So, now what?

Now that my paper work is in, how do I feel like I'm moving forward? We all know that I have no control and....I like control.
So in order to feel like I'm making progress, my next project is our bedroom situation! (I say "my project" but truly it's a project for James!) We plan on finishing a bedroom downstairs for Austin and giving Alex his old room. So when James gets home he has such fun in store for him! I can't buy a bed or dresser or do anything until the room is built and we move Austin. Luckily for me, my hubby is incredible talented in this area and we already have all the materials (except carpet) and anticipated doing this, its just a matter of focusing and getting it done!
I actually need TWO beds as Rylee only has a twin and has already voiced her complaint about why does she have the smallest bed? So I need two double or bigger beds and a dresser.
Alex's-soon to be-new room has a chair rail and I think I'll take my 2 extra gallons of green kitchen paint back and have them make it darker and paint the bottom of his room a dark green? Not sure, James hates painting with dark colors and since he is the much better painter, I'll probably have to concede to his idea of paint color.
On another note. Out Stake announced their service project. They're asking the women to bring new underwear, undershirts, and socks for the orphans to the Woman's Conference on the 24th of this month. They're hoping to collect two large duffel bags to send with Jen and I when we go pick up our children. How lucky are we to have such a supportive Stake?
Alex went back to the orphanage today. It was nice to know he was with his half brother, Ivan & Snezhana. It was great to be able to hear from him and see pictures and know he was out of the orphanage. Now I'm back to waiting for him to write letters.
Apparently the 1st package I sent was a hit but most of the toys were stolen by other children. I hope my second package doesn't cause him more problems. I don't think the children will steal the English books but the cars and magic tricks might be hard to hold on too.
I think I'll hold off on packages and just hope I get over there soon and bring him home.

Part Two of Yet Another Happy Day!

So yesterday I was having a nice quiet birthday.
(Well, if you subtract the huge sign on my garage announcing my age!)
I went to The Olive Garden with all my siblings, parents, grandma and aunt.

We had a nice dinner, great conversation, okay food and as mentioned, quiet.
Towards the end of the dinner Jeff need to rush off to catch a flight, Kambree had texted she was heading to friends and my brothers talked of going to a movie so I was planning on a nice quiet night home in my PJ's watching a movie or something. My parents had driven me to the restaurant and were taking me home when suddenly my mom remembered they needed to buy milk and Dad turned the car around and we went to Smiths. I needed milk too so, okay.

Then I came home to (you guessed it!) A SURPRISE PARTY!
Orchestrated by my husband James who's name is now MUD!
And carried out by my friends and family.
(Count on James to throw a party he doesn't have to attend!)
There are many more pictures but not in my camera and I'm afraid they'll be posted on facebook so I'll steal some and add to this post. (NOTE TO ALISA! I have a picture showing that you are shorter than my MOM and I will use it as blackmail if you post unflattering pictures of me on the web!)





And as threatened, here is most everyone! A few friends slipped out early and I think I missed a couple people!

Just having everyone there and knowing how hard everyone worked to make this a surprise was the best present of all. (Especially for James, he has a hard time getting things past his nosy wife!)
One of the highlights of the night was a video my cousin Paul (with the help of my Mom, my sis and Kambree) put together for me. I of course cried-something I'd been trying to avoid-but it was to no avail. It's hard to watch your life flash before your eyes! There were pictures from my birth through my childhood, getting married, (which really made me miss James!) with each of my babies and I cried hardest at the end with pictures of Alex..it was just a happpy-birthday-crying-fest!
Along with funny cards, a beautiful plant, balloon bouquet, suckers that say "40 sucks", hot sauce that says "Still Hot At 40" gift certificates to Desert Star & Bath & Body Works, a beautiful jacket (Thanks Kambree & Devree!), chocolates, new frying pan, lotion set, Willow Tree figuring, and two huge cakes & ice cream, my friends pooled together and got me a gift certificate to a day spa! How did I get such great friends and family?
Here is me blowing out my candles.

Thanks everyone, I know without the help of my girlfriends, Mom and Kambree, James couldn't have pulled this off. And thank you James!I know you felt bad you were not there but, you were there in my heart! 11:11

Yet Another Happy Day?

