Videos

THREE POSTS TODAY

I have listed a few videos that I found on youtube.com showing pictures of the country of Vietnam. So if you have the time and are interested take a gander. The scenery is gorgeous.


This short movie introduces to you the country with various sightseeing and people. Vietnam is beautiful and peaceful. People are hospitality.


South Vietnam: Saigon (aka: Ho Chi Minh City) and the Mekong Delta


Central Vietnam


North Vietnam: Ha Long Bay; The Ancient Palace; Pagoda and Hanoi City

Tests

As you can see on the time line I FINALLY finished the Parenting Tests. I had to wait a week to see if I passed the last module or not. It took me all night to get through this last one. Have I mentioned how ridiculous I think these DVD's are? I can't believe the hoops prospective adoptive parents must jump through. I don't know if it's just international or if it is domestic as well, but I think it's crazy. Why do adoptive parents have to prove they can parent when Family A can get pregnant and have a baby with no one scrutinizing every move they make?

The two ladies that present on the DVD's are annoying to me. I can't stand the way one lady presents, so it makes it difficult for me to concentrate during her segments. Nails on a chalkboard comes to mind. Unfortunately she has the longest segments. ARG!! The other lady isn't really all that bad. I just wish she presented the longer segments however, I might find her equally as annoying. I did find out that these ladies live in Lee's Summit, MO which I didn't know until last week. Maybe I have seen/heard them some where and that is why they annoy me.

I passed with flying colors. I don't like essay type tests and this last module was like that, so that is why it took me FOREVER to finish it. Now that I have passed I don't EVER have to listen to them again. Small favors!

Weekly Quip

I saw this cartoon on another blog and thought it humorous, so I wanted to post it as well. I hope it doesn't offend anyone.

OOPS!!

I know I said that this blog was going to me more about me and maybe ALL about me with a little bit of adoption stuff thrown in. ; ) However, I failed to list Tim's accomplishments from the race on Saturday and I feel that I should have. He placed 5th overall, 5th in men and 2nd in his age group. His trophy looks just like mine (snicker!). The guy who placed 1st in his age group looked more like 47 than 27, but what can you do. Tim's trophy would have still looked just like mine had he gotten 1st in his age group (double snicker!). It's no big deal to him for winning anything since he seems to win something practically every race and since I don't I was focused just on me, of course. After all, it is ALL about me. : )

Sleeping in the Ceiling

THERE ARE TWO POSTS TODAY

This past weekend I finally decided to break down and buy a new mattress & box springs. I've only been sleeping on the same one since 1991. It WAS time. As you can see I'm now practically sleeping in the ceiling, or so it seems. The mattress now comes right up to the top of the footboard rail (not the posts) and this is already a tall bed. The old mattress only came up to where the seam is in on the side of the bedspread. I'd say a good six inches shorter than it is now. WOW!! See the stairs in the bottom right of the pic? If ONLY they would hold more than 70 pounds I wouldn't have to run and jump into my bed as if I was competing in the high jump at the Olympics. Tramp is even hesitant getting up and down using HIS stairs since it is still probably 12 inches above the top step. Even Audrey has a hard time. Despite the nose bleeds I've been getting (JK!) the mattress is quite comfy. Unfortunately I haven't slept all the way through the night on it, but last night was the best of three nights. I swear this mattress holds in heat or maybe since heat rises and I'm WAY up there I'm just sleeping in a warmer climate. ; ) Even with the ceiling fan on high it's still warm. Of course, I'm scared to get up in the middle of the night fearing that I may decapitate myself with the ceiling fan. It does however, give a new meaning to "rolling out of bed." I honestly roll out and I'm in a standing position. Tim hasn't seen it yet, but he laughs hard and outloud (his phrase) when I tell him about it. He gets back from Lincoln, NE tonight, so he'll get to participate in the high jump games as well.

I think I can hear the wheels turning in some of your heads. DOGS ON THE BED!! Yes, I let the dogs on the bed. I "co-sleep" with them. That's a parenting term that has been tossed around quite often lately. It works for me, the dogs and Tim unless we are all in the same bed. That gets a little cozy in a queen sized bed. The dogs a pretty respectful when both the two-legged people are in the bed. They will usually sleep on the floor until early morning and then jump up. Tramp has taken to cuddling with me. He likes to get under the covers and sleep as close as possible. Nothing like spooning with your dog. LOL! When he gets hot he'll pull his body out from under the covers, but some part of his body MUST be touching me. Last night it was one of his legs. He kept stretching it out to make sure he was still touching me.

