Our second medicals have been accepted and the CWA staff will be preparing our documents to request a court date! I am so thankful for the Pediatrician that we found. He has tons of experience in international adoption and is an adoptive parent himself. I sent him an email yesterday with our new medical information and he emailed back by the end of the day! The next thing we will be waiting for is the scheduling of our court date. :)

WAHOO...THE EMAIL ARRIVED! Just checked for the zillionth time and it was there! I forwarded it to our wonderful doctor for his medical perspective.

A WATCHED POT NEVER BOILS. And a checked mailbox never has mail! I had a random question for our case worker and sent her an email this morning. Well, just minutes later I had a response and also included in that email was the fact that she has our 'second medicals' and as soon as she reviews and verifies that the information is for our referral, she will send them to us.

So, this is VERY EXCITING for me, because this is the next step we are waiting for. After we get that information and review it - it takes, per her email, a week or so to get our scheduled court date. Now there are always good chances that the court date can be delayed or rescheduled, but at least having that would give us a ballpark idea of when we would travel (4-5 weeks after). I know, and God has shown, that His timing is perfect. I have also learned from experience that may mean not until the 11th hour. BUT, I am now EXTREMELY EAGER to get that email.

So what I am wondering is, what did she mean by telling me she would get that info to me soon? Does that mean that would be in an hour, by the end of the day, by the end of the week? Of course for me I want it to mean, now!

I have heard from other adoptive parents and read on many other adoption blogs (which by the way are WAY more high-tech, but that is another issue altogether) that the waiting you go through once receiving the referral is the hardest part. THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. I am an 'all or nothing' person. If I can't do it all, I do nothing. And that goes with thinking about what I want/need to do. I am either thinking about it all the time, or I forget it. So, can you guess what this means?

It means I hope to get an email today or my husband won't be able to put up with me this evening!

Hope to post good news soon!

We are almost done with our vaccines. I feel partly to blame. I perused the CDC website only once and felt confused about what vaccines we actually needed and decided that our doctors would know. Well, Jamie and I go to the same practice but have different doctors and wouldn't you know it, we got different vaccines. Very frustrating!!!!! Or as Mrs. Bennet would say "You take delight in vexing me!"

That of course forced me to do a little deeper research online and I think I may understand better what we need (??). Just another thing to add to my mental rolodex. Luckily, besides having "John McCain" arms for a day or so, I had no side effects. My darling hubby however either had some side-effects or a coincidental illness the following days.

We are definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving and Jamie desperately needs some rest. The weather has been quite chilly, we set a record this morning of 16 degrees for this time of year! Christmas music is in the background and I think we may get the decorations out of the attic today.

We hope all our friends and family have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! We appreciate your continued prayers for our son and all the workers at his orphanage.

Whew! Stop teaching for a while and you quickly forget the exhaustion you feel at the end of the day!!! I spent an absolutely wonderful day with fourth grade and BAM, felt like a truck hit me all of a sudden at 3:30.

Quick update...no new news...hahaha

Our immunizations are scheduled for next week. We are waiting to get the second medical reports and to hear when our court date will be.

Oh, and if you haven't left your house in the past few days, Christmas is upon us! I heard the man in the red suit is already at the mall. Although I'm not really complaining...I've been playing my Christmas music for a couple weeks. :)

I guess I need to start thinking about what baby stuff we actually need. People keep asking if we are registered yet. We actually went to Babies R Us to register, but quickly left. It was too surreal and overwhelming! (This coming from a former shopaholic)

Oh well, life is still great!

The big wait is here...the wait for news on our son...the wait for his second medical reports...the wait for a court date...the wait for a successful court completion...the wait for an Embassy date. We figure our wait will be somewhere around the 4-5 month mark.

Some things we're doing while waiting:
*Taking our 8 hour online class to meet Hague requirements (esp. fun for Jamie who has 2 other "classes" - the one he teaches and the grad school one he is a student in)
*Getting vaccinations (I need to call the Dr. tomorrow...why do I keep putting that off?)
*Reading too many books about "what to buy baby" and "baby bargains" and realizing there is a lot of STUFF out there (my mom claims she was told to put us in a dresser drawer lined with a blanket)
*Trying to figure out how to put the stuff from the former guest room, now baby room into the already crammed office, now guest room/office

And through it all, realizing that we are pretty blessed! Our problems are really not life threatening. In my bible study this week (we are doing the Beth Moore study of Daniel - AMAZING!) she quoted from another author who said if you were reading his book at that moment, then you are among the wealthy of the world. If you could #1) afford to buy a book and #2) had the education to read it , then you are at the 'top of the barrel' , globally speaking.

And so we wait... patiently.