The debate is still out on that. On this very day, now a very long time ago, I was born!
It's not that I hate birthdays, I use to love them. I just don't want to have THIS birthday. This is the age that I remember thinking as a teenager-when reading obituaries-one of my morbid quirks-that if a person had lived to this age, then he or she had lived a pretty long life! Good gravy, what was I thinking??
So my face book, my cousin's blog, my email, my phone calls are sending me birthday wishes. I am so blessed to be surrounded by people that despite my shortcomings, love me anyway.
Even ALL my children (less Alex of course!) wished me a Happy B-day this morning. (I think James really reminded them before he left because he feels bad he's at work on my "special" day!)
What does my "special" day consist of?
#1 I slept in to 6:45am....whootwhoo...lot's nicer than 5 am
#2 I'm waiting for Murray City to come make their final inspection of our kitchen. (We're only 120 days past our final...yikes!)
#3 I'm going to go get my hair cut and colored-which is my way of not letting the world know exactly how old I am based on my silvery roots!
#4 I'm going to school lunch with Rylee. She has made special arrangements with the lunch room monitor to sing happy birthday to me and I get to wear a crown and everything! I will take pictures so check back later!
#5 My sister called to invite me to lunch after my commitment to go with Rylee and now SHE is going to go to school lunch with me!
#6 My Mom & Dad are taking me out to dinner despite my protest of "let's not do anything and just forget about it!"
#7 And sometime today I"ll finish the laundry, hopefully clean up my house a bit, arrange house showings for tomorrow and get showered and dressed....but it's my birthday so all those things are pretty much optional!

11:00 am update. So the Murray City Inspector just came and wished me a Happy Birthday. I couldn't figure out how he knew it was my birthday until he told me something was on my garage.....


I found out that this was done by my good friend Jan Boulley who will be turning the same horrible age as me in six months. (She loves to remind me that I'm older!) Just wait until her birthday!

And then I logged in to see if Snezhana was online and guess what? It's her birthday today too!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SNEZHANA!
(I knew there was something special about her!)
And my Alex also wished me Happy Birthday.
мама с Днем Рождения!!!
So now I have been wished Happy Birthday by ALL my children!

Here we are eating school lunch!

Yum, cheese pizza....


4:00pm update: I lucked out and didn't get a crown but I did get a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday. In hindsight I couldn't think of a better place to eat lunch. No, not because of the food but because I've been substituting there I felt like a celebrity! Walking into the lunchroom, I got at least twenty "Hi, Mrs. Richhart!" about that many waves and even a few hugs! And I ate lunch with some of my most favorite people in the world!
Afterwards my sister took me to my favorite bakery and bought me my favorite mint-draping-cake and we sat down and ate it right out of the container!

Happy Day!

I am so happy to report that all my documents are currently in route to Canada! It's been 28 days since we received our list of documents needed for our dossier and after chasing down employment letters, medical statements, warranty deeds, ownership letters, I-17H forms, not to mention the stack of power of attorneys, letters of obligation, copies of passports, etc and getting everything notarized and appostilled....it's on its way!
While squeaking into the FedEx store at 6:00 pm to make the 6:15 drop and filling out my shipping label, I was asked a question. "What is the value of the items being shipped?" I sort of stood there in stunned silence. I was shipping not only my dossier but Jen's as well and she's adopting two little girls. So what is the value of three children? Can you put a price on it? The FedEx guy interrupted my silence with a "Just documents, right?" I said "Yes, but these documents are adoption papers and represent the lives of three children, I don't know how to place a value on that." He jokingly held up the box and said "You've got three children in here?" He then told me that it's just paper, and to put $10 or I could put $50 if I'd like, that this was only a value for customs and not a representation of what the actual value of the documents are. (I'm telling you, just the blood, sweat and tears involved in gathering these documents is worth more than ten bucks!) Then he gave me a tracking number and charged me (gulp) $77.51, looked at me sincerely and said "Good luck, I wish you the best."
It's funny the looks of sympathy I get when people find out I'm adopting. This happened at the post office as well when I sent Alex's last package. The little lady behind the counter realized my package was going to an orphanage and asked about it. I explained I was adopting a little boy and since I carry Alex's picture in a locket around my neck I showed him to her. She then got quite emotional and shared her desire to be a foster parent and an experience she had with a homeless little boy that she saved from a terrible situation. I probably spent 15 minutes at the counter listening to her story while I could sense the mounting frustration of all the people behind me in line. Oh, well.
I need to make a formal apology to my BFAA (Best Friend Also Adopting) Jen. I am very tenacious about paper work. I know this is not a race but I feel such an overwhelming sense of urgency and I told myself, the minute I get my last document, I'm heading to FedEx!! (It was like my last goal, my final conquest!)
In an effort to save on cost Jen and I had discussed FedEx-ing our documents together. So, when I got my last document TODAY at 4:00 I called her and she had just gotten her package back from the appostille at the same time. "Great, I'll be by to pick them up!" and then I was there before she was done making her copies with information about shipping and where I can go to get our package in today's last drop. I don't know that we saved all the much money shipping together, would have been less to go ground but FedEx people aren't very helpful with ground shipping and it involves logging in, creating an account, printing your own shipping label from home all online and will take a week to get there! Forget that! I just sent it all express and seventy-seven dollars later made the drop just in the nick of time.
So now the ball is out of my court, it's in Yuri's and then it goes to the the most daunting court of all, the Ukraine government! I think I should have thought to say a prayer over my documents...

