"OH Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOU!"

Busy season has officially started in our household. Every house I'm sure has one. And though, just by giving it a name adds more to my plate (and stress)... it means that Spring is just around the corner.
What is busy season? Well... March, April, May, June, and the beginning of July is busy season. And what makes it so busy is birthdays, birthday parties, holidays, school, therapies, and plays. And every little tidbit in between that that crams our weekends. Don't get me wrong. I love the busy season - but sometimes it's just nice to say... "Ah... we have nothing to do today". Know what I mean?

Since busy season is here... that means other "things are near". HA!, that rhymes. Baby D is closer now than we've ever been, thanks to the best phone call we have gotten in a LONG LONG LONG time. We shared our great news with Hayden the other night, and what we heard was something like this: "OH Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOU!" This was accompanied by big hugs. It double-made our day! ;) Although we can't share the news publicly with you guys just yet (except with immediate family), stand by for upcoming posts in the nearby future. ;)

So, what's been going on with us lately? Michael is looking forward to Spring Break. And his birthday *wink wink*. Hayden is starring in a new theatrical play called Aristocats... he will find out his part in the next coming weeks. He has also started a new therapy group for speech/social cues. This is a great opportunity for him to practice and learn everyday behavior when playing and talking with other children. They are currently working on bullying - which is such a huge must these days.
I have been driving myself batty with my new electronic digital craft cutter (thank you hubby!). Now, I consider myself technologically-crafty - but this thing is driving me MAD! I am on my 4th card, and am getting better. I won't tell you how many pieces of paper I've ruined though. LOL I am able to make scrapbook and papercrafts items, crafts for the home (using paper, fabric, and vinyl!), and so forth. In addition I am working on crafting SPRING crafts - got to love the dollar store.
Back to Hayden - though his birthday isn't until the middle of April - he is in the works of "planning" it already. He is like his mom - he likes to be prepared. ;)

Enjoy your day & hope for the warm weather!
Mel 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 11:12 AM

It's Warming Up Around Here!

Notice the date, then notice the temperature. ;)

We call this little guy "Oscar". And usually, he is pretty accurate... except for today when the sun is rising and it is BEAMING off the siding of the house. Santa brought this awesome gadget for Michael, but really, we all use it. It helps Hayden know what he needs to wear outside at the bus stop. It helps us know just how humid it is in the house so we can STOP shocking each other and remember to adjust the humidifier. But overall, it gives us the temperature - at the table or anywhere for that matter as it can be hung - while we eat breakfast or read the newspaper.

This particular morning, I had just finished doing a mile walk on my treadmill and noticed "Oscar" doffed his winter attire. He threw on some stylish shades and some shorts and that was it. Well... in February, that's kinda bold I thought... but the weather man did say it was supposed to warm up... Right?

Yesterday I spent the afternoon driving to the north side of Chicago picking up paperwork, and then driving to Michael's school to get some paperwork for baby D notarized (thanks Jeanne!). On Monday, we will be heading downtown to State St. to get the paperwork apostilled. We are on fire! Things are moving at a pretty fast pace here - but that doesn't mean baby D will be home next week. After we Fed-Ex the paperwork to our agency and they mail it to Russia, we will be waiting for our travel dates to meet our beautiful girl. Once that happens, we can begin preparing our dossier.

If you are wondering about our "Loving Tree", this is the same tree I have used since Halloween. It's become quite the revolving centerpiece on our kitchen table. I simply spray-painted it silver (at winter time) and then cut out heart shapes out of cardstock with funky scissors. We then added sticky foam shapes and hung with a ribbon. This is just one of a dozen crafty and inexpensive Valentine projects I have assembled this year. Besides for being frugal, the stores have a limited amounts of cuteness. And I wasn't going to pay when I could make it myself. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day! 1 comments

Posted by Mel at 10:53 AM

Whistle While You Work

Ahhhh, this is a nice seat. Cold, but comfy! (Blizzard 2011)

As I type, I am currently uploading two groups of pictures, and awaiting a phone call. I am a busy gal... and I'm behind on our blog, again. So once this is published, or shortly after, you should find Hayden's "Honk Jr." play photos, and our fun filled day of playing in the snow during the "Blizzard 2011" on our Daily V's page.

