01 July 2009

newsy

Internet is back! Hooray.

I'm moved in and mostly unpacked. (Yes, yes... pix when I'm ALL unpacked.)

I've beaten the boat noise by moving into Sasha's room. See? Co-sleeping already. ;>

I'm overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to my shower. I never got to have a bridal shower, wedding shower, baby shower...housewarming shower so this is very exciting. I'm a little gobsmacked. I don't quite know what to register FOR. I've got so many things...but I guess we just register for the future. Right? I'll do some dreaming. And consulting. Maybe in addition to registering I can give you some basic guidelines for those of you who like to shop off the registry. (That's easy--no Disney, no characters, no synthetics, nothing too cutesy. I think she's a winter. Yea! Me, too! But we won't know until she's home and has lost that orphanage pallor.)

Paperwork. Bleh. My agency is going back and forth on whether or not we need to update my hs for USCIS. The latest word is yes--and get a new visa. If we do, that's a big update. It will take a long time to complete. Special needs adoptions need special paperwork. (Came up with that gem of a definition very late last night.) BUT the memo USCIS sent out to agencies in March (I have a copy) says that a doctor's exam can overrule the dx on the paperwork. I think my doctor's exam does that and have e-mailed USCIS to ask for their opinion.

My current hs update for Russia is 12 pages long! I thought it would be a page...or maybe two listing the things that have changed (salary, saving, address, special needs) that would be attached to my current hs. Instead, she's re-written a lot of things that haven't changed (personal history, why I'm adopting, plans for after d2b is home, guardianship, etc.).

Twelve pages will take a long time to translate.

I e-mailed my agency to ask their sw (who approves all the hs) what we need--two pages or twelve. She didn't know. Let me repeat--She didn't know. She didn't even understand WHY we were updating. (insert controlled scream) We're updating only because THE AGENCY TOLD ME TO UPDATE!

To answer your questions, it's not likely that I'll be visiting her during this wait. If she were close by, I'd be there every day! But she's hours and hours away. Russia's a big country. Imagine if you were adopting from another state. You wouldn't be able to visit every weekend. It takes longer to get to her than it does to fly from New York to London.

And, she really doesn't know what's going on at all. Having me come and go may be worse.

If it looks like court will be more than eight weeks, I'll go visit once more. Probably. If it's going to be soon, I probably won't.

That's the newsy-ness here.

(Sorry for no pix. A friend got on the blog without accepting his invitation. It makes me nervous.)

6 comments:

Melissa said...

Wow, that's a lot of updating!! I really hope that you can get by without it. It's so hard to go for so long between that first meeting & court...our wait was 4 months, and going into that wait, we knew it would be long. So I understand how you are feeling on that end.

But how exciting about your shower!!! Maybe you will have plenty to keep you busy while you wait...and hopefully the wait will pass VERY quickly (and won't be so long afterall!!)

Lea said...

I am hoping and praying with you that the doctor's note will be enough and you will not have to do a massive update.

Very excited for the shower! How fun!

Strange that someone could get on your blog without login and password. Maybe she did it right when it was being changed to password protect? We need someone else to test it. I could test it from my husband's laptop and I could also test it from my old laptop. I'll do that and let you know what happens.

Lea said...

Ok, here's what happened. From my husband's laptop, I was prompted with the login screen. From my old laptop, I first saw the login screen and then it must have logged me in automatically because your blogged popped up right after the login screen. That is kind of strange. Not sure why that happened, since I was not logged into to Google or blogspot yet (I had just rebooted the laptop and started with a fresh brower screen).

Anyway, the good news is that it did not recognize my husband's laptop, on which I do not have an account (I was using his acoount). But somehow, it did recognize me. Maybe I logged into your blog from my old laptop once and just forgot. Not sure if this was much help but at least you have a couple of more data points.

Rachael said...

So much paperwork. UGH. Hope it all comes together quickly and smoothly!

And the shower: FUN. Please share sizes and favorite colors. I might get crafty.

Tami said...

That IS some serious paperwork updating. We'll be praying for the process to smooth out for you. Got my shower invitation...SO excited! :)

Annie said...

Too bad for us about the pictures. Frankly, I relished just that little "teaser" you gave us before. But delayed gratification is an important virtue. And, really....you'll give all your readers (who haven't experienced this in their own adoptions, a taste of what it's like!)

I LOVED your lists of likes and dislikes for the shower. Made me smile, and think, "Oh, my gosh! Kate IS a soulmate!" I thought I was the only curmudgeon on earth that didn't want to dress my child in Disney.

Lea - I got the idea that my computer will recognize when I am and when I'm not "allowed" on private blogs. Once I get "in" - I'm in. For example, I had to log in on my home laptop for the first time, then after that it let me in. At work I was "in", then they gave me a new hard drive (nasty business, that) and I was not "in" anywhere anymore! Had to re-introduce myself to all my private blog-friends. But once was all it took.