Big Changes are Here for the New Year!

I know that in the past couple of posts I have not really been focused on my adoption but just how life has been for me in general. First I would like to thank Jane for keeping a secret for a couple of weeks now. Jane you have no idea how much that has meant to me. I would like to also that Dede and Rob for having the courage to change agency when they did because without there change I do not think I would have given it an extra thought. I would like to thank Susan and Randy for being so positive with their change in agencies as well. By reading Susan's posts it made me think of the financial ramifications that I could have had to endure if I decided not to change when I did. I have made the decision to change agencies. This decision was made a number of weeks ago mostly due to the lack of accreditation of CHI at the time of my switch.

First let me say that I feel CHI was and has been very professional with my adoption. I have only been treated fairly and courteously throughout this whole process. I do believe that this agency tries to look out for the best interest of their clients. I am sad to be leaving CHI but I am happy to know that my adoption is moving forward.

This move to Adoption Associates has been in the works for a number of weeks and I wanted to make sure that I was comfortable with the move prior to making this decision public. I hope to be finished with my Dossier sometime in January. I prayed over this switch for many days before I made the final decision. I know that I was guided to this agency for the right reason. I have to say that since the switch my anxiety level has decreased significantly. I am now able to be more at peace with my decision and enjoy the adoption process more.

I would like to congratulate CHI on their recent accreditation and the families that are stilled signed with this agency. I wish you all the best and pray for God's speed in sending referrals to the waiting families. I need to officially break this tie with CHI so that this agency can focus all of their efforts on these waiting families.

Rachel and Troy & Becky and Keith, I can not wait to see that you have gotten the call. I can not wait to read all about your adventures to become a family.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! I never thought that I would be as blessed as I am to have friends that understand the things that I am going through with this adoption. To all of the Blogs that I read daily and have not mentioned in this post please know that I am praying for you and children (future children) daily. You all have been a source of strength for me.

God Bless you all.
Joy

Wow the Holidays went Fast!

This year the holidays seemed to consume more of my time then usual. Work has been extra busy so I picked up a little extra time. I worked the Christmas Eve as the on-call person. I was extremely lucky to have that position this year. My friend who does the schedule thought I was doing her a favor and really I feel like she did me the favor. I am lucky to work with a group of women who are able to work through difficult things without sacrificing another’s happiness. Because I work in an area of nursing that requires us to work over all the holidays sometimes it is very difficult to fit work in and be able to visit with family and friends. Lynn my hat is off to you because you make it work every year.

I was able to make it to see all our family members unfortunately Gerard was not. I feel like he gets cheated every year because unlike me he has to work unless it is his regular scheduled day off. Sunday we went to his sister's house and had a great time. Although we did get suck in about 3 hours worth of traffic that made the trip about 4 1/2 hours long when it usually that's us about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This is where we exchanged gifts and you guessed it Gerard's mother got a GPS. We all tortured her since Thanksgiving that she was not getting nor needed a GPS. Honestly, I am glad she got it because they do take quite a few road trips to here, there and everywhere (Ah to be retired).

AM (That is Ann-Marie's nickname) got a digital picture frame and all the attachments for it. I wanted to give her something that I knew she would like and want. Along with this gift I spent 10 hours at Wal-Mart scanning old photographs of Gerard and me onto a CD for her. Gerard hated the idea but I loved it. Now AM has a bunch of pictures of him. I also scanned every old picture of my family and had them put onto CD for each of my sisters. The grand total for each CD with 200+ pictures was $2.47 but the memories were priceless.

On Christmas morning I opened gifts with Gerard when he got home from work and boy was Santa good to me. Then I proceeded to my sister’s house we all go there because Aristotle is still so little and she is 8 1/2 months pregnant. My Mother and Jackie's in-laws were staying over at her house for Christmas morning. Well the funny thing that happened was when Aristotle woke up he came down the stairs all excited and started asking "Is Aunt Joy here?" not "Did Santa come?" They have it on video and apparently it is really funny.