What's new? The past few weeks we have been busy waiting for and filling out our registration papers for baby D. They are now complete, and have been sent to our agency for a quick review. Once we get the ok, we can then get them notarized and apostilled (yah - a trip to Chicago in the winter!!!)... and then mail them to our agency. Once they receive them, they will mail them to our coordinator in Russia who will give them to the adoption committee for processing. This may take anywhere around 3 weeks or so... we hope.
In addition, while going over our paperwork, we noticed our fingerprints expire in June. So if things don't move at a rapid pace from here on out, then we will need to get them redone. Yes, you heard me folks. We will need to be fingerprinted - Again. ;)

What's new with Hayden? He lost another tooth a few weeks ago - but that's not all exciting anymore. His report cards have been beaming with plus signs. He has been growing like a weed and surprising us more and more every day. Every week his teacher sends home a newsletter mentioning what the class works on. She reminds parents that the children may need help with writing in cursive, brushing up on their spelling or recently their math facts. More so, their subtraction facts - but flash cards are just so so so boring. I hit up a teachers store and bought some great little finds. We now toss around a cube like beach ball a couple nights a week that has subtraction facts on it, taking turns answering them, and we play a game called "Number Race". Number Race is set up like a candy land board, however, you make the path with the math facts - it makes math fun - and makes Hayden laugh. PLUS it's helping Mommy brush up on her skills!

Michael and I have been juggling the house - once January hit, I was in full organization mode. I knew baby D's room needed to be done, but I have been going crazy with all the clutter that is coats and boots. We just haven't figured out a system that works and have spent many a minutes looking into Rubbermaid shelving, etc. This huge organization project then branched into my office, junk drawers, the pantry.... whoops! ;)

Well... now that I've caught your attention, I should probably leave you starving for more.
Until next time! 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 1:55 PM

When it snows, it's a blizzard!

Another month's gone by, but this time we have some really good news to report!  We have received a referral for a 2 and a half year old beautiful girl (who we will refer to from now on as baby "D")!  After e-mailing back and forth between our agency's coordinator with the Russian coordinator and the Russian adoption board, we passed all their questions and were approved!  But (seems like there is always a but these past 3 years) there was a problem when they were going through her paperwork.  Turns out another Russian family had visited her, and while they verbally said "no" to adopting her they did not sign the paperwork.  So we had to wait for them to be contacted. The problem with that was they were away on vacation with no way to contact them.  The Russian board then decided to send them a letter saying they had 30 days to respond.  And the wait began again.

After a dinner out with the family on Friday, and some shopping around for some organization ideas for our office and laundry room, we came home to a blinking light on our answering machine.  Hayden hits the play button and we hear our coordinator's voice and listen intently to THE wonderful news.  Hayden does his little jumps with a huge smile on his face, Mel's face brightens up, and my heart starts racing...our coordinator informs us that baby "D" is now our official referral and we can legally proceed to adopt her!

Later that evening, we received our registration papers in our email to fill out and a list of pictures to take of our house and her room.  After filling them out we'll resend them to our coordinator to make sure we filled them out correctly, then get them notarized and return to Chicago to have them apostilled.  After Russia approves them, which may take about 3 weeks, we can travel for our first visit to meet baby "D".  Hopefully, March will be our target month.

In the meantime, a blizzard heads our way starting tomorrow afternoon until Wednesday afternoon.  Predictions say we may get up to 20 inches of snow, with possibly 8 to 10 foot (yes foot) snow drifts!  Excited for a snow day, not so sure I'm too excited about shoveling it all though.

Fingers crossed all goes well from here on out!
Michael 1 comments

Posted by Mel at 8:19 PM

Say Goodbye To Yesterday

It has been months since our last post and there has been a LOT going on around here. In a nutshell, we will be glad when the clock strikes midnight and the year 2010 is gone, done, and behind us. It was a tough year for us, and we hope that 2011 brings us new health, (wealth would be nice), family, and more love.

We apologize for being... lackadaisical with our blog. Maybe that should be part of our New Year's resolution. ;) Regardless, we have "some news" that we can share with you today, that will eventually be worth all the wait.
Though we can't go into too much detail until things are official, we have been working diligently since the beginning of December in the adoption world to move things along. We will be sure to spread the good cheer once we are able.

Us V's had a wonderful Christmas, traveling to and fro. Hayden and Daddy got in some sledding during their winter break, and I got in some relaxation, though I could use some more... *wink wink*. Santa gave us as a family, an early present... and we are praying that we can "open" it soon.

In the meantime, we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. We also ask that you think of us during this very important time - more than ever. Please pray for our family to become whole and for a child to come home to their family. Also, please pray for our middle cat Mints. Recently, after losing our older cat, Chocolate, we found out Mints has cancer. Unfortunately it is not curable, and it is financially out of our means.

Visit our Daily V's page to view the fun we had this December. 

