Adoption Update!

We got word that our Homestudy is ready and has been sent to our agency for finalization. It will be a few more days before it is officially approved and mailed out to us to sign. We've finished all the documents on our side yesterday and today and will have them ready to mail back with our signed Homestudy!

We went to get our Doctor forms finished and signed yesterday. Have I mentioned that we have an awesome Doctor? He hasn't charged us for an forms! We've had at least six forms filled out by him! I think they about $50 each. He has saved us nearly $300! We will pick up our Criminal Record Checks in a day. Assuming everything is filled out properly, that is it! Our Dossier should be ready to send to Ottawa for legalization and authentication in 2 weeks! Then it goes to Bulgaria! (I think).

What's next? Well, assuming everything goes well we should get accepted by the Bulgaria Central Authority/MOJ and added to the Adopting Parents Registry in less than two months. We are hoping to get word that we are accepted by the end of August. It would be a great thing to add to our list of celebrations in August! Hopefully we get the right proposal shortly after :) We are hoping to have made a decision for who we are going to adopt in September! August would be better! :) Once we have accepted a proposal we travel approximately two months later! We could meet our baby girl before Christmas! What an amazing Christmas present! Two months after the first trip we get to bring her home!!! I could be a mother of two in 8 months!

The timeline I just gave is assuming there are no snags and everything goes smoothly, which I really am counting on. But, there is huge potential for any number of things to go wrong. Please pray, or whatever you do, that we can bring our daughter home very soon!

Belated Father's Day

Father's Day came and went with little acknowledgement for Jon. I dropped the ball a little :( Understandably, I had been extremely busy with work Thursday night, Victoria Friday and Saturday, work again Sunday morning, an engagement party Sunday afternoon (Yay Geoff and Melissa!) and work again on Monday!

I was exhausted and knew I would be slightly unavailable so Livi and I got him a present instead...Livi helped me choose out a new wedding/family ring! A few years ago Jon lost his real wedding ring! He had to take it off for working in the workshop and through taking it on and off every day, it got lost in the shuffle. I'm a very understanding wife :) We didn't replace it with anything too expensive, as we are really trying to be good with our spending, but I think it is really nice.

So, what can I say about my wonderful husband and fabulous baby Daddy?

Our relationship has evolved a lot this past year. We have each changed as individuals and grown in maturity and respect for each others differences. He is so supportive, genuine, and committed. I love him a lot and respect him as a man who should be looked up too. Growing up, I never thought I'd be able to say that about a man, let alone a man I was with!

Jon is an amazing, devoted father who would do anything for his little girl. He changes her diapers, plays with her, feeds her, cooks with her (not just for her), comforts her when she cries, bathes her, puts her to sleep almost every night, and plays her the guitar at her beckon call. We agree fully on how we parent her. I don't think we've ever had a real disagreement when it comes to how we are raising her. How did I get so lucky?  Livi adores him just as much. She wakes him up from naps with kisses on the cheeks and eggs him on to tickle or chase her as only a little imp can :) When she has had enough tickles or is tired of being bugged by him (which he is entirely too good at) she mimics Mommy by annoyingly saying "Joooon!" It is super cute.

Basically, all of this is to say a Happy Belated Father's Day to my sexy husband and father to my child! I couldn't do it with out you! Thank you for always being there for us. You're girls love you lots!

Victoria

I'm so behind in my blogging. I have so much going on and I want to write about everything but I just don't have the time! I'll start with my trip to Victoria and see how far I get.

For Mother's Day my sister and I decided to treat my mom to a night in Victoria... accompanied by us of course! The weather was BEAUTIFUL! The conversation was fabulous and inappropriate, and there was lots of laughter, shopping and walking! My mom had a blast remembering all the times that she had been to Victoria before and regaled us with stories from when she was younger... some that we didn't need to know :)

I don't remember ever being to the Royal BC Museum. I know, crazy right? I live only a few hours away and have never been in my remembered years. It was pretty interesting. During our shopping that day I found Gray Monks Gamay Noir! Jon and I have been searching for this wine for years! We tried it at the Gray Monk winery three years ago and they have been sold out ever since. We've never found a store that carries it either. Since we were walking I was limited to only buying three bottles.

We ate delicious pasta lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory and enjoyed some late night drinks and ogling at a local hot spot (can't remember the name). Vanessa especially, really enjoyed the view. *wink*  We then took a stroll along the boardwalk as the last of the buskers were packing up and Vanessa and I played with the different settings and effects on our cameras :)

I was so tired that night and didn't even remember hearing my mom have a shower. The lights were still on! I wish I could fall asleep that easily every night! The next day included a trip to the Caradoch Castle, which was beautiful and filled with history. I loved it! Then... more shopping! I found the cutest bamboo outfit for Livi that I got from a guy who had been adopted at 10 years old from Czech! We had a wonderful little discussion about our upcoming adoption and his experiences. We were with Vanessa-the-Christmas-whore, so of course we also had to stop at the Christmas store. That place is way to overstimulating for me and uptight! They had hundreds of signs with tons of rules up everywhere. It was way overkill and slightly offensive. I had to leave after I bought the old fashioned tinsel that I have wanted for years! My mother-in-law has some and I've wanted it since I've seen hers!

