Stacey and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day -- So Far

So I knew I had to do some yucky stuff at work today, but I was looking forward to getting our social report. Pictures! Information! Lots of goodness about the newbie! And I've got nothing, zero, nada, zilch, zippo. Our wonderful, very patient social worker told me that they tried to send social reports from Ethiopia today but are having problems--blackouts, dial-up Internet, you get the picture. Ugh. And now its 10:00 p.m. in Addis and I am losing hope.

Let me be clear: I am a type-A, detail oriented person. Less so since I had the girls, but way more so that the average human. I've spent the last 10 minutes trying to think of scenarios of how to get the information.....maybe one of the adoptive parents there can load it on to their zip drive and send it from the guest house computer! Maybe....yeah right, not helpful.

This is one of the more frustrating things about adoption and this adoption in particular. It is a concept that everything happens on it's own time, not on your time. In my case, I'm now thinking of it as Africa time. My head understands how difficult it must be to do business when your power goes out unexpectedly and you are using not the latest equipment and you have dial-up; but my heart just wants to see those pictures. To see that the newbie is happy and growing and to give me some hope that we will pass court tomorrow.

On a positive note, if you haven't read Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day you should, even if you are a grown up. It is great. I think Mommy is going to choose the bedtime reading tonight!

First Bike

Last weekend, the weather finally turned nice enough to bring out the bikes. Doodle's legs were finally long enough for her to ride her "motorcycle" (Big Wheel), so she was riding on that. Moo Bear decided that the only thing she wanted to ride was Doodle's big girl bike--no more tricycle for her. So after a week of bike fights--"Mom, tell Moo to get off my bike, I want to ride it"-- I left work early on Friday for the bike purchase. We go to a local bike store where these guys have been working on bikes since the 60's. They like nothing better than to help a girl pick out her first bike, and they are the most patient people on the planet. Moo had just woken up from a nap so she wasn't as outgoing as she normally was, so the bike guys were a bit disappointed that she wasn't over the moon. By the time we got home, she was raring to go. Most of the pics I have are blurry, since she wouldn't stop riding long enough for photos. Oh, and she picked out the exact same bike as her sister, just a different color. I'll post more pics in the slide show later.

Feeling beautiful

I've been thinking quite a bit about Africa and our travel. Trying to decide what donations we will bring with us. It is a challenge of space and weight and need. A story problem in and of itself...what can we pack in two 50 lb bags (or more) that will make a difference? Both our care center and AHOPE, a care center for HIV+ children, have urgent needs for diapers and formula. Diapers seem to be a no brainer--they are light and I think I can squish a whole heck of a lot in those space saver bags when you take the air out. Formula will be a bit more problematic. We're bringing some, but it is really heavy!

But reading the list of needs for AHOPE, something struck me-- particularly as the mom to girls. They need hair accessories. A part of me feels like, why bring hair accessories when other needs seem more urgent, like vitamins or anti-fungal cream? But thinking back to when I was an eight year old girl, I remember barrettes being tremendously important. Remember when there were those metal barrettes that you would string with ribbon and finish off with beads at the end? Or the rainbow barrettes with your name on them? Or those hair scrunchies in your school colors? How cool and beautiful you felt when you wore them for the first time? How powerful it was to do your own hair in the way that you wanted (not the way your mother wanted), to claim ownership of yourself and define your own style?

So we are bringing hair accessories along with the other donations. Because I think feeling good about yourself is important, whether you are a preteen in the US or a girl in a care center in Africa. Feeling pretty for a little while can be as nourishing to the soul as vitamins are to the body. Besides that, every little girl deserves a little sparkle in their life.

If you want to send me some hair elastics or barrettes, I would be honored to carry them with me. In the meantime, the girls and I have some fun shopping to do.

Blog Union '09!

