Memorial Day Weekend 2009

Hey, there! Hope everyone's Memorial Day weekend was fun...ours was. We went to PA to visit my family. Everyone was there, and I had such fun with my three nieces Jessica, Anna, and Ava. At my mom's barbecue on Sunday (in between the pouring-down rain!), they had me lying on my back on my mom's driveway, tracing "my shadow" with sidewalk chalk. It was kind of like a sick game of "play CSI victim" but the girls seemed to like it. The result of their tracing me looked like some sort of pudgy, amorphous gingerbread man, or maybe a monster. All of the adults were laughing so hard I swear we were crying. It was hilarious.

My drapes finally came in from Great Beginnings in Gaithersburg. Don't order drapes from them! I ordered them in JANUARY. Yes, January. I just hadn't had the chance to call and cancel the order and give them an earful, but I was planning to. Then they called to say the drapes came in, so I just sucked it up and got them. They do look good (although I'm convinced I could have gotten them online from the company in like a week!).

We drove the crib home from PA this weekend, and we're excited to put it up. OK, let me clarify: I'm excited to put it up. Jeff? Maybe not so much. It's starting to look like a real baby's room. Gives me something to be happy about (if you've read my recent posts, I've been pretty pissy lately but am doing much better now).

Get me through this summer...please! Because once that happens, we'll be REALLY CLOSE to getting our match and then months away from being parents! Thanks to everyone for continuing to be so supportive, always asking about how things are going, and always being there when things, well, AREN'T going!

I'm trying to stay positive! It's so easy to get sucked down into "feel-sorry-for-myself" land...not going there! Not going there! In the meantime, I continue to love playing with everyone else's kids, babysitting, and inching ever closer to The Big Day.

Love and huge hugs to all!

this sucks

i have two words for today: waiting SUCKS

i am really down in the dumps; can't seem to shake it; sad, down, and doped up on Benadryl (damn allergies)

on deadline, gotta run

How Do You Spell "WAIT"?

How do you spell "WAIT"? I spell it like this:

Woman, full up with warmth, surrenders (unwillingly?) to a journey controlled entirely by the compass of others.
Anxious is putting it mildly...waiting to exhale, more appropriate.
Inside, I shiver on the razor-sharp edges of my hope (never knew hope to have such a palpable presence)...
Torn between wary caution and joyful abandon.

Today, I think I'll choose joy.

Dare I hope for this happiness?
Dare I exhale?
Hell, yeah.
Breathing in, I inhale motherhood.
Breathing out, I exhale my impatience.

-KKH

Jeff Got Tenure!

I forgot to mention one important piece of news we got yesterday (May 4, 2009): Jeff was officially awarded tenure...he is a full, tenured professor now! So that was our good news for the week. Job security is certainly a good thing to have, in light of our economy. And our children go to college for free...how sweet is that? Congratulations to Jeff: You deserve it after all of that hard work! (The tenure review process has been ongoing for about 8 months now and involved a ton of work/preparation on his end.) He's such a great teacher...it's so natural and he's good at it...I'm so, so proud of him!!!!

The Latest Scoop

The latest scoop is, well, that there isn't any scoop. Same old thing: Just waiting. We had our monthly parent support group meeting tonight, and the topic was car seat safety. They brought someone in from Kids in Safety Seats (KISS), a Maryland nonprofit based in Baltimore, and they showed us all the ins and outs, ups and downs, of child safety seats, explained the law, etc. It was a really informative session. Even our caseworker was taking notes! Before the meeting, we had to meet with Margie regarding updating our home study. It was a brief meeting, and it went well. Jeff outright asked her, "What are the chances of us getting a referral by the end of the summer (i.e., Labor Day)?" Her reply: "Chances are pretty good, but don't be surprised if it turns into September or sometime during the fall."

If that is the case, then our hopes for being united with our child by Christmas would be dashed, and our family won't come together physically until early in 2010.

But this month, there were a ton of referrals...which seems promising...but it's just so hard to say.

So the answer is "Who knows when?" We sure don't.

And the saga continues...while others much younger than this spring chicken continue to have their first, second, and third babies.

But there I go, feeling sorry for myself again. That said, Hasta La Pasta, folks: I'm going to go drink some hot tea and watch CSI reruns.