own business stopped at a light, when WHAM!!!

My first thoughts..."I get to get a new car!!!" But when I got out the damage wasn't enough to warrant me buying a new car. But just for a second, I had visions of shiny new paint and I could smell that new car smell. The jeep that rammed into me is totally without damage, my rear left bumper is pushed out, the trunk is shifted and I cannot open it, the left side panel is damaged too. The pictures look better then it looks in person. No one was hurt. My neck didn't hurt, but now it's a little sore. I wrapped Jon's ice pack around my neck to help, but I doubt there's much wrong. I just thought the picture was funny!!

WHAT A WAY TO END MY CRAZY DAY AT WORK!! OH and if I can blame someone, I think the blame is on Jon. I stopped off at Target after work to buy him some underwear. So all in all I think it's his fault!!!!

See what that says!!

We're getting there. Here's to hoping that it can't possibly be too much longer....right?

Drumroll Please!!

When it came down to it, Jon is a Chevy man!! We thought about the four door jeep, but Jon has been wanting a nice truck for forever. (you can click on the pictures to see them bigger/better)
And not only is Jon a Chevy man. He is a big truck man. We had to get not the biggest white boy truck. But a BIG white boy truck we can 4x4 through the dirt and pull a house with.
Here's the cheesy "I got a new truck" look. Now let me just let those that don't know. Jon has as long as I have known him, driven old beat up, cars/trucks, windows don't work with no A.C.
He has been driving in Florida for 2 plus years with no A.C. As an example, we tried to trade in the old blazer(you can kinda see it in the background), the dealership would NOT even take it from us. Seriously we couldn't pay them to take it for us. So that "cheesy" look is well deserved. But we had to get the picture with the sunglasses. This is his "I'm cool now...do you see my new truck?" look.
And for those that think that this maybe wasn't the most practical new vehicle for a couple that has a baby on the way....we made sure you could fit a baby seat in the back!!

I'm super excited for Jon. He's never really had a new vehicle before(I told him that the one that got repo'd doesn't count)

Nice while it lasted!!

Yes folks, the idea of our vacation was nice while it lasted, but alas it is no more. We were so close. I could feel the sand between my toes and the sun on my face, but it has bid us adios.

For the third year in a row, Jon and I have to go with out a vacation. It seems that these dark circles under our eyes are much more attractive then a new golden tan. The idea of sleeping in late and sunning on the beach with a crisp cold corona in our hands is a dream of yesterday.

I miss you vacation!!

It seems the universe has other more practical things we have to spend our money on. And to top that off, we've had to dip into our baby account for the down payment. Jon is so nervous about this, because he feels that the minute we pull this money out; you know, all the money we worked our batooties off to save, we will get the "call". We were breathing easier because we had all the adoption expenses saved. But not now. We've been trying to make our cars last another year, just a little bit longer until we got our baby. That was the plan. We didn't need a car payment right now. But that's just not happening. Last night Jon was driving to work, it was pouring down rain, he was going like 20mph thorough what was NOT deep water in the roads when all of a sudden....silence. The car stopped working. He pushed it to a safer place and hiked two miles(b/c he forgot his cell phone) in the pouring rain, in the dark, at night, with no sidewalks to the nearest gas station to call me. The car is still not working, something about sucking water through some air intake valve into the engine that makes this not a good situation. So what we've been trying to avoid has pushed it's way into our lives. Now mind you my car is in the shop. The truck is on it's last leg. So we closed our eyes w/drew the money, got a loan at the bank, nixed our vacation plans, and tomorrow we get to buy a car. So we know it sucks that we have to do this right now, but I also know that Jon is excited that he gets a new vehicle. Tomorrow I shall posts pictures of what our no vacation gets us!!

But...

We should all get this and stick it on our foreheads!!

Hubby can be such a rock. We're talking about the wait. Now normally Jon always tacks on several months(years) to any story he's telling. But when it comes to the expected wait he inevitably always subtracts like 6 months. Then I have to correct him.

his response: you never know

me: But Jon, what if we get to 24 months and they tell us it's going to be another year

Jon: Then we'll wait

me: But...

Jon: We wait. We will get this child. If we have to wait, we wait.

And if ever I needed a reminder as to why I love my hubby. This conversation was it.

It's coming to that time...

Saving money comes hand in hand with trying to start a family. And NO vacations comes with trying to save money. Two years ago we nixed our vacation to save for IVF. We didn't try IVF. Instead we started the adoption. Then last year we went sans vacation again because we were saving for the adoption(notice a trend?)