Art

Art is subjective. I bought a painting this past weekend that some might scratch their heads at, but again, Art is subjective. At the Zoo Run they have art displayed that is done by the animals. They had Christmas balls painted by Rhino's and Orangutan's, Elephant dung that has been shaped into whatever and then painted (yuck!), paintings that the Elephant's did of their foot prints (which look like HUGE butt prints to me) and paintings done by my favorite wild animal, the Orangutan. You see where this is going? Yes, I bought a painting done by Jill The Orangutan.

Tim laughed and said people would ask which kid did that. I liked it, so I bought it. I didn't buy one the last two years and I wanted to, so this year I made sure I would walk away with a painting. I think Jill did a very good job! See, I knew some of you would scratch your heads and wonder WHY, but I can't resist an Orangutan. In fact, I have four stuffed orangutans at home one of them being King Louie from The Jungle Book. Who couldn't love a face like this. I just want to hug and kiss on her.This is not Jill, but I just LOVE this picture! Yes, some orangutan's aren't all that good looking when they grow up, but boy are they cute when they are little tikes.

If you would like to learn more please visit Orangutan Foundation, Orangutan Conservatory, Wikipedia Definition or click on the word Orangutan above the painting.

Some Pics

TWO POSTS TODAY

It was suggested that I stop trying to make people go blind and increase my font size. Let me know what you think.


I also thought I would share some photos of the kids since I haven't really mentioned them much or maybe at all. They are of the four-legged variety, by the way.


This is Audrey "The Lake Rat" standing in her favorite spot on the dock.This is Tramp "Mr. Tolerant" actually NOT giving me the "Not ANOTHER picture!" look.Aren't they cute?! Audrey is 3 years old and Tramp is 11 years old. You'd never know Tramp is 11. I think Audrey keeps him young. She's a fur-ball of energy.

Too Cool!!!

I ran a 4 mile race on Saturday at the Kansas City Zoo. For the last four years the Zoo Run has sponsored a different animal (Rhino, Cheetah, Elephant) and this year the animal was my favorite wild animal, The Orangutan. The top three overall winners and the top three winners in each age group win a plexi-glass trophy in the shape of the animal. This year I REALLY wanted one and if I didn't get one I was definitely going to steal Tim's since he's one won the last two years and possibly the first year, but he probably didn't stick around for the awards and they didn't send it to him. WELL, I bet you can tell where this is going.....I GOT THIRD IN MY AGE GROUP (out of 76)!!! I had my fastest 4 mile run, not counting the local downhill 4 mile race (I was told that one doesn't count). 33 minutes and 9 seconds was my finishing time. I actually placed 33rd out of 584 females and 159th out of 936 total runners. I don't know what got into me, but I must have wanted that trophy pretty badly. There must be something to warming up since I ran 3 miles before the race. I'm going to have to start doing that and see if it really helps or if it was a fluke or maybe I just need to get injured more since the ankle didn't seem to bother me either. ; ) This is kind of a bad picture of my trophy. The orangutan is hanging from a tree.

Here is the actual logo which may give you a better idea of what the trophy looks like.

First Order of Business

THREE POSTS TODAY

I've moved the Time Line To Date over to the left side of this page with the most current info listed first. Hopefully this will be easier for everyone to follow and you won't have to scroll through the whole list.

I have decided that since the Chiefs OBVIOUSLY aren't going to do well this year that I will NOT depress those that are "fans" and list the teams destruction by others. Really, is there anything more depressing that being 12 point underdogs to another team with the same record? OK, there has ONLY been one game this season, but how can we be 12 point underdogs already?

As you will read in a later post, this blog will be more about me than Baby N. ME, ME, ME, ME, ME! It's ALL about ME! : )

On to ME ; ).....OK, so I've managed another injury. Difference - not self inflicted this time. I suppose the last one wasn't REALLY self inflicted either, but I can't blame anyone else except me for slipping on the dock. I subbed on my brother's volleyball team last night and he landed his big over sized body right on my ankle with his knee!! Thankfully we were in sand otherwise it would definitely be broken. I'm, of course, bruised an swollen. The test will be tomorrow when I run a 4 mile race. If I hadn't already decided that Marine Corps Marathon was just going to be another marathon and I wasn't going to go for time, I think I would have to now. Obviously, something out there is telling me something. I don't think I've been injured this much my entire life. On a positive note...I've played volleyball twice this week!! I've been saying all summer how much I miss it and all of a sudden I'm being asked to sub. YEA! I haven't played since Oct 2003. I gave it up to concentrate on marathons and triathlons. I just COULDN'T do it ALL. Hard to believe I know. A woman admitting she can't do it all. After this past month, and this week, I may decide to hang up my hat, temporarily, on marathons to do triathlons and go back to playing volleyball. Did I mention how much I REALLY REALLY MISS IT?

