Oh yeah. I'm that awesome.

I think the Lord likes to keep me humble.  Just in case I get the kids to school on time two days in a row with combed hair, clean undies and  no peanut butter on their faces.  I mean, that, right there, makes me feel like World's Best Mom. Victory!  I'm awesome! But then I have a moment that brings me back to reality. 

I had a chance to make a quick dash to Target by myself this weekend-- a treat!  But I was short on time and rushing.  As I pulled into a parking spot, I hopped out and remembered to lock the door of our corolla--it's old school and you have to push the lock down before closing the door.  I did NOT, however, remember that in a standard transmission, the e-brake is not optional.  As I started walking away, my car started rolling backwards.  Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap! I squealed and panicked.  I didn't know if I should first a) stop the car from rolling or b) unlock the car.  But I had thrown my keys into my bottomless-pit-purse!  So I was trying to stop the car by holding onto the handle.  ????  Why, Jen? Why?  The car obviously did not respond to such a weak attempt to stop it's natural progression back into oncoming traffic, so I ran to the trunk and stopped it with my body (I knew those extra pounds would come in handy!) while I dug for the keys.  Then I RAN back to the driver's side door, quickly unlocked it (while it was rolling some more), and dove in to pull the e-brake. Whew!  I took a moment to catch my breath and smell my pits to make sure the sudden exertion of so much energy wasn't making me too stinky.  Had I put on deodorant that morning?  I took another sniff to try to remember. Then I sat down properly, started the car up again, and pulled forward 5 feet, so I could occupy the parking space. 

Ok, no harm done.  No one is walking by.  Oh, but hello!  There is a young couple sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME, sipping their lattes and watching the entire scene from the comfort of their SUV.  WHY would they just be sitting there in their car in the Target parking lot?  Just to mock me, clearly. They were obviously amused.   I, of course, pretended I didn't see them, and just to prove to them that I WILL NOT BE HUMILIATED, I picked my nose and flicked a booger on their windshield.  Ha!  I'm just kidding.  I would never do that.  But I did get a wedgie out of my bum as I walked away in their line of sight.

Aaaaaaaaaand......SCENE.

She looks familiar

I posted this on FB too, but in case you missed it:

We saw a short trailer for the new Pixar movie, called BRAVE.  It's supposed to come out this summer, and we are HUGE Pixar fans.  (Maybe you remember a completely random post where I rated all the current Pixar movies in order of my preference.)  This new movie is Pixar's first feature film with a female lead, and we think she looks pretty familiar...



Retail Therapy

I realized I haven't blogged since the non-update, and I probably didn't have the heart to publicize that we got notice from our agency that there will be no re-do or make-up progress report for the kiddos that missed them in December.  The flat-out truth is that the flood made it impossible for a normal social worker visit last fall (including a dr's appointment, development assessment and pictures), and so we will not be receiving another update until the scheduled one in March.  I keep telling myself that someday we'll tell Asher about these months of waiting as a well-rehearsed story.  Kind of like I tell my bio kids about their labor and delivery.  Instead of painful contractions, we'll talk about painful waiting periods and dramatic stretches of time--"And then we had to wait six months with NO new pictures or information on how you were doing!  We were going crazy!"

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Our hearts right now are with the families who received referrals last March, who thought they would be home with their kiddos right now.  There is a cog in the government machine in Thailand right now, and their files have not been presented to the adoption board, which is what must take place in order to receive what is called "First Approval."  (Did I already explain this?)  Once your case is presented (by a Thai government social worker TO the Thai adoption board), you are granted First Approval.  Basically, this is when it gets real and papers start going back and forth between Thailand, our agency, our family, the USCIS, back to Thailand, etc.  It's when we start looking at plane tickets, tentative court dates, etc.    I had a long chat with our agency last week, and basically they do not know exactly where our family is in the queue of files to be presented at the adoption board meetings, but they anticipate it will be in February or March.  The dates are Feb 1 & 15, March 8 & 21st.  As of right now, travel usually follows about 10-11 weeks after first approval.  Because they cannot guarantee when we will get approval, we are having to update our home study and our I-800A, which is a bunch of work.  Boo.

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Some days I truly feel the excitement of this fact: we are in the home stretch!  There is every reason to believe we'll have Asher in our home by summer.  Other days, it seems like an endless limbo.  And on those days, I do some virtual shopping!  I don't think we'll have a typical baby shower, b/c it seems kind of strange to have one for a toddler when he's a third child, but I have slowly been compiling a list of wants and needs.  One thing I know we wanted was a heavy-duty toddler carrier.  I did a lot of research and we (by we, I'm sure you know I mean "I") decided on a Baby Hawk.  They are not cheap, but the one we registered for is specifically made for toddlers, and can be front/back carrier.  The website is babyhawk.com and we chose the Oh Snap! Carrier.  Ironically, it has no snaps, only buckles.  (???)  Our registry is AJC36DD103.   This was a big decision, like a wedding dress, so thanks for not telling me if you had a bad experience with these or if you think I made the wrong choice in carriers.  :)

I also started a wish list at Amazon.com.  We don't need a lot of baby items on a typical baby registry, but one of my friends suggested the amazon thing.  We put all kinds of smallish items like adoption books, books that have asian children in them, toddler flashcards, plus a few bigger things like a wagon.  (That's definitely more want than need.)  Often when we are shopping with my kids and they see something they want, I tell them we will put it on their wish list.  Turns out, that is a good tactic!  It even helps me!  I might not be able to buy all of these things, and don't expect others to buy all of them, but it is fun to distract myself from the horrid wait by mentally spoiling our little man.