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy holiday. I am not sure exactly what next year will bring but I know in my heart that good things will happen. My family is growing in many ways I will soon be an Aunt for the eighth time and I am still very excited. When Aristotle was born we were all afraid that there was going to be such a large gap in the ages of the cousins but now my baby will fit right in between Aristotle and the new little guy and nothing makes me happier.

P.S. I would have posted sooner but I have been having a problem with my Internet connection.

I am the Ultimate Winner of Hide and Seek!

The Queen of Hide and Seek!

December the 18, 2007 was the day that I needed to have my fingerprints done for the USCIS. Let me paint the picture for you. The day was clear and sunny but a little cold. I woke up in plenty of time to get ready and take a self portrait before I left for Philadelphia. I live on the Jersey shore and the drive to Philadelphia from where I live is mostly done on rural roads. So I set out with a full tank of gas and a diet Pepsi.

The drive was mostly uneventful thanks to Map Quest. I have driven to Philadelphia a number of times and still manage to get lost in the city every time. I hit a little traffic and I started to worry that I was not going to be able to find parking. See the big joke is that I can not parallel park so I always use a lot.

I was about 30 minutes early for my appointment so I am thinking I have plenty of time to park and run so that I am not late. I turn down the street where the building was and what do my wandering eyes see but a beautiful parking lot across the street. I do a happy dance in my car. The man takes my keys parks the car and I head off to the building. I am thinking as I walk up this is too easy.

I get to the door and give it a yank and nearly throw out my shoulder because it is LOCKED! I start to panic and yes cry. This is probably the most amazing part for me because one of the causalities of being a nurse is that you have to suppress so much of those types of feelings just to make it through the day and work has been really ugly lately. I know I must have been a mess because Gerard who was in New Jersey even sounded worried and he never worries about things like this. He usually worries about things like “Why do my socks not match or is there enough cake for me to have a third slice?”

I ask a man on the street and he confirms that the address is correct but tells me they probably moved to one of the surrounding buildings. I walk completely around the building and find nothing. No forwarding addresses or telephone number. I find a Philadelphia police officer who was extremely nice and told me that if I get an address he will get me the directions (Big thanks to the men in blue you are all heroes). I walk into an adjacent building and the doorman hands me a paper that states the office moved to about 20 minutes away.

Dashing to my car with my cell phone in my hand I call Gerard (this is where the singing stops) thank god he knows how to get me home from everywhere and to anywhere. Gerard is my personal GPS. I go over the directions with him as I am driving and crying. I do finally get to where I need to be and I am 30 minutes late but they take me anyway. So the fingerprinting is done!

Gerard is funny most of the time about situations like these. He said "This was like a big game of hide and seek and you won. Don't they know nothing is going to come between you and your baby? They sure did mess with the wrong woman. You hunted them down like a blood hound. That's my Bozzie!"

The Tree is Up.

I have broken down and put up the tree. I love my Christmas tree. I remember when I first started collecting Christmas tree ornaments I was about 16 years old. I love to collect ones that speak to me or that have a meaning behind them. We have a bunch of Hallmark ornaments but this year the time is going so fast. I will only be able to put up one tree this year. Usually like Susan I have more then one tree.

Over the years I have sent out many Christmas cards and this year I am so behind. I have always sent them out signed Love Joy, Gerard and Dottie too. Well it occurred to me that some of these people have never met Dottie. They could be thinking she is a cat or a ferret or a bunny. I pray next year that I will be sending out Christmas cards with a new little one on it but somehow I think Dottie has been cheated so this year she will be featured on my Christmas card.



On adoption news I so glad that a number of families have either gotten a referral or will be traveling soon. I can barely sit still in excitement for them. This time next week I will have completed the fingerprints for the I-600 so that is moving right along and life is great. As soon as I get the I-171 I will be able to send my Dossier to Russia.