Baby Sign and Sign

This past Monday I went to another Parent Education Meeting. Baby Sing & Sing. It was very interesting and entertaining. The lady that presented was fun. She strummed on her guitar and sang to us and had us sing with her. I felt a little dorky, but I suppose it won't be the last time nor was it the first. I will definitely use this when Baby N gets here and continue on with the Toddler edition. Please click on the link above to visit Ann Miller's site and read more about Sing & Sign. I have also posted the link under LINKS THAT I VISIT. If you go to the bottom of this page you can see a few signs that they use. Here is this months sign:

STOP

I feel this is a great tool for kids who don't yet know how to talk or maybe express themselves quite fully yet. The key is to speak the word that you are signing at the same time you are signing, so they will know what it means when all put together. The books come with CD's of silly songs that you can sign along to and play with your kids. The books are available on the website (via Amazon.com) and wherever books are sold.

Depressing News

I found out Sept 6th that the wait time has been increased to 18-24 months for a referral. Since I'm only 2½ months into the wait period this DOES effect me. Since I'm 2½ months in, my wait will actually be 15½-21½ from now plus my 4-6 month wait to travel. Worst case scenario is a referral around the end of June 2009 and travel around the end of 2009. Best case scenario is a referral around the end of December 2008 and travel around the end of April 2009. SUCKS!!!!! I spoke with my case worker this week about switching countries and what my options in Vietnam were. Basically, I have no options in Vietnam except to accept a waiting child/special needs. That means that I am willing to accept a Hepatitis-B+ or C+ child. I have talked to some people regarding Hep-B, but I want to talk to more and a doctor who has extensive knowledge. Right now, with what I know, I am leaning towards getting on the WC/SN list, but I could change my mind. I was considering switching to Kazakhstan, but the more I learned to more I knew it wasn't for me. One of the draw backs is that you receive a blind referral. This means all the country tells you is that you have a child and that is it. No picture, no medical history, no nothing. You travel to this country knowing nothing then you meet your child, spend time with him/her in the orphanage and then come home WITHOUT your child. That is the second draw back. In about a month I would go back to pick up my child. I just don't think I could do that. If I definitely decide to be put on the WC/SN list it still doesn't guarantee that I will move up too much faster, but it will be faster than staying where I am. I'm #93 and we have had NO healthy referrals in the month of September. No one really knows why this is happening which is incomprehensible to me. I would think the staff in Vietnam would have SOME clue as to WHY we aren't receiving children to place for adoption.

There was a big stink this week on my chat group about another agency getting 42 referrals of healthy babies this month. CHI says that is unheard of since there aren't that many babies in a single orphanage. So, the conversation went on about ethical practices v. unethical practices and that Vietnam and the US knows it is happening, but they can't 100% prove it and if they could it might effect adoptions across the board. Now, I think that if ANYONE can prove that a particular agency is participating in unethical adoption that THAT agency should be kicked out of the program NEVER to be allowed in again and that their referrals be given to the other agencies. ONLY IN A PERFECT WORLD. CHI is currently trying to convince two additional Provinces in Vietnam to participate in international adoption which would yield about 10 more babies a year. I hope that they can close that deal SOON! Apparently there are several Provinces in Vietnam that do not take part in international adoption and it is up to the US agencies and the Vietnam government to convince them that it is in the orphanage and the children's best interest to "jump on the band wagon" so to speak.

Anyhoo...That is my horrible news of the week.

A Game

OK, I was tagged by my cousin's wife and I have NO bloggers to tag.

