travelin' mama

I'm in Spokane Washington now. Nice town. I'm staying in a GORGEOUS historic hotel. Built in 1914 and they have a lot of photographs from the teens and 20s. Very "The Shining" -- that was in Washington State, right? Well, no blood on the mirror this morning so I think I'm safe.
I'm here on business, for a deposition. The deposition is actually over now, and I'm killing the next 3 hours before I have to be at the airport for my flight to Portland and then my flight back home. No direct flights from Chicago to Spokane. Don't know why. Like I said, it's a nice enough town.

I generally don't mind business travel. Sure, its exhausting and its hard to eat healthy in airports and on planes, and your body and mind are one 2 different time zones. I do miss Gregg, because I'm a mush-head and miss him when I'm not with him. I actually miss him sometimes while I'm at work. DO not tell him that. I will deny it. you have no proof!

Travel is GREAT for billables, the harsh reality of law practice. I have to account for my time as a lawyer, and that time is billed to a client. Although I work at a great firm who has never fired someone for not billing enough, there is a billing "suggestion" and I try to bill over that. My billing is good this year, but more never hurt. When you travel, you bill door-to-door. This means you bill for sitting in an airport, on a plane, in a taxi. You bill for the time you lose by traveling.

But I'm thinking about Sam, and how all this will change so soon. I just cannot imagine taking a business trip when Sam is here. That means a lot more meetings and depositions via conference call, or sending someone else in my stead. I'm sure at some point in time a quite night out of the house will sound inviting, but not now. I don't want to miss a single second of Sam time, and definitely don't want to miss an entire day/night.

Its funny. We can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel now, and everything seems to be seen through parental eyes. How will things change, how will they stay the same. Part of me doesn't even want to think about the reality of working after Sam is home, because I just want to stay home with Sam. But who knows, I may be a better mommy working. And we certainly will require my income for little necessities like G diaper liners, those adorable socks that looks like shoes, and tricycles. Gregg still has his eye on an Alfa Romeo peddle car from England. Should I mention that it's $400??? And that we are most definitely NOT purchasing it?!!!

Okay, this posting isn't really making any sense except inside my head at this point so I'll sign out. See you on the other side of the Rockies.

Looks like Christmas

I know, I'm a looser. Every year, I get Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. Every year. Since 1995. Really. But I slacked this year (ie: Gregg and I slept in late because he isn't a good sleeper -- yes he is finally having that sleep study, and although I'm a great sleeper, thanks in part to a terrific little pill who shall remain nameless at this time, I had been up until 4 am reading the Twilight books) and so the decorations were put up last night, frantically, before friends came over for dinner.
We don't put up a tree, because we have ill-behaved pets. Don't get me wrong, we love Jazz and Lola to pieces, but (1) they fight, a LOT and (2) Lola still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Since almost all of our ornaments were actually a wedding present from Gregg's sister (and they are GORGEOUS delicate German ornaments), we don't like to take the risk. So, we do garland, and put the ornaments up high. I also have a little village with a tree on top of the TV (again, safety first), and we decorate outside with a wreath and garland. So, I do consider our house to be quite festive. Just sans tree.

Back to the friends who came over. Kim & Francis welcomed Maddie home 3 short months ago. We saw Maddie when she was just 2 weeks old, and the difference last night was amazing, to say the least. This girl has a personality you wouldn't believe! She smiles and laughs at you, and is OBSESSED with ceiling fans. I got the distinct pleasure of being able to wear Maddie most of the evening, so Kim & Francis could enjoy a hot meal, eaten at the same time, rather than their usual "shifts." They say practice makes perfect, so between my nieces and Maddie, I'd say I'm more than ready for Sam.

Pictures of the IEK holiday brunch

Yes I did take my camera. No, I didn't take pictures. Yes, it was because I was talking A LOT. Hello??!! This is Meg. I was also incredibly busy holding babies, talking to toddlers, and eating injera with red lentil wat. YUM.
So, please visit Nancy's blog for a picture slide show. Turn up the volume on your computer, because the slide show is accompanied by a particularly jazzy drum version of "Winter Wonderland." Enjoy!

You are real!

During this long journey in IA, I've met many, many people. Well, not really "met" but emailed and visited their blogs. Mostly mommies and mamas-to-be. I follow blogs, I am a member of several yahoo group boards, etc. But today was the first time I met any of these mommies and families and heartbreakingly gorgeous babies in person.
Gregg and I attended the Illinois Ethiopian Kids yahoo group Holiday Brunch. What an amazing group of families. Really, we couldn't have hand-picked a better group. Gregg seems like a different person -- all-of-the-sudden very hopeful again regarding the adoption.
I'm close to speechless: I am so grateful to these been there done that's, and waiting families.
I really feel like we met people today, who will turn out to be lifelong friends. Thank you thank you thank you.

