Everything was Apostilled last Monday and it was a total breeze ! Thank goodness it only took 2hrs and $30.oo ! The Sec of State is an adoptive parent and wanted to make sure that at least this part of the process was affordable for PAP's .Our dossier is being sent over to Ukraine today for translation, I still can't believe it. Now we just hold our breath that everything is correct and wait for submission.

This past weekend was SO busy. I spent most of the day Christmas shopping with my sister and 2 nieces and then DH's work Christmas party was Sat night. It was really nice to just go out and have a good time, not worrying about paperwork for a change !

Yesterday was Carebear's holiday ballet recital........she was SO good ! I can really see that she's challenged by the new class (she's the youngest) but she really did a great job. Tonight is her school Christmas program (1st grade), I just love these things ! LOL

Tomorrow is my office Christmas dinner, Wed is serious cookie baking day, Thurs I need to finish DH's scrapbook for Christmas and Fri is the sleepover with two of my nieces and then Sat is cookie decorating with both of them........Christmas will be here before I know it !

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday my BIL and I went to a chocolate festival here in town. We have a history of overindulging in chocolate in ANY form :) There were alot of vendors there in addition to alot of chocolate vendors.......I picked up a few things for mom and of course some chocolate for myself.
We met my sis and their two girls at the mall and joined the other frantic shoppers. There were just too many people to even look for the gifts I still need to pick up.

Today DH is scheduled to "instruct" some boy scouts on driving.......ya know those little box car things they have to make? Well DH works for an automotive company and has some serious driving experience, being an ex-state trooper, so every year he volunteers to teach them to drive. This is the first time I'll be going with him so it should be interesting !!

Tomorrow I'll be going to the Secretary of State's office to get everything apostilled. It's right in town here, so I'll try to get some shopping done while I'm waiting to pick everything up.

I-171H is here !

I just can't believe it ! After weeks of waiting it here :)

Now we just have to get everything apostilled then shipped to Ukraine for translation and wait to be submitted !!!!

Thank you God, thank you .

I managed to get a few more of the scrapbook pages for DH's Christmas present finished yesterday. It was a nice distraction from the whole adoption process and hopefully I'll work on it some more this afternoon.

Cookie baking day is officially the 22nd this year. Every year for the last 6 years my niece and sister have come over for an entire day of baking Christmas cookies. When my nieces 1st daughter (Carebear) was 2, she starting helping and the same with my sister's oldest. This year there will be me, my sister and her two girls, my niece and her 3 little ones. Yeah I'm a great aunt........too old to adopt? Geez I hope not I'm only 41.

We always make a terrible mess but between the Christmas music, cookie dough all over the place and the girls covered in flour, it's a fantastic way to spend a cold Saturday before Christmas.........this time next year our DD will be part of it :) Or at least we'd better have a DD by this time next year !!!!!!!!!

Our senator's office called first thing this morning ! Evidently DH's name was spelled wrong and the person trying to help us was having trouble getting any info for us. After clearing it up she said that our clearance should be finished today and the approval in the mail tomorrow ! I was SO not expecting it to happen so fast but VERY happy that it did.
Now we just wait for it to show up in the mailbox. I can't imagine what that will be like when I finally see the letter there.....everyday when I go through the mail I hold my breath looking to see the return address on every envelope.

It terribly windy and cold here today, didn't sleep well last night due to a bad cold and all the noise that the wind was making. I tried to take a nap but I'm too excited about the phone call this morning......I'll be a mess until we actually get the approval!

Adoption update

As of this Friday we will have been waiting 6 weeks for our INS approval. There was a message on our answering machine this past Friday, someone from our Senator's office returning a call that DH had made on Thursday. He's calling them today to give them our info and hopefully they will be able to move things along for us !

New Week

I survived the Christmas tree decorating ! :) We really had a good time with our nieces...little Meggie is 2 and LOVES Mickey Mouse. We have several Mickey themed ornaments and she put all of them in a little group on the bottom of the tree right up front. Carebear (6yr old niece remains nameless for privacy) has been helping us for the last 5 years and for the last 2yrs has been helping DH put the ornaments up high on the tree by sitting on his shoulders, the tree is usually 10-12 tall. We all had a good night and Carebear stayed for a sleepover, I took her to ballet on Sat morning and then out to lunch, just the two of us :)

Sunday afternoon was spent at my parents house for lunch, something we always do after church. My parents are away but my sister, her DH and two kiddos were there. I was watching my other three nieces because both parents were working.....WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING????? FIVE little girls for 5 hrs......wow what a challenge.

I went to bed with a sore throat last night and woke up with another horrible cold, third one in 3 months. DH is going to an NFL game tonight so I'll be able to just go home after work and curl up on the couch with cup of hot tea and watch tv. UGH

Ready

Today is much better ! The decorations are out and I'm ready for a fun night :)
I emailed DH at work yesterday that I wanted our little girl (he's usually the one doing that lol) and when he got home last night he told me that he had called our Senator's office and they said they would make a call to our local USCIS office and check on our case. Nothing may come of it, but I feel a little better knowing at least a call will be made.

Christmas

Ok, so I'm trying to get ready for Christmas and just basically get through the holiday without a major meltdown. NOT an easy thing to do, much to my disappointment. I've always LOVED the Christmas holidays and this year I'm just not into at all. I've done the shopping for my nieces and am working on DH's present. That's it. Oh the tree is up with the lights, but no ornaments. We are supposed to have my nieces over Friday night to help decorate the tree (something we do every year) and I'm just not looking forward to it. Have to get it together before they show up !

God made the world with its towering trees, majestic mountains and restless seas, then paused and said, "It needs one more thing. Someone to laugh and dance and sing, to walk in the woods and gather flowers, to commune with nature in quiet hours." So God made little girls with laughing eyes and bouncing curls, with joyful hearts and beautiful smiles, nchanting ways and feminine wiles. When He completed the task He'd begun, He was pleased and proud of the job He'd done. For the world when seen through a little girl's eyes, greatly resembles paradise.

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