In Virginia

I've arrived in VA!  It was a long flight, but well worth it.  In a half an hour I'll have been up for 24 hours, but I did catch about an hour of zzz's.  Hubby made it to his deployed location also...their vehicle broke down on the way yesterday, but traded it in today and went on their way.  I'm glad he made it safely. 
I made my first trip to Target tonight, it was a quick one, but I still enjoyed myself.  I found myself in the baby section rather quickly, but resisted buying anything...it was hard!  I will buy after baby is born so I know the size.  Tomorrow I'll make another trip back to Target because I didn't buy everything I needed because I forgot my coupons in the hotel room...oops!  I'll also work on my homework tomorrow because my after Thursday, I'm booked for the weekend.  On Thursday, I'm meeting with our birth mom and her mom.  I'm really excited to meet them in person.  On Friday, my little sister and her daughters are coming up to visit me for the weekend.  I'm excited...lots planned.  Maybe I'll do some baby shopping when she's here.  Well, I'm going to try to get a good nights rest.

Have a great day!

2 days

and I can go shopping at Target!  Oh how exciting, I've been anxiously waiting for this adventure.  But, before leaving I still have to get the house in order and make sure everything is perfectly cleaned, unplugged, and ready to live in upon our return.  Tomorrow is a big day, have a lot of errands to run, drop monkey boy off at the kennel, have lunch one last time as a singleton with my friends, and do last minute cleaning.  This prep to leaving all revolves around cleaning.  Because I'm not sure how long I'll be in the states, could be 2-4 months, I need to get things taken care of before leaving.
Hubs has been called to deploy.  He was called last night to get up to work with his bags.  He called 4 hours later and came home, hopefully until Monday.  It's actually working out perfect because he will probably make it home from his deployment before baby and I get home.  If that's the case, he'll come to the states after he returns, then we will go visit his family.  If he didn't go on this deployment, he would be in Iraq in June until January.  So even though I was throwing a fuss and wanting him to be around so we can skype with baby, I quickly realized that this situation is better for us all.  All though it wasn't in my timing or plans, it was His perfect plan.  I love it!  It couldn't be better!  Now because my plan was hoping to be home May 10th, I'm hoping His perfect plan will be revealed to me shortly after babies birth so we can make arrangements to come home.

Have a great day!

4 days...

Until I leave to await the arrival of our soon to be son.  There is SO much stuff that needs to get done before I leave though.  With hubs on standby to deploy any minute, I have to get things ready in the event he has to leave also...that means our little monkey boy.  I'm really hoping he can stay home with him so he won't have to be locked in a cage for months.  That would be sad and I'd hate to have to put him in the kennel for such a long time.  It's looking right now though that hubs can stay home a little longer.  He's not making the trip to VA with me, but will come after TPR is official...as long as he's not deployed already. 
Gotta run, maintenance man is here.

Have a great day!

Changed my ticket

I'm heading to the states on Tuesday next week!!!!  WOW...this sure came up fast!  We had a beautiful video chat with our birthmom today on Skype.  She is wonderful and precious.  Her and I have a TON in common and I'm so excited to meet her next week.  We talked about names and the first name I said, she started crying.  It's a name that her and her mom love.  That was a quick discussion because it was obvious we came to a decision.  I've been glowing every since the meeting, because before the meeting,  I was a nervous wreck.  She has an awesome support system and everyone loved us (she showed everyone all the books she had to choose from and everyone choose us!).  I'm so happy she has such a great support system.  She's now being induced on the 2nd and wants me in the room with her.  I'm excited, but won't get too excited because I know she could change her mind and have her mom in the room.  And I would totally understand.  I'm so thrilled and beaming with joy.  Telling monkey boy that baby will be home in a few months...yep months...we have to stay for a little while...but at least I can go visit my family, no ICPC to worry about after all.
Well that is my exciting news.  I hope everyone is having a good day.

Beautiful day

It's in the low 50s today.  I saw all the kids and parents out without coats so I decided to take monkey boy on a walk.  He's not been doing well on walks lately.  The noises disturb him and he gets antsy.  Today he was scared of a little boy riding his bike.  The things that must go through his head as I'm telling him to come on, let's go.  Hubs had to work all weekend, it was suppose to be a 3 day weekend off...but he worked all 3 days 12 hours each day!  At least we didn't have anything planned so nothing was ruined by it. 
I've been working on homework as I started back in classes.  I'm working on Business Communication this semester.  It's rather interesting.  I'm to write a pesuasive paper on what improvements the university can make to learning.  I decided to write about how we have to buy the book, but the instructors never use them, and theres a lot of good information in them usually.  I think out of ALL the classes I have taken, I've used less than 5 books...that's sad.  And the classes that the teachers used the books were good classes.  I like learning from the book.
It's been pretty boring this weekend around here, not much to say. I hope everyone's had a good weekend.  Hopefully it was nice for you all.