Ukraine in the news...

This morning while at the gym a little blurb came across the TV about Russia not allowing natural gas to Ukraine. I know that yesterday it was ZERO degree's in Kiev and so I got a little panicky. I instant messaged this morning with Snezhana and she assured me they have natural gas reserves until spring and this is just a political maneuver and they will have to re-negotiate natural gas prices. (If I understand her correctly) So, I thought I'd blog about it just in case any of you other parents were panicking (like I was) that your children were freezing over there!
The Louisiana appostille called me back this morning and assured me my last document was in the mail. I hope to send my package off ASAP. (Apparently we need to send it through FedEx as UPS and USPS don't track into Canada?) From there I was told:
"I will review it here again as the originals and will put it in the mail to Ukraine, it'll take 3-4 day for delivery and then about one week for translation and notary in Ukraine. Then it will be ready for submission as soon as Ukraine issues instructions on how and when they are going to accept new dossiers."
The last part made me nervous. WHEN they are going to accept new dossiers? WHAT? I talked with Elliana and she explained there is a new website (and if I understand her correctly) they submit our names on the website and then the Ukraine government tells her when to submit the dossier? Once submitted it goes into their data base within 20 working days. Once approved (The website referenced did not mention if approval is within this 20 day time frame or what but Aodptionway said about 20 days to a month after submitting to the Ukraine.) they'll inform you of your travel date and it is usually about two months out. So as I see it, if our dossier is accepted in a timely manner, (Which I think my time and any governments time are running on two different clocks!) maybe by the end of February we'll have out travel date? Which may be the end of April? Again, I need to remind myself to breath....not think so hard....you'll make it through this....

Money Mini-Miracle!

Yesterday I had another mini-miracle. I had closed on a house on Wednesday, January 31st (which is a miracle in itself with the market being like it is!) and since my new brokerage is so fast at paying me and actually wiring straight to my account I went ahead and sent off the next installment payment to our adoption coordinator in Canada.
On Monday the 5th , I still had not received my wire. I called and was assured it would be there, there was just a problem with the computer and wiring and with the New Years holiday and all... I then spoke with Elliana at Adoption Way regarding our dossier and she mentioned she had received my check. "Great!" I said, secretly thinking, "That was fast!" I then consoled myself that they're in Canada and it will take days for their check to clear, in fact I think last time it took almost a week.
Tuesday morning, still no funds in my account. Again I talked myself out of panicking as I was sure my funds would hit my account before the adoption coordinator clears their check. I was getting ready to go on a field trip with Kambree's class to see Body World and I got this distinct impression to transfer money from our all our savings accounts to cover this check. I felt impressed to do it quickly and I did. Even though I was sure I'd just be transferring them back as this check couldn't possibly clear before my funds were received. With it being after Christmas and paying all our January bills I didn't have quite enough to cover it but with my over draft, I knew if for some freaky chance the check hit my account it would clear and then I went off on the field trip.
I came back late that afternoon and guess what....no funds!!
AND...
the check had cleared!
HOW CRAZY IS THAT???
This morning I had funds and paid all my savings back and then some to all our accounts. Hurray! Just another witness to me that Someone is watching over us!

IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT APPOSTILLE!!

If you remember my boring post about my experience at the appostille office you'll remember that I had complications with getting my warranty deed appostilled. The Lieutenant Governors office just called me and ask me to convey to everyone following suite that they WILL appostille the document right from the recorders office, do not have it copy certified notarized. The man that called is named Spencer Hadley and he was nothing but nice and can be reached at #538-1041. This is a new certified system for SL County recorders office and it doesn't work very well with international statues and laws regarding appostille but they're trying to work the bugs out. Rather than hold up our adoptions on this technicality they're working very hard to come up with a solution and told me to let everyone know to go ahead and bring in the certified warranty deed without getting it notarized.
Good luck everyone!!

Game Ideas Anyone??

