Bah Humbug

Alternate title: What goes up, must come down (like my hopes, for one).

OK, so I know a lot of people prefer their adoption blogs to be all sunshine and roses, with never a negative word to be uttered. I respect that. So, for anyone who prefers sunshine and roses, please skip this post and just wait to read another time. You see, I'm not really a sunshine and roses kind of person - I have to work really hard at sunshine and roses, and I just don't have the energy right now. Plus, my blog does dual duty acting as therapy for me, so It's My Blog And I'll Cry If Want To. I will try, in the interest of not being a total Debbie Downer, to make it as humorous as I can (though not finding it funny right at the moment).

The Christmas trip to Russia is off. We are back to most likely traveling in February. It came down to a little thing called a visa to get into Russia, and the completely unexpected revelation by some that Jim is Canadian (who knew????) . You know, Jim has been Canadian for 41 years now and never tried to hide this fact EVER. And every piece of paperwork we have ever filled out has called him out as a die-hard Canuck. He even mentioned his love of hockey in his Homestudy bio (seriously...he wrote about this in his "about me" paragraph).

Yet somehow we received travel dates, changed all of our vacation plans and tickets, and booked flights to Russia without his Canadianism ever being an issue. Until yesterday. So...after a zillion airline ticket fees, 3 extra days added to our vacation trip, and 4 days spent convincing ourselves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the best possible thing that could happen for Trip 1, as well as God's grand plan....we are back to where we started...with only the addition of change fees, extra vacation days, about 100 new gray hairs, a new eye twitch, and a growing mental instability (kidding, Homestudy lady, kidding).

Yes, everything happens for a reason...blah blah blah blaaaaaah...

The thing is...it's our baby we're talking about. It's not like a college Biology class that you were too late to get into, and you say "oh I'll just take it next semester". It's our baby. And next semester seems very far away. And if this can happen now, who is to say something won't happen then...or between Trip 1 and 2... sigh... Are we going to get him home just in time to pay for college?

Trying to positive: We have extra days in Canada now, together with Liam and Natalie. We might go skiing. And sledding (or toboganning, as they say). Jim can rest assured that he will have phone and internet access for his year-end sales efforts. I have some more time to find the exact right hat and scarf (after a frantic weekend, I'm OK with boots and coat). By leaving for Canada on a 6:30am flight now, we'll have lots of time to see everyone on our first day in Canada! (OK, being sarcastic here...nothing is really positive about a 6:30am flight with 2 kids...no, I don't think they'll sleep on the plane).

I hope to post better news later and promise to be sunshine and roses at some point in time before I die or turn 50. I think I'll have to just work on getting a video snippet of Natalie doing gymastics on the blog to cheer me up. Cheers.