Picking Stuff for the Nursery is Harder Then I Thought

I know that I am a little premature thinking that I need to get the nursery together but who cares I love looking. I thought I would be able to easily just decide what I wanted to put in the nursery but I am having a hard time with the room that I have chosen for the little one.

My house is small and the room that I chose is the closest one to mine the other room is not a good choice because of its location in the house even though I like it better because it is bigger. I really think it is just because I am use to using the other room because it is my office. Who and I kidding the office will be gone because that will turn into the guest room because we have to have someone stay the night when we work. I really just do not like the smaller room. Maybe now that I have said it I will just be able to move on and make my list of things I need.

Here is my real shopping dilemma for today. I was looking on Overstock.com a couple of weeks ago and I found a crib set that was about 150.00 dollars that had frogs on it. I knew I should have brought it immediately but I did not. Now it is gone not meant to be I guess. Now I found a different one that is 4 pieces for 59.00 that has fish on it that I love. My only problem is that I think the green is a little too Lime green for what I am looking for so I guess the search continues.

Next problem is a white crib or a honey oak colored crib?

P.S Susan if you are reading this they had a really cute crib set with planes on it. Check it out.

I got my Christmas Present Today

Well I know that I already posted once today but as luck would have it the mailman still comes to my house. Today I got my invitation to be fingerprinted by the Department of Homeland Security. On December 18, 2007 I will be at the Philadelphia office to be fingerprinted.

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. It just seems like I have spent years waiting to be a mother and now the process is flying by. I have so many things that need to be finished before Little Bean comes home and I hope to get at least half of them done.

On a different topic and a bit of advice for others. I know that I am behind the times when it comes to technology. In the last couple of years I have not checked off the box for a CD of my pictures. What a fool I am. So yesterday I spent 4 hours at Wal-Mart scanning pictures on to one of those machines and I got a CD made for $2.47. This Christmas I am not planning on spending large amounts of money but giving things that are more meaningful instead. My sister Jenny and I went to Europe a couple of years ago and we never really did anything with the pictures. I burned all these pictures onto a CD and that will be her present this year. I hope she loves it.

Here are some of the pictures from that trip in May of 2002.

Some of my favorite quotes from this trip were:

"There is some bus involvement" Really there were days that we were on the bus for 8 hours
"Tower made of steel now lets go" Jenny hates heights but she made up the Eiffel tower anyway
The first chocolate cake was made in Austria Jenny's response "Now I see why they made a second"

I look bake now and see that this trip although trying at time was a wonderful experience for both of us.

Trial Run In Siberia

Christmas time is more then just buying presents for me. I know you are all saying but all you have talked about so far is what you have brought for Christmas. This past weekend I spent the day with a wonderful little man named Ricky. He is my cousin's son. My Aunt Cassie thought it would be nice to take him to the parade on LBI to start the Christmas season.

On LBI it was particularly cold on Saturday because of the western wind. Let me paint the picture for you all. My Mother, Aunt Cassie, Ricky and I set out to see the parade and drink hot coco. The funny thing is I usually do not wear a coat except when I am going to be outside for long periods of time. Saturday I decided this would be an interesting trail run for Siberia like weather with the wind chill it was well below zero (at least in my mind). We stood out there and watched the parade there were lots of antique fire trucks and cars. There were floats and marching bands in all it was a very nice parade of about 2.5 hours.

We really had a great time I got lots of nice pictures of Ricky and Santa as well. The funny part is we were frozen by the end of the parade. We had to cross the street to the car and I told Ricky run and the poor little man told me but my feet are asleep also know as frost nip. He was so good not one complaint out of him about the cold or the standing and this reminded me of one of the reasons why I want to be a mother. We had so much fun just anticipating the parade and the hot coco that it was worth the frozen feet. I love the Christmas Season.

P.S. Yes I did buy something for Little Bean while I was there. I love children's books so I got part one and two of A Gull's Story By Frank Finale both signed by the author. Part one is an ABC book and Part two is a 123 book about the Jersey Shore.