So I'm trying to prepare myself for my upcoming trip to Ukraine. No, I'm not making strides in learning the language. (I've listened to the 1st CD about five times and still haven't mastered, "Excuse me, do you speak English?". I can only say, "nett" and "da".) Nor am I trying to build up my resistance to freezing temperatures by running around in shorts and flip-flops. Besides, it may or may not be cold when I travel and since I already have such a great aversion to cold, I doubt I could increase my tolerance anyway.
No, I am collecting GAMES to play at the orphanage while we are there. I'm reading these blogs and it sounds like for the 10 day waiting period you are the entertainment for not only your child but often times his whole class. So I am trying to re-learn games that we can play that do not require the participants to speak the same language. So far I have:
Spaz (A game played with U-no cards which involves hand signals when two of the same color cards are laid in row.)
Spoons (Involves a deck of cards and collecting four of a kind then grabbing a spoon)
and I'm going to try to re-learn Hot Dice (also known as Farkle or Greedy). It's a dice game with many different names but involves rolling dice.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated....
On a positive note, I got all my documents back from the appostille office on Friday. Can you believe it?? I'm still waiting on my document from Louisiana but besides that I'm ready to forward everything for translation.
A WORD TO THE WISE
Make all your copies BEFORE you take you documents to the appostille office! The appostille is physically attached to EVERY document and very hard to copy around and impossible through a feeder type copier. This way when the documents come back, you can just copy the appostille paper and not try to maneuver around the rivet that attaches the appostille to the document. (Wish I had figured this out before I took my documents in!)
On a not so positive note, I ran into a lady today that just brought her son home a few months ago. It took her THREE years to get all the paper work completed. THREE YEARS!!! He was 11 when they hosted and 14 when they adopted. I tried to console myself that this would not be my situation as she explained that he was not a legal orphan when they met him and he had to actually go to court and ask to be classified as an orphan. Then wait a year before he was eligible for adoption. Then the government decided they would only allow so many adoptions a year and they missed the cut off and had to wait another year to go over and get him. What a nightmare. My Alex is a legal orphan as confirmed by the director, the adoption agency and even Snezhana told me as much so I don't have that hurdle (knock on wood) but who knows what the government will do? This is yet another issue for my Scarlett O'Hara view of life,"I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

Alex & Ivan Pictures!

I got more pictures from Snezhana and Ivan today!

Alex & Ivan in front of the New Years tree.

Sledding!

I take it this is a bumper car ride.....

Power Outage & Plans For The New Year....

Last night I had just set down to upload some pictures and post on my blog in an effort to entertain myself as I had three extra children here for a sleep over and although it was 11pm there was no way I was going to get them to sleep anytime soon. I had just connected my camera and pulled up my blog site and the power went out! It was crazy as the house was so noisy with the dishwasher going, the dryer going, the kids had the TV on, one was on the laptop, I was on my computer and then dark and silence. I sat there waiting for everything to come back on (as Murray rarely has power outages) and nothing happened. We found flashlights (thanks to my sister giving my children flashlights for Christmas!), and because I convinced the kids to get in bed because "the furnace isn't working and you should crawl into your sleeping bags/beds while it's still warm" I managed to get everyone settled down and tucked in. Then I ran around trying to turn off what I could remember was on when the outage happened and went to bed myself. Just as I was settling in, the power came back on just long enough for me to really run around and turn everything off and then it went out again. This morning everything is on, the house is warm and the kids are waking. Electricity, what a blessing but what a distraction too. If the power could go out at bedtime every night and I didn't have to peel my children away from the Wii, computer, and TV wouldn't that be wonderful? Plus the silence. It was great.

Anyway, I was sitting down last night to post my New Years resolutions and goals.
Last year I did what I thought was the unthinkable. I gave up Diet Coke. It wasn't easy but I am so glad I did as I've just read too much bad stuff about artificial sweeteners. So in an effort to publicly hold myself my accountable, here are my resolutions. Some resolve to improve the lives of others (my children) that may or may not want to be improved upon!
#1 No eating for me after dinner.
(This is huge! I love to snack, especially late at night so typing this makes me a little nervous!)
#2 My good friend Amy introduced me to the 5/2/1/0 plan for children.
5 fruits and/or vegetables each day
No more than 2 hours of screen time
(I love that phrase "screen time", that includes computers, DS, Wii etc)
1 hour of moderate exercise
0 sugary drinks
(The only thing we have mastered here is the zero sugary drinks and that is in our home, grandma's house is a different story!)
#3 Read two pages each night in my scriptures.
(Do you realize if you do this you could read the BofM in less than six months? Yes, you probably have just by using simple math but for me it was pure enlightenment!)
#4 HAVE MORE FUN!
#5 Bring Benjamin Alex home!
Last night before the power outage I had a burst of New Years ambition and went major grocery shopping, scrubbed my main floor carpets and hung pictures. Here is a picture of my results. You may think, big whoop but take note of the dumb light switch in the middle of my wall I had to work around.

Happy New Year Friends and Family!
May 2009 bring joy, love and (for those of us approaching this adopting adventure) our children safely home!