Monaco & London

Jim and I had a very nice Valentine's Day gift this year. Jim qualified for his CPC Sales trip, so we left on Feb 14th for a trip to Monaco, returning w/ a night in London. I have to go on record saying that I am SO proud of Jim. Not only was it is his first year in this job, but for most of the year he was short 3 people, and had to deal with a lot of hiring and firing issues. But he still managed to pull it off, and had a good year! He is an amazing man, and an amazing salesman.

Leaving the kids was terribly hard, but made a lot easier because we knew they were in such good hands (Grandma M). They didn't seem phased at all by the separation. The worst part of the trip for me was the plane ride over when we hit some bad turbulence that seemed to last forever (it was seriously about 20-30 minutes long). I came dangerously close to tossing my cookies, and found that all I could think about was the kids. I even negotiated in prayer, telling God that I would never again take such a selfish, frivolous, extravagant trip for nothing more than my own pleasure (I didn't figure God would necessarily care about the fact that a romantic holiday could benefit my marriage). And we survived the turbulence. Now I am wondering how I renegotiate that deal in case Jim makes the trip next year, since it is at Atlantis in the Bahamas. I wonder if God has "senior moments" and might just forget my little promise.

Traveling internationally was a blast from the past for me. It brought back so many memories of my auditing days. Good and bad memories. The last time I was in London must have been...1995, I want to say. So many things have changed...9/11...husband...kids. Just the act of traveling felt familiar, for sure, but it is a different perspective when you actually have something making you want to come home. And downing Tabasco shooters in a bar full of work-related people is much more fun when I'm doing it with my husband (no offense to my old travel buddy, Marv, who would have been more than happy to do Tabasco shooters back in the day). The last time Jim was in London was 9/15/01 as he finally got a plane home after 9/11, on the day we were supposed to be married. Lots of memories there.

Anyway, it was a good trip. The food in Monaco was very disappointingly awful, and I now know that French people make me nervous. But it was a unique experience, AND we got to see SHERYL CROW perform at our gala dinner (bravo! to the corporate meeting planner people on that one - BRAVO!). And Jim and I got some much needed alone time before our next big trip, which could be to that place everyone wants to visit at some point in their life - Siberia.

End of First Trimester

I'm now considering myself done with the first "trimester" of this paper pregnancy! We submitted our first Dossier, and are now officially in the "waiting" phase for a referral. Yeah!!!
They say 2 to 5 months is typical - usually closer to 5 for an infant girl (that is what we requested). I think after waiting so long with China and feeling like it would never happen, the whole possibility of truly getting a child is only starting to hit us now. I suppose I felt the same way with my pregnancies too. I was always wary of being too confident in the first trimester, and it didn't feel real until I started to get huge.
This time around there are no endless ob/gyn visits, no cramps or gas or hemorrhoids to worry about. No ill-fitting clothes (at least, not for any good reason), and pregnancy books to obsess over. There is, however, getting to know the Notary at the bank on a first-name basis, endless visits to FedEx/Kinkos, paper cuts, sore hands from signing a zillion papers, and adoption books to obsess over.
One thing that remains the same is that the house is turned upside down as we shift furniture and begin the move to make Natalie a "big girl" room and create a nursery for the baby. One more baby seems to mean that much more chaos. It is exciting and scary, and wonderful.

Learning Russian

I recently purchased a CD of Useful Russian Language for Adoptive Parents. What a good idea that is! I had thought about getting just a standard "learn to speak Russian" language CD, but really, what good is it going to be to learn how to ask for soup in a restaurant or how to ask for directions. What I really need for our trips, and once we are home, are phrases that may be familiar to a baby or toddler. Liam likes to listen to the CD with me, mostly because he thinks that the Russian speakers English is hilarious. They repeat words in English and Russian and it is repeated by a female and a male Russian-born speaker. The male, Sasha, really does have a hysterical English accent. He sounds like a robot from a Terminator movie or something. All he has to say in robotic English is "Ju are a very smaaaart boy." and Liam is rolling.
We haven't learned too much yet, but we can successfully say in Russian: Hello, Yes, No, Good Night, Good job!, Poop, and Pee. It's a start, anyway...

I am also officially addicted to an online geography quiz site. I don't know if anyone else is interested in geography, but I am so addicted to this site. I know there are so many other things I should be doing, but this is fun! I'm not even sure why, because it just shows me how bad I really am at geography. There is a World one (that's the one I've been doing), and also US-only and Canada-only, etc. I think I'm worse at the US-only one than the World one, and Canada....well I just embarrass myself there. But I'm practicing. If anyone wants to challenge me, let me know. My best score is 101 on the World quiz so far.
http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq

Adoption...Slow Going

I really thought we'd have our Russian dossier done in January. Unfortunately, we are STILL waiting on Jim's second birth certificate from Canada (not to mention having to send it BACK to Canada once we get it, for authentication). We finally called on it, and they are researching the request. Apparently it has been on hold because Canada only likes to issue one birth certificate. Never mind the fact that we've already received 3...if you count the ones for the China Dossier. Anyway, that is our hold up at the moment.

I did have a dream the other night of sisters. Two blonde sisters - not very much different in size. I could only see them from the back, but they were giggling and running together, and obviously being mischievous. I have been telling myself not to read much into dreams or other hokey "signs". But I am still glad I had the dream, because I could tell they were happy. I had a dream over a year ago that involved a blonde baby as well. I woke up feeling as if I had met my adopted baby, but at the time I laughed because I was sure we were going to China. I figured that my mind only knew how to dream about blonde babies, because that is all I have had. Now..who knows..maybe it really was a little Russian foreshadowing. Watch now...we'll get the darkest haired baby in all of Russia. :-) That would be fine too.