Have a great day!

Some pictures from Greece

Acropolis

Athens shopping in Plaka area

Island of Poros

view from our hotel at night

the Parliament

our cruise ship and the SNOW!!

We're going forward

We decided last night that we would proceed on with this expecting mom (EM).  We did email a few questions to the agency, but feel everything will be okay.  My main concern was the openness agreement EM wants.  It wouldn't work for us, being in the military, not living in the area, and moving around all the time.  So we will propose a nice alternative.  We would still love to have a yearly visit, but the other visits could be virtual.  We could do virtual visits often, or at certain times a year.  On our yearly visit, we could make it a weekend thing, not just a day for a few hours.  We are awaiting a time for our phone conference next week, and if EM is okay with our openness plans and likes us, hopefully we will be in the area the following week.  I'm so excited to talk and meet this expectant mom.  I don't know what I'm going to say, but I'm so grateful to her already. 
I'm waiting to wash all the babies stuff until next week, but wondering if I should just wash the stuff we would be taking and have a friend wash everything else when we are closer to being home.  Or maybe I'll just wash everything and put it away rather than putting it together.  That way all the dust particles won't be on all the bedding.  Our air filtration sucks here...there's actually no filtration at all!  Germans sure do built their homes weird.  We wouldn't actually come back until May.  Oh, I'm over thinking all this!  I need to stop and wait until next week to be thinking about all this...LOL.
Hubbies off today, but is up at work for a bit. Hoping to enjoy a long weekend with friends.  It's a little chilly out today, but hopefully will warm to the 60s tomorrow.  He wants to go to the Black Forest.  We'll see.

Have a great day!

100th post and chosen

Today we received the call we've been waiting for.  An expectant mom is interested in us!!  She's due in 2 weeks!!!  For those that have been there, how do you know?  I'm so afraid of going through a failed placement, but I'd be happy for the mom if she choose to parent.  Hubby and I will discuss all the details tonight and call our social worker back to go forward or not.  If we go forward, we plan to have a conference call on Monday.

Wow..am I nervous now.  Just this morning I walked into the nursery asking God when he would place our baby in our arms.  Is this our answer?

I still haven't uploaded all the pictures to the site to put my watermark on, hopefully soon. 

Have a great day!

Going home

AWWWW...I can finally say Im going back to the states!  I bought my ticket this morning.  Good thing I waited because it was about $300 cheaper this morning from last night!  I guess it's good to listen to the hubby once in awhile...LOL.  I even bought the trip proection plan in case something comes up and disrupts my travel.

Have a good day!

Vacation

My sisters visit was nice, much needed to feel a piece of home here in a foreign land.  She stayed for 10 days.  We visited Luxembourg, Greece, Amsterdam (not by choice), and of course the local area of Germany.  We had plans to go to France, but with our unexpected delay in Amsterdam our plans had to get rearranged.
Luxembourg was beautiful.  Greece was awesome and beautiful.  Amsterdam, well, lets just say I wasn't too happy to be there.  I wanted to be home, I was tired of traveling and being away from home.  We spent 4 days in Greece.
We stayed in a pretty nice hotel while in Greece, our view was of the Acropolis...nice.  We had to climb 4 levels of spiral stairs...great leg and butt workout!  Our hotel was in the center of a very nice shopping district.  When we arrived on Monday, we learned very quickly that it was a local holiday.  It was the start of fasting before Easter, and was a day off for everyone.  98% of the shops were closed, luckily we found some cafes open so we could eat lunch and dinner.  We walked around the area to know where to shop the next day :).  We also set up some tours.  One Tuesday we did a half day tour to the acropolis, acropolis museum, temple of Zeus, Parliament, along with many other sites (I just don't remember them all :( ).  After sight seeing, we headed shopping and shopped until we dropped.  The shopping is great, prices high, but if you live in the states, you can get the tax free shopping.  Unfortunately for me, I had to pay full price on everything, luckily for my sister she gets her taxes back...NICE!  After shopping we headed to the hotel bar and drank some margaritas...which didn't taste much like a margarita, but I still enjoyed it. 
Wednesday we took a day cruise to islands.  There were 3 scheduled, but due to the weather, we were only able to go to 2.  It was snowing and windy!  It started snowing on Tuesday on the tour...it was freezing cold, but we went and bought hats after that tour so we'd be warm on the cruise.  Good thing we did, because it was freezing on the ship as well.  Once again, I got sick.  Why must I always get sick when I'm trying to have a good time?  I stood in the ships wash closet for a half hour, I got tired of waiting for it, so I made myself vomit.  I felt better the rest of the trip and took 2 Dramamine 1 hour before the ship sailed to the next location each time.  The view was amazing, I took over 500 pictures, some really good ones.  I learned how to use the burst option on my camera and absolutely LOVE it!  Of first port was Poros, a small island known for it's beauty.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures here as we didn't have much time on the island to go far.  We boarded the ship, ate lunch, and headed to Aegina.  We spent 4 hours in Aegina, it was breathtaking!  We decided to take a panoramic view tour of the island, go to the pistachio farm, then walked around the shops. 
We had great food, great times, and fun memories.  Now I'm planning a trip to her house for her graduation in May.  I'm really excited to go to her place...so I can go AMERICAN shopping!!  Tickets are SO expensive right now, over $1000 for one.  That's ridiculous considering we'll have to buy another set of tickets (hopefully) this year for the adoption.  I'm hoping we only have to go back to the states only twice this year as the prices are so high and I just can't afford to keep going back...although I would LOVE to!
This must be the season to get pregnant...my oldest sister told me yesterday she's expecting, then today my friend Pam told me she's expecting.  I'm thrilled and excited for everyone pregnant, but at the same time, jealous.  It's just always been my feelings and I don't think they will ever change until I become a mommy. 
I started uploading pictures today and will hopefully get a bunch on here tonight or tomorrow.  Here's two to hold ya over.

