GO!

SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2007 10:35 PM, CST

What a day! First the good parts. What a send off we had at the train station! We were so touched to see so many people turn out to send us off. We’re so fortunate to have such wonderful caring friends. You really touched our hearts & made a very difficult day end with sunshine. Thank you! Now for the hard part. Saying good-bye to the boys was just as bad as we thought it was going to be. Last night we did pretty well until bedtime prayers. Ethan was praying about our trip & I made the mistake of looking at Jason, who had the waterworks already going. From there we were a pile of tears & hugs. Gavin wasn’t sure what was going on so he started fake crying just to join in. That started Jason & I laughing. The boys went to bed fairly well after a lot of hugs & kisses. By far the worst part was this morning. I made it as far as the driveway before I started crying. Jason made it to Good Hope (about 6 miles). Somehow we made it to Cedar Rapids IA in one piece. The boys went happily with Grammy, Papa, & Jenny; Jason & I tearfully started home. It was such an emotionally exhausting day. We’re bone tired tonight. I hope we won’t have any trouble falling asleep. Tomorrow we leave for O’Hare around 10 for our 12:40pm flight to Seoul. We were informed late last night that our G&R, which was scheduled for 3.14 has now been postponed to either 3.16 or 3.19. Our agency was scrambling to find out what the hold up was but as of tonight we still don’t know. I think a lot of it is due to the “All American’s are Rich” theory. I don’t think the VN officials understand what all is involved in travel prep so they think its nothing for us to reschedule flights & stay longer in hotels. We’re very disappointed but we’re trying to think of it as another opportunity to explore VN & be really comfortable with our surroundings before we get Tova. We hope the G&R delay won’t delay our return more than a day or two but we’ll have to see. I hope we’ll know more in the morning before we leave. Please pray that our dates fall into place & especially that we will have patience while we enter the final phase of our adoption. Kristen ps-Flat Stanley has its own website at www.flatstanleyproject.com

Packing

FRIDAY, MARCH 09, 2007 03:54 PM, CST

Today’s goal was to pack up the boys suitcases. I have everything washed & somewhat organized. I was just going to pull out their jammies & clothes for tomorrow & pack the rest. I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t commit. If I pack their bags, they actually have to go. I knew this was going to be really hard, but I didn’t really think I would cry at the thought of packing their suitcases. I guess that now leaves more work for tonight. Oh well, I’m better under pressure anyway. We were asked to take our nephew along on our trip. We decided to do it since he’ll fit in our carry-on. Dusty’s class is doing Flat Stanley & Flat Dusty is going to have the best trip! We’re excited to introduce Dusty’s class & both of Ethan’s classes to Vietnam. Dusty was excited that ‘he’ was going to go on a plane. If only Flat Dusty knew how long he was going to be on said plane, he may not be so excited! Kristen

Yikes!

THURSDAY, MARCH 08, 2007 01:12 PM, CST

YIKES!!! Today is Thursday! Only 2 more packing days until we leave! We’ve been asked a lot if we’re excited & I would say yes, but that is definitely not the first emotion we’re experienceing. I’d say mostly we’re filled with dread about leaving the boys. We’re also nervous & anxious about the flights & being in a foreign country for so long. We’re worried about how the boys will handle the separation & we’re worried about how Tova will handle her major transition. We keep reminding ourselves that Tova is not waiting for us to come get her. Life in an orphanage may not be great but it is what she knows & where she’s comfortable. She has nannies that love & care for her, certainly not like we will, but they do their best. She’s fed & changed, maybe not when she would like it done, but it gets done. As far as she knows, this is life. To remove her from all that is familiar & comfortable will be quite a shock. It will take her awhile to trust us & to bond with us. I found a really good illustration of what the initial transition must be like. I’ll try to post it here soon. So yes, we are excited, but that emotion doesn’t surface as often as the others. I think we’ll feel more excited on Sunday afternoon when we’re on our way to Seoul. Kristen

Where Did the Time Go?

TUESDAY, MARCH 06, 2007 09:48 PM, CST

It’s Tuesday night already! This week is going by way too fast! It feels like we haven’t even started to prepare. I have 3 suitcases open, 2 for us & 1 for the boys. Currently there’s not much in them. I have to do laundry at some point so I can start to fill them. That’s my biggest hurdle, laundry. I bought some books today for Jason & I for the plane. Looking at them now it doesn’t seem to be very up-lifting reading. One is on the Lost Boys of Africa, one is about the Holocaust, & the other is a novel on 2 friends in Afghanistan. All of them came highly recommended though. I also have “What Will Happen in Harry Potter #7″ which I cannot wait to read. When Becky sent it I had to bury it in the suitcase so I wouldn’t read it right away. I’m hoping to have Tova’s carseat installed tomorrow & really start the packing process. Wish me luck! Kristen

Set,

MONDAY, MARCH 05, 2007 12:18 PM, CST

It’s finally official! Our G&R is 3.14.07. We hope to have our flights booked today. I’ll post our final itinerary when we get it. This is Ethan’s last week at Lincoln School until April. This is his teacher’s first day back from maternity leave so I hope he goes easy on her. I met with his principal & we’re going to un-enroll Ethan & re-enroll him when we get back. That way he won’t have a big absence on his record. His absence isn’t that big of a deal but we don’t want it to become a big deal later on. It’s hard to believe that next week at this time we’ll be waiting in Seoul for our connection to Hanoi. Kristen

