Sorry so long...

Well I assume you know that nothing has happened.

We did have a bureaucratic set back: As we were supposed to be registered in January, we received word that Bulgaria was requiring another document to be signed, notarized, notarized, and apostilled. This of course took a month to do and get sent. Being that it was the same document we had already agreed to, signed, notarized, notarized, and apostilled, just in another form, we were not happy.

So, technically, we do not know if we are registered (officially). Waiting to hear back from our agency on that.

In other news:

Lily turned 5 in March.
Mia had tubes put in her ears in March.
Garry has started his own law firm.
I am seeing our associate pastor for grief counseling.

Huh...what else...

Wow, when you list it like that your life looks pretty boring.

OH, Lily is signed up for swim lessons this summer and

...Patton (the dog) just ate a mesh bag with red doll hair..then threw it back up...
no that's not a typo.

Gotta go

Let the games begin...

or the waiting...So now, we wait. By January 27, we will be officially registered and then we just wait...and wait...and wait...

Hopefully I don't have to add another wait to that...

But good news is...we have a name

Lily named her brother Sam (Samuel).

She said it was after Nana's cat, but we won't tell him that. But he has a name. So that's good. We don't just call him "the boy" or "your brother" or "our son".

It's nice to have a name; Well unless your Eugene, or Burchell, or anything along those lines that will get you stuffed into a trash can or toilet as soon as you enter junior high.

In Translation

So our dossier is in the process of translation. I can only imagine how exhausting the ordeal of translating English into Bulgarian is. Wow.

We've been told this could take some time (4-6 weeks) and when it is complete we will be sent off to the Ministry to be registered. Once registered it could be any time. We highly doubt we will receive a referral before this summer. Maybe we will be surprised but I doubt it.

Lily has named her brother. She is calling him by this name. I really like the name, Garry does not. He seems to always find a way to make fun of the name (just as boys will do with all boy names, simply because they are boys) I've told Garry no matter the name we choose, our son's friends will find a way to tease him for his name. There is no 'nickname-proof' name for a guy.

Waiting game begins...

So our dossier was shipped off to Bulgaria 2 weeks ago. We're still waiting to hear if they received it. But while we wait there are plenty of things to do here.

Thanksgiving was ok. Different, but ok. Pop and the Polks were here in Memphis and the kids enjoyed their time playing together. Paige attempted her first turkey and was successful...even if we had no idea what was inside the turkey. The boys played video games or watched football while we cooked up a storm.

The dinner table was hard. If mom were here we would have sat at the table for hours and talked, munching on the food and going back to munch some more. That will be something I miss terribly.

We have the knowledge that nothing will ever be like it was when Momma was here but that knowledge is still head knowledge and not heart. Holidays will be tough. I'm almost ashamed to say that I am dreading Christmas. In one ear I have God telling me I shouldn't dread it and I'm promptly yelling back (in my head, of course) smart remarks like "Well, you shouldn't have taken my momma!"

It's normal, luckily. Of course, I've never been considered totally normal anyway so why should I try to be now.

Lily and Mia have started gymnastics and both enjoy the exercise. I get to "help" assist Mia in her class and she's so funny because she pushes my hands away. "No momma, No," she says. Funny thing.

OH and Lily's favorite saying "Shake your Booty" has become her sister's as well.. Mia says "Sake you OOty" though...

FBI Clearance

Just waiting on the FBI Clearance Letter to come back. It's been 10 weeks. If it's not back next week, they will be getting a call from a friend of Garry's. Ha.

Everything else is sent away to our agency. Oh wait, not the marriage license, but we will send that off tomorrow.

The girls have both been sick with croup and ear infections so we've stayed around the house a bit more than usual. And the time change has throw us all for a loop...9 o'clock rolls around and I can barely keep my eyes open.

So...

Garry went to Nashville today and was able to get almost everything apostilled. We have to go to MS to get the marriage license notarized and apostilled, and we went ahead and sent the almost expired FBI Clearance letters and should have the new ones within a few weeks. We are in agreement that we just want to get everything out of our hands and into our agency's so we can breathe a bit.

Amen to that! Lily has her last soccer game of the season tomorrow with a pizza party after. That should be fun...

Dossier Physical

So Garry and I went for adoption physicals today. Craziness! You have to have the dossier physical form notarized! Here in the South we don't have notaries in all the Doctors offices; only in banks, post-offices, and places of business. So the wonderfully sweet people down at Faith Family Medical called the local bank and they've agreed to send someone to notarize the form for free!! So awesome! Love them!

So that should be ready at some point today. Then all we have to do is get the paperwork notarized, then notarized again by the county, then appostilled. Piece of cake! ; p