Ok, so I lurked from afar, watching my favorite bloggers attend Blog Union '08 last year. But this year, we are in! You have to have a blog, be officially waiting (with background checks, fingerprints, etc.) for a baby from Ethiopia or have a child home from Ethiopia, and be signed up on meet up (with pictures). Here's the link if you are interested:http://www.meetup.com/blogunion/

I am so excited. It's even close to where we live!!! I do hope that some people read my blog and recognize me, otherwise I'll just be the creepy stalker lady with the cute baby girl from Ethiopia.

My Mother Had Eyes in the Back of Her Head, I Have Facebook

Me: "So how did you like the new art teacher today?" (I got an email from the director of the art studio that she was teaching the girls' class today)
Moo: "She's nice. She has black hair like B's Mom."
Me: "Does she have glasses like B's Mom?"
Doodle (accusingly): "Are you friends with B's Mom on Facebook?"

Why, yes, I am. I have met her in person, however. Since I'm not at preschool for drop off and pick up, the girls are amazed that I know anything about their friends and what goes on at school. Between Facebook, email, newsletters and parent nights, I'm pretty well connected. So if J's Mom's Facebook status is that she has a house full of sickos, I can ask a few days later if so and so is feeling better. I can appear to be all knowing.

Doodle's already on to me, though, so I don't think my magical knowing powers will last much longer.

In other news, the newbie should have received our care package today! I took some pictures of the package to post today, but since the pictures have her name clearly visible on them, I'm going to have to wait until our court date to post them. We're anxiously awaiting our social report, which will have detailed info on the newbie. We're also hoping to pass court on the 25th. Stay Tuned.

Seriously?

I took Doodle to the paint store this weekend to pick out paint for the newbie's room. Dan said he would go along with any color I chose, so long as it wasn't pink. I'm not sure what has brought this on--the one thing we argue about consistently is decorating our house. I KNOW, a boy who actually CARES where I want to hang the photos, what color I paint the rooms ... who woulda thought?

The newbie's room is kind-of rain forest-y/Africa themed, and the duvet I'm having made is orange on one side and this on the other. So the super nice paint guy starts laying out colors. We're starting with the color on the monkey's belly as the main color of the room. Doodle looks for a minute, and says "that one" and pulls a color out. "What is the name of this color, Mommy?" "It's Winter Wheat." "That's the one." The paint guy looks perplexed. He wasn't even done laying out the colors. He lays out a few more and says, "you know, the kid is right."

I saved the orange swatches until last night. We have one wall where the white closet doors take up most of the room. The little bit of wall there is will be painted orange. I lay out the orange paint chips, all 15 of them, and Doodle wanders in. "That one." she says, after about 30 seconds. "What is it called?" "Harvest Moon." "That's it."

"Why do you have those colors on the wall, Mommy." She sighs, "I told you the Winter Wheat was right." Dan and I look at each other. We then go through all of the motions with the orange, this one is too dark, that one is too brown, that one is too orange, and end up picking the Harvest Moon. She's clearly got some skills. Interesting. She wants to help Dan paint the walls. Who knows, maybe there's a mural in there somewhere!

In case you are interested, here are some other accessories we've picked up for the room:
This is an Africa clock we're painting pink for the room.
And this is the mobile we ordered.
I'm hoping we take some great photos in Ethiopia that I can have framed and put up.
I would also consider getting wooden letters to spell out her name, but since we haven't come up with a name, that's on hold.
As for the bed, Dan refuses to put together either of the two cribs we have. Since he put them up in the old house and the new and neither kid slept in them, he's done. So we're leaving the double bed in the room for co-sleeping and if the kid seems to hate it, he'll put up the crib.

Clearly, we've got a ways to go. I'll post pictures when we're done.

And the Gifter is..........Kim!!!

Thanks again Kim for the lovely gift. We had Darth Toast this morning. You've made my girls and their star wars loving dad very happy!

Apparently, the Darth Toaster was such a hot item, it had been back ordered for some time, and Kim was unsure of when it actually shipped. Case closed.