Dear Mr. Clooney

Dear George --

I know it's been a while since you've had a chance to catch up on my blog. The Jolie-Pitts were faithful readers until I went private, and I know you haven't felt you could ask for an invite since then. No problem, I understand.

Since I'm public again, feel free to read back-blog entries. It's okay. You aren't snooping, in fact, we are practically family when you think about it. You remember Benjamin Bratt's older brother, Peter? The indy filmmaker? Right, well Peter is very close to my friend Melissa. That's right, they met when she was working at the University of Nebraska and he was doing a documentary. I met Melissa through Jaye. Jaye and Melissa worked together in San Francisco and Jaye is my bff from college. So, since you know Ben via Julia, and Peter is Ben's brother, and Peter & Melissa are friends, & I know Melissa, it's kinda like you and I have a personal relationship. Right??!!

So, since you are bound to feel my writing is funny, quirky, and true-to-life, I'm sure you'll want me to work on your next screen play with you. Yes, I'm very busy with my law practice, and preparations for Sam, but I'd be happy to help. I'm sure there are a couple of love scenes that need to be worked out. My husband is incredibly open minded and understands that my creativity may lead to working with some well-known and devistatingly attractive men. He's okay with that.

We are a little busy this weekend, and then I fly to Washington State for business. I could always take a puddle-jumper into California, or if that doesn't work, I am free next Sunday.
Just give me a call either way.

New timelines to ponder

I have received a lot of questions about the timeline with our new agency. Because AA is so small (they have a lot of experience, but are very selective with the amount of families they have in each program), their time-lines are MUCH shorter than other similarly situated IA agencies, or at least others we investigated.

Since we received our Golden Ticket last night, we are now just awaiting on our State Police clearance (9th set of prints, and 2nd time for this, but State will not certify if the clearance is over 30 days old -- I guess Gregg looks "shifty" and "dangerous" after all!), my IN birth certificate, and that's it. Once we have those documents, I'll get everything IL State certified and will send the original dossier out to Oregon. AA had us set up a FedEx account, so everything travels within a 24 hour period (NICE!!) Our dossier will get Wash DC certified, and then will go out to ETH. I anticipate our DTE will be sometime the first 1/2 of January. Then, we are a waiting family.
The "official" timeline at AA for a referral (no matter singleton or sibs) is 1-5 months; however, the actual time is 6-16 WEEKS. Yes, weeks. With that in mind, we anticipate a referral sometime in March or April. Yes, March or April, but let's say April to stay on the safe side. You are immediately assigned a court date after you accept the referral, and that is 2-4 weeks after the acceptance. So, if we get a referral in April, our court date will be in May. Then you travel about 1 month later. So, again, if we get a referral in April, we would travel for our Embassy hearing in June. Of course, it could be a little sooner or a little later, depending upon our referral date. But this gives you a general idea.
Basically, SAM IS COMING HOME THIS SUMMER!! SAM IS COMING HOME THIS SUMMER!! SAM IS COMING HOME THIS SUMMER!! SAM IS COMING HOME THIS SUMMER!! SAM IS COMING HOME THIS SUMMER!! SAM IS COMING HOME THIS SUMMER!!

WE GOT OUR GOLDEN TICKET!!!!!!!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?????!!! I came home from work today to an envelope from USCIS. I asked Gregg 4x (okay, maybe it was 400 times really fast) "WHAT IS IT WHAT IS IT WHAT IS IT????" He said he didn't know. I read it over and over and just didn't get it. We are officially pre-approved for our I-600. Okay, what does that mean?

I called my friend Meghan, because she just submitted her dossier so I knew she recently had this experience. She calmly told me to look at the bottom of the form "what's the form number Meg?" "Umm, I don't know, umm 171 OHMYGOSHITSTHE171HOHMYGOSHITSOURGOLDENTICKETITCAMETODAY!!!!!! I'm jumping up and down at this point and calling Gregg into the kitchen and telling him we have our Golden Ticket.

Wow -- so given last week's holiday, we received our Golden Ticket in 2 weeks. This means that, once again, Jim Rogal Rocks it like a Rock Star!! I even called Jenni and instructed her to give him a big smooch from us when she saw him tonight.

So now -- we just have 6 little pieces of paper we need and then we can submit our dossier. I'm sure my birth certificate will take the longest. But I don't care. I'm thrilled beyond belief because I'm now 100% sure that we'll be a waiting family in the month of January.