Happy New Year! 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 3:06 PM

Peek A Boo, Where Are You?

No, I haven't been hiding! Things have been - well, how do I put it lightly - crazy around here. But we haven't forgotten about our friends and followers. ;)
To be honest, blogging has been the last thing to do on my list. I have even neglected uploading pictures and sharing them (since Hayden's last play in July even, yikes!). But have no fear, Mel is still here!

Since the last time I have posted, a bit of "stuff" has happened. We had our 8th annual visit to Didier Farms and I was tickled pink to be able to attend *ahem*. Hayden enjoyed a family wedding, chatting up Michael's Godfather and dancing with his grandmother. He had oodles of fun, even with the absence of other kids and electronic toys. Who knew?

Also, I don't think I have mentioned before, but Hayden was invited to join a Reading enrichment class at school at the beginning of the year. The class meets once a week and is currently focusing on scrambled sentences - sometimes it even stumbles Mommy. This class was developed for children who have a passion for school, excel in reading, who are responsible and well behaved. We were honored when Hayden received the note home from school and very very proud.

We have updated our "Daily V's" page to include some pics from the month. Here you will see Hayden enjoying the pumpkin patch, a Halloween festival at our park district, and carving pumpkins. And a sneak peak at the decorations I manged to get up this year before our "Wind Storm" took it down.
Visit the Daily V's

In adoption news... our home study report has just been sent to DCFS at the beginning of the week. From what we hear, they are behind on processing and can take several weeks before we get it back. In the meantime, we can start on other paperwork, and just wait. More waiting, we're kinda used to it by now. 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 6:33 PM

Being Put On Hold

It's been crazy busy here. Between the frequent emails and phone calls to our adoption agencies (both home study and international), therapies, doctor visits, and more therapies... who has time to just sit back and enjoy a good book these days?

On the topic of the adoption, I thought we should share some news with you. In light of everything that has happened with Kazakhstan, Michael and I had to make a very difficult decision. We are changing countries, for a third - and we hope final - time. We will be traveling to Russia. We will be meeting with our social worker tomorrow (Friday) to get our home study revamped. We will need to start the process all over again of course, including new physicals and new FBI prints. If the police at our local station don't know us by now...  Of course, with the switch comes the added bonus of expenses and stress. Our agency has passed along some information for grants which I will be starting shortly - but I am also looking into starting a "local" fundraiser. At this point, we could use all the help we can get, any little bit helps. If you could swing by our online fundraiser, it has been modernized to include more than just magazines. Please take a look, think gift giving season is right around the corner. We would greatly appreciate it.
Kazakhstan info will soon be swapped out for Russia on our "Where Is"... page.

Some people say, everything happens for a reason. We are sad to leave Kazakhstan behind. We learned a lot about the country during our "waiting time". However... I can't quite get the idea out of my head that maybe God had a better plan. A plan to make me better, make me heal, and our family able to bring our daughter home together without any added stress. I guess I will never know for sure. What I do know is, you never get between a mama and her cub. Where there is a will, there is a way. We will get there, and we will bring her home, where ever she might be. 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 9:53 PM

Coming To A Screeching Halt

Chocolate - We Miss You! 2000-2010

Well, I've got a lot say. And a limited amount of time to get it down (the school bus should be here soon). First off, I want to address the above, our cat Chocolate. I originally planned and arranged this beautiful slideshow, but when I pressed play - I cried like a baby... so it will have to wait. In the meantime, we are sad to say that our oldest cat has passed away. It started when one night she woke up on the bed with us and seemed disoriented, kinda hobbled to her feet and circled around before hopping off. This condition gradually got worse, and then one day Chocolate’s circling didn't stop. We took her to an animal hospital and the Docs diagnosed her with a vestibular disease, one that was most likely neurological (or in the brain). After a week of medicine, we knew our playful, leaping Chocolate wasn't going to be the same... and we let her go. She will be forever missed!

Little bit of bad news, little bit of good.
At the beginning of the month, we headed over to Coco Key to go swimming to celebrate the end of summer and the end of Hayden's play. We invited some friends along, stayed a few days, and enjoyed lying back with no worries. Plus, the Lazy River was free water therapy.  ;)
Also, Hayden graduated from Bike Camp! The last session was commenced by Hayden and another boy riding their bikes through downtown Grayslake to get to “Tastee Freeze” for ice cream. Though it was a hot day, not much ice cream was lost (he saved some on his chin for later); no knees were skinned during the journey. We are sooo proud of him.
Next, I have started real aquatic therapy. It's great not having horrible sore muscles. This will teach me, or my body to finally use the correct muscles to keep my body up and moving. When that starts to kick in, I'll let you know.
Also, school has started! Hayden has been waiting for this since June (and mom too!). He has officially become a tween - he's worrying about messing up his hair! He started out by styling it with mousse, but went the extra mile to get it cut the correct way, and then used gel. He now asks me in the morning to help make his hair spiky. He's growing up before our eyes. Here's a sneak peak of his first day as a 2nd grader, and his new do!