This year we have been getting it from both mothers that we work too much and need to take time off. And since baby isn't coming this year we decided that come hell or high water we ARE going on a vacation.

I think we've decided on the Bahamas....(yay!!!!) But neither one of us has been there and don't even know where to start looking. Which island do we go to? So I'm soliciting ideas from all my bloggy friends out there. Where do we go to make it a memorable vacation, a vacation worth not having been on a vacation in two years. A vacation to mark our last Anniversary before our baby comes home(I know, I know I said this last year!!) Oh and a vacation that won't break the bank...we are still adopting ya know.

Let the ideas flow.....

Dear Lord, we may need to clarify our prayers...

I know that we've been praying very hard to be chosen to be parents. And I know that we didn't specify gender, age, or many other things. We even asked for as young as possible. I guess we never thought to specify species. And we are very grateful that you trust us with any of your creatures. But do you think that next time you choose us, it could be a human orphan?

Love,

Jon and Ann



Okay, so here's the story:

It's 4 am Sat. Jon rushes into the bedroom, where by the way I am sound asleep because I DO NOT work nights.

Ann, there's a dead baby duck in our garage, I need your help

huh, how did a baby duck get into our garage

I don't know, just come help

what do you need my help for, if it's dead, take care of it, by the way what day is it, do I need to go to work

It's Saturday..no, come help me

I don't want to help

come help!!

the scene: a little tiny fluffy baby duck is laying in our garage on it's back!!

I don't think it's alive Jon

That's what I said

well get a rag and pick it up

OMG, it's not dead it's alive, it's just sleeping

I didn't know ducks sleep on their backs, Is it hurt

no, I don't think so

What do we do?

Find it's Mother

--so we proceed to look in our neighbors bushes with a flashlight at 4 am(where we knew there was a nest) meanwhile, big bad black cat is waiting nearby as little baby duck is chirping for it's Mommy. The nest was there, eggs hatched, no other baby ducks and NO Momma duck.

We can't leave it

What do we do?
Go get a shoebox

What do we do with it?

--so for the next hour we search on the Internet on what to do with this baby duck. We couldn't find Momma Duck and big black cat was just waiting for us to leave it in the yard. We put it in the shoebox and tried to sleep.

2 hours later, Jon couldn't sleep so he went down to the pond to try and find Momma duck. No Momma duck to be found, Momma Goose is out there, but no Momma duck. He looked high and low knowing she must be around there somewhere. But he couldn't find her. Little Jeeter(yes we named him) was pretty stressed, we couldn't get him to drink anything and he was starting to shiver despite the massive heat outside.

Anyhow, after many phone calls we found a wildlife rescue and "dropped" off little "Jeeter".
But they weren't there yet. So we had to go back to make sure he was going to be taken care of.


Isn't that just the sweetest thing. I told the lady there that I didn't know that ducks slept on their backs. Her response: they don't, that was a major stress sign. They were able to get him to take some water and she said she would keep in touch with us to let us know how he's doing. They'll rehab him, make sure he can find food on his own, then release him when he's old enough.

He was sooooo sweet. Jon would talk to him in a daffy duck voice and and he would go straight to him. Trust me when I say, that we almost had a new pet!!

Oh and today marks 15 months on the waiting list!!

RUMORS!!

I hate rumors because they usually end up being true. This really sucks. The new rumor: the wait will be 18-24 plus. This sucks!!

Patience rewarded!!

Okay so maybe not the news you've been waiting for, but I's gotta talk about something, right?

3 years ago, Jon and I bought two sticks at the opening of the beaches. Seriously they were just sticks. I won't mention why on earth we would pay money for sticks but we did and well that's a whole 'nother story. Anyhow we put them in the pots where the people told us we would get Hawaiian Lei flowers. RIGHT!!

Now don't get me wrong we did get leaves, but no flowers....for three years. Then all of a sudden, this year...beautiful Plumeria flowers. See I have patience. Okay I really didn't do anything and I'm surprised the darn sticks did anything, but now I will spoil my little blooms with care.

On another note we rec'd our updated I171H in the mail today. We won't mention that Jon and I are now adopting from Tiawan(please tell me where that is and if their waiting list is shorter). And I guess now I'm doing the whole hyphenated name thingy. Whatever...we have to update the form anyways. I'll see if the agency thinks this will be a problem?!?