one top of the acropolis

after getting sick...needed some fresh air

Have a great day!

Monkey on canvas

Just wanted to share quickly my monkey on canvas.  Only one picture left to draw and paint.

Special visitor

My little sister arrived safely into the Frankfurt airport the other day. I was SO nervous because of the recent incidents that occurred there. She was a trooper and stayed awake till midnight the first night, knowing she was beat, but her 7th wind kicked in and we stayed up chatting. We've made it to Luxembourg City already. It was really nice there, the streets were quiet, the houses were beautiful, and the views were amazing! I'll post pics next week when I'm on the computer. Today almost everything is closed in the area, so we will go to a bazaar, plan for an upcoming trip I'll tell about when we get back, she has some homework to do, we'll video chat with sister and finally make a family favorite meal...tator-tot casserole.
She's still sleeping right now, so I'm thinking she didn't sleep well last night or she's just really tired :). It's so much fun having her here.
Oh, Amber, yes there is a waitlist with the agency for referral. Although we are #10, we could still have our profile shown if others in our list are not open to certain situations. The case worker will determine which profiles to show to the expectant parent(s) based on information on the adoptive parents preference of the babies health, race, and expectant parents preferences for the adoptive parents.

Have a great day!

Officially waiting

We're officially waiting for referral, actually since the 28th!  When I received the email on the 28th letting us know the agencies stats for the month, I kept asking myself, are we official?  Well today after not hearing anything more from our case worker, I emailed her!  We're number 10 on the list, so we may have a little wait ahead of us.  Back in July we would have been number 6 if our home study was done.  Oh well, the long road of wondering if we're ever going to get approved is done.  Now we will sit back and wait for our call...or email. 
Have you heard about the shooting at the Frankfurt Airport yesterday?  That's scary since it's so close and I'll soon be going there.  I've been so nervous, I made all my fingernails jagged, and lost some sleep.  Hubby tried calming me down by saying that it's probably the safest airport in the world right now.  At first I was like, um are you crazy?  There was just a shooting!  After he explained that it's security is so tight right now that it makes it pretty safe.  OK, I'll go with that. 
Well I may be sporadic for two weeks, but if anything important comes up, I'll be sure to let you all know :).

Have a great day and week!

High Hopes, Low Expectations

As I read recently from one of our adoption material...keep your hopes high and your expectations low...happy is he who finds things better than anticipated.  This phrase is so accurate for me, because I often do shoot for the best and expect the worst.  It's fitting for our situation.  A few hour after I read this, I received an email from our case worker and said they are working with some expectant moms right now, one's due next month and the rest are due this summer.  They have not shown any profiles yet.  They also had an increase in pregnancy calls over the last month.  Receiving this email, giving me an update on the agency, was so reassuring...my hopes automatically went through the roof, but while in the back on my mind I know I can't expect any of these birth moms to be carrying our baby.  But of course, I'm hoping and praying like crazy...LOL. Only God knows as He has the perfect plan for our family.
I also received an email Monday that she received our photo books.  My sister mailed them out from North Dakota and BCS received them in VA already!  That was some quick mail service.  They must have known it was a "special" delivery...LOL.  She said the book "looks great".
It's been pretty nice here, today is up to 51 so far.  I really hope that the temps and sun stays, I'm so tired of the gray skies.  Monkey boy likes when the weather is sunny too...he loves going on walks.  Although last week, he kept having spasms as we walked.  I'm not sure what made the attacks happen, but once I get down on his level and start rubbing his head and reassuring him he's going to be okay, he gets better.  I say he just wants attention...smart dog!
Hubby has been getting home early yesterday and today!  It's such a nice surprise, because usually he's really late, past 6.  I wish this could be everyday, but I'll take these random occurrences as nice surprises.


   

Have a great day!