And lastly, in adoption news: Imagine a child was given a yo-yo, but didn't know how to use it. He would throw it in the air (and you would get really excited!) or start the roll/drop and it would slightly spring back up (a hint of good news), but the yo-yo never completely winds back up or comes back to the top. This is how our journey has been - a yo-yo of unexpected expectations and surprises and disappointments.
This afternoon we learned that even after signing a petition to keep our dossier in Kazahkstan, it was unfortunately returned to the States. We are now left with yet another fork in the road, or a decision to make. Either we stay with Kazakhstan and wait until it reopens, then most likely redo our paperwork and resubmit our information as a new case and start the wait over again... Or we jump ship, to say Russia or Ukraine. We haven't made any decisions yet, as we haven't quite processed the news, but can't believe this is happening again - to us... to make a choice. "Should we stay or should we go?"

It's been a long, hard and trying month. Or even year. We hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere - soon. Cuz I need a break. 2 comments

Posted by Mel at 7:21 PM

A New Look... On Life, On Site

You probably have noticed by now things look a little different around here. Unfortunately our old background was about to "expire" and I couldn't get the site to come back to me. So... I scoured my techie pages and some blog template pages - deciding it was time for a change. Our family will be going through some changes in the coming months, so this is only appropriate. ;)

Some things to expect as you browse our newly designed site:

• The Daily V's (pics), Adoption Timeline, and Where is Kazakhstan? links have grown legs. They now have their own page, (their own home) and links which are located on the upper right hand side of our page.
  
• You can always click "Home" to get back to the front page. The "Home" button is available at the TOP, in the clouds.
  
• The "About" link in the clouds gives you a little background info on our family. A cute read. :)
  
• If you would like to follow along on our journey, get updates, or be a frequent visitor to our blog - click on the "RSS" in the clouds OR find the "Followers" bunch on the side bar. We hope you come back often.
  
• Comments are only a cloud away. Want to read about what everyone has been saying? The "Comments" link is in the clouds above.
  

If you have any questions or comments... or our template isn't working for you, please let us know. Currently my "Search" feature isn't active, but I hope to add labels to my posts soon, to make this feature available.

And so, with that we hope you enjoy our newly-decorated site! 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 5:07 PM

One Step.... Errrr, Jump at a Time

It's been an interesting July. We're still here... in town, in country - with no travel date in sight. And even though we are sad, we are trying to make the best of it.

Hayden's summer camp will be coming to an end soon. We can't believe how fast time flies in the summer. He will be performing in Aladdin Jr. at the end of this month and rounding out his summer therapies, including bike camp. In fact, as I type this... my little bicyclist has just completed 3 laps around our park (Daddy sent a text while I stayed home and rested). We are super proud of his achievement.

Here is a sneak peak of Hayden practicing one of his Aladdin song's - an actor in the making ;) .

Meanwhile, we have been trying to keep ourselves (if not our minds) busy. We raised butterflies from tiny caterpillars! It was a great experience for all of us to watch them grow, flutter, and then fly away to "find their new home". My youngest brother graduated high school and had a party thrown in his honor. We were more than happy to visit with family and relax. We visited some friends and had dinner, and also got to tour their new house - Hayden LOVED this part. 
In addition, we are going to visit a water park the first week of August. (Shhhh! It's a surprise for Hayden!!!) We want to celebrate Hayden's play and just take a break from our daily routine - I think we deserve it.
I'm sure there is much more in store for us and the summer isn't over yet. We are taking advantage of the free time before Michael and Hayden go back to school while we can.

Though the days can be tough... like walking by our trip box (that is finally filled with supplies for our travels) in the office daily, and seeing our empty suitcases as we grab the laundry basket, but I can't help but think there is a silver lining somewhere. It's hard to find at times. It's definitely frustrating, but we are still crossing our fingers. With that, we are just taking it day by day... and hoping for tomorrow.

Anyway, please don't forget to check out our "Summer Fun" pics on our new Daily V's page (link is located on the top right under "Pages"). We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer... and please keep us in your prayers. 0 comments

Posted by Mel at 8:06 PM