Ready,

FRIDAY, MARCH 02, 2007 09:57 PM, CST

We’re almost on our way! Still no confirmed G&R but we were told yesterday to apply for our Visa’s. We hope to have them back from San Francisco early next week. We have 2 tickets on Korean Air reserved for our trip. It’s looking like we will drop the boys off with my parents on 3.10 in City of Stupid Slogan (CSS). Then we will head back to Rural City where we will finish our last minute prep (or take a nap) & catch a train to Chicago. We’ll stay overnight in Chicago & catch our plane to Seoul on Sunday around 1pm. We’ll eventually arrive in Hanoi on Monday night around 11pm. We are still looking at 3.14 for our G&R so that will give us a day to get settled in. No ideas yet on our return. We’re planning for about 2.5 weeks. It may take 3 but the last travel group was gone 20 days & 5 of those the gov’t was closed for Tet. We’ll see what happens. I wish I could say that I’m mentally preparing for 3 weeks but I’m not. I hope we’re not too disappointed if our trip does last that long. We’re excited to explore Tova’s birth country but we’ll be missing the boys something fierce. We’ll hopefully be sending out a mass email soon with our confirmed dates & travel plans. Kristen

So Close Yet So Far

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2007 07:48 PM, CST

We might have a date! Yesterday our caseworker said our G&R is tentatively scheduled for 3.14. We were hoping to have a confirmed date today but it didn’t happen. We’re thinking that we will fly out on 3.10 or 3.11. No ideas about return date. We were pretty excited yesterday until we realized we still can’t make any plans. Today was hard. We had thought we’d hear a confirmation tonight at our regularly scheduled phone check-in, but instead we got an email canceling the appointment. It’s definitely a ‘chocolate makes it all better’ night tonight. I think after church Jason’s going to pick up some Hershey’s to pour on our fudge. Here’s to hoping chocolate will cure all that ails us tonight. Kristen

Tova’s First Video

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2007 04:49 PM, CST

Still nothing on travel dates. Today on our agency director’s blog is a short video of what might be Tova’s orphange. Can you spot her? I think I can, but I’m not positive. Even if it’s not her, it’s neat to see that style of orphanage. A couple of the babies are wearing the orange sweater so we assume it’s her orphanage. The blog is at www.adoptionbuzz.org Kristen

Madness

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2007 04:19 PM, CST

No News is NOT Good News Have you ever seen anybody slowly descend into madness? Come on over & watch the show! It’s ironic that as we slowly descend, air fares go up, up, up! As you might have guessed, we still have no travel dates. When will we get them? I have no idea. I hope every time the phone rings, it’s our caseworker calling with something, anything – a wild guess, a rumor, anything. At this point we’re not picky. But when the phone does ring, it’s usually just my sister Becky. She’s fine for a chat, but it’s a thinly veiled disguise, she just wants info too Ethan has been a real treat lately. He had been reserving his sass-mouth for home, but he brought it out last week at school, resulting in a note home. Not one of his finer moments. I really think it’s a reaction to all the stress & unknowns at home. He’s a planner & unknowns are not usually his friend. He is excited about going to school in MN but I’m sure the anticipation & anxiety are working on him. I really think he’ll be better once we’re all on our way. Gavin has been fine. It must be great to be 3 & have no concept of time. The cat situation has sort of resolved itself. I took the lid off her box & low & behold, she started using it! I’m sure we’ve tried that in the past, but for whatever reason, she’s made a monumental change. Maybe it was my threat of the one-way trip to the vet… If you have a chance, check out the www.adoptionbuzz.org blog. It has a short video of what a “hospital style” orphange is like. Also I added pictures of the finished rooms to our flickr account. It’s in the links section above. Kristen

Nothing Yet & Cat Pee

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2007 02:25 PM, CST

I broke down last night and emailed our caseworker to see what she knew about travel dates. Mainly I wanted to know if we would be in the first travel group or the second. I haven’t wanted to bug her about it, she’s never been punitive before but I don’t want to give her a reason to start, you know? Anyway, what she said today was that we would be in the first travel group (Yay!) but the dates for G&R are going to be scheduled for the weeks of 3.12 & 3.19 (boo!). My first emotion was relief. Another week to get ready, more time to put our house back together, more time preparing the boys, & more time to decide what to do with the cat (more on her in a minute). Now I’m feeling pretty disappointed. I guess I didn’t realize how set my heart was on having Tova on 3.5. I know it’s just another week but it’s a whole week more! How is it that we can have too much time & not enough time all in the same amount of time? I wanted to also say Thank You to all of our Church family for all the wonderful gifts you gave us last night. Our whole family is truly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful congregation. It means so much to us to know that all of you await Tova’s arrival with the same anticipation that we do. Her new room looks a little like Pepto Bismal exploded in there;-) For all of you cat haters, skip this part. I need some advice on how to deal with our cat. Rudy is 10 & has been peeing on the floor. This has been going on for quite a while but we had been able to contain her mess to her room. Right before we tore up the basement we found that she had been peeing in the back corners of the family room. Our solution was to bury the corners with junk. She then decided to pee in the boys new room. We thankfully discovered that after we had torn up the old carpet & before we put in the new carpet. She was then banished to her room except for when she was in a place where we could keep an eye on her. Here’s the things we’ve done, medication (didn’t make any difference), bought a cat fountain (she drinks more water), & made her room really small (2×3), just enough room for her litter box, bed, fountain, food dish & a cabinet. So where does she pee? IN HER BED!!! What am I supposed to do? Is there anything else to try? I’m thinking it might be time to put her down. I really think it’s a behaviour thing & I was hoping we could retrain her, but she’s proving more than willing to fight me on that. Does anyone have any ideas? I’d like to keep her around but I can’t trust her up in the house. It seems cruel to have a cat just to keep her in her room & take her out when I have time to keep an eye on her. I’d really appreciate any ideas anyone has. That’s all I have for now. I hope we’ll have travel dates the next time you check in. Kristen