I Dreamt...

I have had VERY few dreams about our adoption so far. I imagine those will start in full force once we have a referral. But at least twice over the past year I have dreamt that we had a referral. Last night, it was for a 20-month old boy and a 9-week old girl, who were lovely and from Africa, but not from Ghana. Funny how dreams have elements of reality, but that some key facts change at whim...

Paper Hits the Trail

Today, at last (on the day Geoff could have booked to see our regular doctor for medical form signing if we hadn't been trying to get them done quickly - ha ha), our medical forms are bundled up, along with the latest immigration paperwork we had to sign, and ready to head to our agency when I hit the post office after work. Not too much work, really, but just enough to keep the "to do" list active lately...now if I can only get our income tax packages in the mail, too (complete well over a week ago), I'll be caught up for a day or two in the business department.

Not a Mistake After All

Found out that as long as we both sign both medical forms, it doesn't matter who fills them in, so that's good. Now I can get those done & on their way, and I really think there's nothing more to do than wait...which is good :)

Nursery Progress & Our Super-Cute Dog & Fun New Specs

Very, very, painfully slowly, the nursery renovations are progressing. Geoff sanded the floors down, and, here you can see his partially finished stain job. Which looks fantastic all finished up! And, now there's even the first part of stained baseboard, door trim, and varnished window trim up...all hand-made, and looking great. Now I want the room to be my office. Hmm...

Ok, and just in case you need to be reminded how cute my dog is (and how fun my vintage frames are now that I've got lenses in them - thanks to Geoff's grandma ensuring they didn't go to the grave, and thanks to the optician with a good eye who knew just how to shape the lense):


And next, so Geoff doesn't feel left out, check out his new look - he's been wanting glasses for ages, and actually needed them this time:

My Fault: Prolonging Things Further

Ahhh! I am pretty out of it today, I guess. We finally got back our medical forms to add to our dossier - I started filling out an attached form so we could get them in the mail in the morning, and was filling out the one for Geoff (since I always write, and he always signs off) then realized he is supposed to fill it out himself. And we are not supposed to take the staple out of the package, so now Geoff's medical forms are attached to the form I was filling out, and my blank form, which could be filled out by Geoff, is attached to my medical forms. I hope I have not just created a major problem, but will hopefully find out tomorrow what should be done about this. And I am always so careful with instructions...or so I thought. Figures this is the time I mess it up.

Longer Than You'd Think

Thankfully the newest set of medical reports we need to add to our dossier (which is already in Ghana) doesn't mean putting our referral wait on hold...because Geoff met with our Dr.'s resident last week (as our Dr. couldn't book an appointment until late next week), but the forms had to stay at the clinic for our Dr. to sign & stamp. So Geoff consulted with the resident and administrative assistant, and left the unfilled forms at the clinic for later pick-up. We got the call they were ready at the end of last week, and Geoff then forgot them one day, the clinic closed early the next day, we were still in the city the next day & couldn't get them, and then we forgot the clinic closes early on Wednesdays as well...so hopefully today - which just reminded me that we may have to re-negotiate the grocery shopping plans to make that happen. Tomorrow we'll be in the city all evening, so it has to be tonight if we don't want to wait until next week...in which case, Geoff may as well have just booked with our Dr. when she's available next week. Oh well. Not a major stress or anything, just a bit of an unexpectedly slow process.

Just Can't Resist...

It's amazing how many times per day a person can feel compelled to check the adoption message boards to see if there are any new postings...it's been a quiet couple of days in the forums following the flurry of excitement last week over learning about folks getting referrals. I get disproportionately enthusiastic when I log in and see that there are new messages. And wow, it's really fantastic when there's a new database, photo, or family who has posted information about their adoption process and timelines! One would falsely think I had nothing more with which to occupy my mind & time...

Just Because...

Good afternoon everyone! I've just been taking a quick break to browse a few blogs, and check the Ghana forums for any more news...nothin' much going on today it seems. But I did realize how much I enjoy finding new posts on people's blogs, even when there's not much to say. So for any of you who are like me in that regard, here's a post just for you!

Since I'm here...we've learned of one other family given a referral through our agency in the past 2 weeks - another set of twin girls!!! And, we've been joined on the discussion forum by the first (or pretty close to it) Canadian couple who received a referral for Ghana, which was in early January. So, we're pretty encouraged with how things seem to be moving along with referrals, and all within the (gu)estimated timeframes of 8-12 weeks once folks' dossiers get to Ghana. Not sure I can really wrap my head around the POSSIBILITY that we could actually have a referral by late spring or early summer.

As always, we are busy, busy, busy. Maybe a little too much so, but we are enjoying our weekly social dance classes, and our first couple of dog training classes have been fun as well. We definitely need to re-claim Saturdays - our only full day off, and they've been booked pretty solid for a few weeks, which means we really aren't accomplishing a whole lot around the house, including cleaning, and that gets depressing after a while :(

However, Geoff has been squeezing in some reno work, and I must say the shiny floors AND shiny woodwork in the front room are BEAUTIFUL (which helps balance out the sadness of living in a dusty house). The nursery floor is done, too, and the walls were painted last night. Hopefully trimwork will be done sometime this weekend and we can actually set up the room for good!

Side note: look at me - once I start writing about nothing, I just keep going...

One little reminder - this adoption process takes a while! We've just accepted from the beginning that this will involve a LOT of time, and will be somewhat unpredictable, and that is ok (for now, at least, it still is). There will not be any specific news for us while we wait for a referral. That may take a couple of months, or a lot of months (as I've mentioned previously), and we will most certainly let people know as soon as there's news! (In the meantime, I will keep posting here about any general Ghana program news & updates that I can share). And...once we have a referral, we do not travel immediately. In fact, the time waiting for a referral is likely to be MUCH shorter than the time waiting to travel once we have a referral. Once we accept the referral, we wait for the court approval and we wait for immigration paperwork and visas before we can go meet our children. This will likely mean a number of months, again, in which there will also be very few updates. Sorry to keep you waiting - but be assured, we'll keep you posted, and no matter how much we are asked to talk about it & answer questions, things will not happen any faster! But feel free to kill some time in my gardens, or dusting my house - makes the time pass productively at least :)

Ok then, enough of my "just because" posting. Gotta get organized & on my way - it is dance night, after all!