Spring Break!

Can you hear the chorus swelling?

I'm on spring break, the weather is sun-shiny, I found a way to make more $$ (although I may go insane before the first check arrives), I'm planning on meeting up with another waiting mom on Monday - Monday will probably bring referrals and I'm next on the LID list! The week before me had a LID of 3/27, so I'm predicting a first week of April LID. Not exactly what I had hoped for, but well ahead of May 1st deadline.

This morning I went out garage sale-ing again. It's becoming a somewhat fun habit - although I could really use a shopping buddy. I've lived here for two and half years and still haven't found someone to hang out with. Or at least, one who isn't going to move. Bygones.
Anyhoo... I found someone selling toddler clothes for 10 cents apiece! They were all Gap, The Children's Store, etc. type clothes! They were all 3/4T, but as a friend said - at those prices, who cares! I bought everything that wasn't ugly or stained.

For the rest of the day, I'm gardening and have to hit the dollar store at some point for household supplies. Want to see the flowers? PhotoBlog!

Adding to the Library

The purchase of the weekend - one of my favorite characters!

Favorite Things

My newest favorite thing is the Google Homepage. It is 'da bomb! Not only can you place hundreds of little gadgets on the page, but you can also create multiple pages! It's a one-stop for all your computer organizing needs.

Currently, my gadgets include "Google Calendar" - which allows me to co-ordinate multiple calendars on one page. I also have both current email address listing messages for quick access; Google Reader, so I can see when all my favorite blogs are updated; the local weather (which is almost always raining... it never changes); News; Recipes; Gardening tips; daily quotes; the dictionary; my favorite web-cam and Sudoku. It also has two countdowns - one if for a referral (nearly 900 days) and one for the next referral batch. I am a little neurotic and I'm starting to wonder if they're making me even more neurotic, sitting and waiting for the day to tick down. Maybe I need to get a Pac-Man gadget to waste some more time.

Pessimist Vs. Optimist

As I am officially waiting now, I generally spend my lunch hour reading posts from various yahoo groups and RQ. You really have to read both to get a balanced view of what is going on. RQ is unquestionably pessimistic about the wait time. According to all of their predictions, I won't be heading for China within this decade, if ever. Heaven forbid that anyone post anything about the matching process speeding up, because within 30 seconds there will at least 20 replies pointing out the errors of that line of thinking.

On the opposite side are the yahoo groups. Every other post describes past speed ups and encourages everyone to be on their toes and trust the agency predictions on wait times. I'm not sure if anyone has ever attempted to post anything negative - I've not really seen one make it to the light of day.

Funny, isn't it? Here's what I think... I don't think anyone really knows. In fact, I question whether anyone in China really knows how long the wait will be. While it's fun to guess... that's all they are.

My agency just reported that those who were DTC in the beginning of Feb. have a LID of 20.3.07. I'm now "guessing" that I'll have a late April LID. Unless there's a speed up.

Changes

I received a letter from the local office of my agency this week. Basically, the head office decided to shut down the local office. Everyone I've had contact with has been "let go." Why? Well, the only reason that was mentioned was cost cutting. Apparently, this cost cutting measure also includes limiting contact, because no one else has so much as dropped an mass email to inform anyone as to what is going on. I'm somewhat put off by this... it's disconcerting. Part of the reason I chose this agency was due to personal contact that I had with the people in the local office. I knew their names and had phone numbers and email addresses. Now, I have nothing but blind email addresses. Well, that's not totally true - I have the yahoo group... but that's not enough. I've never spoken to any of these people. Wouldn't recognize them if I saw them on the street. I've become a file in drawer somewhere.

I guess I should consider myself lucky that the entire agency didn't just close up shop.

While this has been going on in the background, I got a call from an "Adoption Counselor" from Families for Kids. They are a group that recruits/supports foster and adoptive families for the local state child welfare agency. To get information sent to you, one has to give up contact information, which I did last summer. Yep, they are quick! Anyhoo, in the conversation, I was basically told that due to the current "meth crisis" there are infants they have to place. Since the state generally only offers foster/adoption for those under the age of 10, my guess is that this is a "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" situation. The SW places the baby in a "pre-adoptive" home, while working with the BM to get her up to care standards. In my state, they have over 2 years get their act together, plus all the relatives are given a chance as well. Obviously it's a crap shoot - who knows what could happen? There's almost no planning. You don't know when a baby could be placed with you, you don't know how long the baby will be with you or when/if it will be a permanent situation. How do you deal with that?

Getting Busy

I have a huge list of projects to work on while waiting - you may even think I'm a tad crazy, but not being busy makes me a little crazy.

The To-Do List

1. Have window installed in Master Bedroom - the current ones are too small for egress and let in only a little light. I need more light; it's like a cave!
2. Finish Professional Certificate. All teachers have to do this in my overburdening state. I won't get any more money for this, but I do get to keep my job. How happy am I?
3. Garden beds. My yard is all lawn and concrete. Last year I started making some beds, but they're fairly small and not really great for vegitable gardening. I also need to build a trellis for my raspberry bushes.
4. Paint, paint and paint some more! The other bedrooms need to be painted at some point and so does the living room. I just haven't can't decide on colors.
5. Refinish floors in bedrooms. The baby's room look like someone rollerbladed in it. I'm still trying to decide if I should just carpet over. I love wood floors, but they can get quite cold.
6. Build shelves in the closet. There's really no room for a dresser with all the other furniture in the baby's room, so I've decided to put in a closet organizer with shelving. It'll work much better, anyhow.
7. Re-do kitchen floor. Again, the choices are boundless. Do I go with wood? Tile? Vinyl Tile? Linolium? Either way, the current 1970's brown hexigon tiles have got to go!
8. Curtains. I will have lived in the house for nearly a year and still haven't put up curtains in the laundry room or kitchen. How lazy am i?
9. Get into shape. Or at least, prepare for the 12k race I signed up for in a month and a half.
10. Figure out some way to make more money. I need to put some positive energy out there and get some money coming in!

This is by no means the total list, but seriously, today's list is pretty long and it's almost noon!

DTC!

As of March 2, 2007, my documents were sent to China! I'm hoping that I'll have a LID date by the end of the month.

Now the really hard work starts. My bank accounts took a hit with all the fees (multiple mailing of things that really didn't need to be mailed multiple times if I had triple checked everything). Now it's time to build them back up. The question is where to cut and where to make smart purchases. So, I'm on a shopping moritorium, so to speak - really, addicts cannot go cold turkey - and an actual budget spreadsheet goes into to force.