You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

D = Depressed about the extension to my wait time for Baby N
A = Adopting a baby from Vietnam
W = Waiting ever so IMPATIENTLY for Baby N
N = Nervous about my performance at my next marathon

Okay, there you have all my lameness. I'm so sorry, but here is who I'm hitting up. They are a blogless bunch, so they'll be going the email route, hopefully. ; )

Barbara
Jennifer
Julie
Michelle

Update

THERE ARE THREE POSTS TODAY

Well, my local CHI branch, maybe all of them, do not feel that they should give out a family's place "in line" anymore, therefore I cannot ask where I am on the list. I did manage to get my current place out of my case worker, so I'm going to have to try to keep up with my place. I am now #93 on the either/preference boy 0-24 months (counting the update from 8/31/07) and #125 on the either/preference girl 0-24 months. I'm hoping that CHI gets more healthy infant children SOON. They only had 1 in the month of July and 3 in August. It doesn't look too encouraging at this point. They've had 5 children with some degree of a special need in those two months as well, so they just haven't been getting many children in general. Although, typically there are more healthy than special needs not just about equal.

I've been told that there are families that could jump ahead of me for a few reasons. 1) They've asked for 0-24 months (Iasked for 0-12) and a child that is 13-24 months becomes available 2) They are a family that has one or both of the adoptive parents from Vietnamese decent 3) They are an expedited family.

#1 I think is pretty self explanatory. #2 simply means that the family is of direct, first or beyond generation Vietnamese. The VN government does put a preference on those families. #3 is really for families that have a referral and in the "waiting" months something has happened (possible death of the child) then they are pushed to the front for the next available referral.

FYI

1) In a two-part episode of PBSKids Arthur, Binky’s family will adopt a baby girl from China. Binky receives this news with anticipation, and delights in helping prepare for her arrival and visiting China. Growing through his worries about life changes and, more importantly, whether his new sister will even like him—Binky becomes the proudest big brother in Elwood City. The Arthur pre-production and writing teams conducted extensive research and interviews with adoptive families to create the special episodes. “We hope the millions of families touched by adoption in this country, and around the world, will find familiarity and accuracy in our portrayal of the experience of these characters,” says Executive Producer Pierre Valette. “Big Brother Binky” will premiere Friday, September 7; visit www.pbskidsgo.org/arthur for local listings and encore presentations. Further resource: Adoptive Families.com describes “Big Brother Binky” in detail and gives background on Arthur's previous connection with adoption.

2) This great article on Vietnam travel published inTravel and Leisure Magazine in March 2007. As a world traveler who calls Hanoi, Vietnam her second home, fiction writer Dana Sachs brings the country to life for prospective parents through Vietnam adoption in her article "Vietnam Now". Whether you'd like to experience french fries Vietnam-style, or visit local islands and alternate cities, Vietnam can be a welcome surprise and a lasting memory for those that visit. Experience your trip like a local and learn about the following terms and locations you may experience in your Vietnamese travels while completing your family.

This 'n That

If you haven't noticed I put some links to the Love and Logic and Play Therapy websites under LINKS THAT I VISIT. These are some of the Parent Education Meetings that I have been attending. On the 10th I will be going to another titled Baby Sing & Sign. I'm looking forward to that one. I hear good things about using sign with kids. I will more than likely add more LINKS as the time passes.

If you're wondering, probably not, the Parenting Tests that I have to take are part of my required "classwork". They account for 10 hours of education. Heart of the Matter Seminars is who gives them. I watch the DVD's and then take an online test. Everyone must get 80% or better on the tests. The DVD's are OK, but one of the presenters voice is VERY annoying. I'm also required to go to four on CHI's Parent Education Meetings. I've covered that requirement however, there are several topics that are interesting and I will probably attend those as well. I think I'm required to take a parenting class through a local hospital or something like that, but I'm going to check on that for sure.

I've been running on the leg with no issues. I managed 16 miles at one time and it felt like a normal 16 miles. I know, I know, a "normal" 16 miles sounds ridiculous, but it felt pretty good. I'm scheduled for 20 or 22 miles this coming Saturday. I'm feeling a little more confident in being able to run 26.2 miles. I may not set a personal record, but at least I will finish.

This past weekend was Labor Day. Tim and I went to the lake. It was a full house. My brother, his wife and their three kids, my cousin, his wife and their two kids, my parents, 4 dogs plus Tim and I. Good thing there is enough room at the house. Tim and I came back early and ran on Monday morning. There was a race, but we chose not to do it. We did run to the race, 6½ miles one way, and Tim ran home then picked me up. OK, I was being lazy and didn't want to run all the hills back, I had enough of them getting to the race.