We were tired from all of our walking, shopping and exploring and noticed if we hurried we could catch an earlier ferry than we were planning. After a few tense moments and rushing down the ferry halls we were on our way home. We had fun and it was really nice to get out without the boys or baby for a night!

I'll end with Victoria now and try to write a belated Father's Day post soon so I can gush about what a wonderful husband and baby daddy I have!

Brag Post!

I need to take a minute and celebrate how amazing my daughter is. It is true that she has entered her Terrible Twos. Tantrums, "NO!", ignoring Mommy and Daddy and manic mood swings are now becoming normal in our house hold. But, with these dark, "what was I on when I decided to have a child" moments comes leaps and bounds in her development that I am completely enjoying.

On Wednesday, Livi learned how to jump off a step with two feet and land with two feet. This takes a lot of concentration and balance for her but she was so proud of herself! I was pretty proud of her too :)

On Saturday, she counted to 10, then on Sunday, she went to 13! This is so crazy to me because we have just been concentrating on getting to 3! Jon's mom had been babysitting her and said that she had done this. I passed it off as a Grandma thinking her grand-baby is a genius and believed she really didn't do it. Then, on Sunday, she was counting the steps at a party we were at, very clearly! Numerous people heard her. Kids are such sponges... NEVER underestimate them! She does tend to prefer to start her epic counting sessions at 3 or 4 for we are working on that :)

Her vocabulary is incredible. She can almost have a real conversation. She can even answer questions about what she did yesterday, or what she saw. Before, we'd always have to prompt her or only get a response about what she had just immediately seen. I had asked her what she did on the weekend with Daddy while I was away and she told me "fun at Gramma's". She loves talking on the phone now too... probably because she sees me doing it so much. She has a little trouble holding a conversation on it though and tends to just babble a lot. She also sings along to the ipod or television, even if she doesn't know the words. It is pretty cute.

My tom-boy, dirty, dare devil is developing her feminine side a lot more lately too. She has become quite the little accessorizer. Jon has a necklace that he wears frequently, so she wants to wear a necklace too. She will keep it on for the entire day too. I do get a little worried about it though, because it is too big for her, I don't want it to get caught while she is playing. I put my wedding ring on for the first time in months and then she wanted one too. I found a toe ring that could fit her and she wore it for an hour. She asks me to put nail polish on her, or to cut her nails. She wears sunglasses on her face and in her hair like Mommy, and asked for earrings! Daddy said no :)

Okay, that's all I can think of at the moment. She should be getting up from her nap soon anyway. I'll add some picture on here tomorrow. I also have to post about my fun girls night in Victoria! Check back soon :)

Stressed Out

I'm feeling a little stressed out with life right now. I know that it is understandable with everything going on and I was even expecting it, but it still doesn't make things easier. I'm going to take a minute to vent about everything. I'm big in to verbal processing :)

The biggest thing on my mind right now is the fact that our condo hasn't sold yet. Our realtor doesn't think that it is not a problem with our place or the price, just the real estate market. No comparable condo's have sold since we've listed. I'm starting to get quite worried about it though. We have committed to moving in July and I don't relish the thought of paying for two places. The plan was to move in order to save money, not max ourselves out! Now I'm starting to think about cutting the price... but how much do we drop it. We were already just going to be able to break even. If we lower the price, we'll be taking a financial hit!

The house issue is worrying me a bit more this month because of all the extra bills we have paid off this week. We had to pay a $1200 tax bill that I didn't realize we had because I forgot to claim some income of Jon's. It may end up being more too because of possible interest. I also paid a $600 property tax bill. Plus I bought a new kitchen table and chairs... okay that one was an un-necessary expense, but it is really pretty :) The chairs we have are not safe any longer and I got the table and chairs for the price of just the chairs! The expense of moving is looming at the back of my mind too. We'll do it all ourselves, with friends, but we still have to rent a truck and buy lunch and beer for our helpers!

I've had a lot of paperwork that I am putting off right now too. I'm good at procrastinating those things. A letter is due for the Chosen Children CRA application, student loan paperwork is due, all the changes of address stuff needs to be started, some more forms will need to be completed in a few weeks for our dossier,  a bank account needs to be started for Chosen Children, and I'm still trying to figure stuff out with that tax bill that I just paid!

All of this needs to be attended too, plus stuff I'm sure I am forgetting, while keeping the house clean, in case we have any showings, keeping Livi entertained, feeding my family (we've been eating out a lot this month, not good for my financial worries!), trying to be a good wife and friend, and working way more than I usually do (four shifts this week alone!).

I don't think I've been the best at juggling everything very well. I'm feeling drained most days and I'm getting pretty snappy too. I'm sure Jon is not appreciating that very much. I know that things are not as big as I am making them but I can't help but worry sometimes! So, now I'm procrastinating even more by letting Livi watch cartoons and writing on the blog!

Okay, I'm done venting... and I need to get ready for work :( I know this will pass and I will prioritize and get everything done. I always do! If you are the praying kind though, could you pray that our place sells... NOW! Thanks :)

What If...

These questions have caused quite a stir on my Facebook status so I thought I'd post some of them here too, just to maybe get people to think a little bit. I'll eventually get a post done about what my theology is around it all but for now I'll just let you ponder these....

What if the church needed to change?

What if the parables of Jesus were speaking against religion?

What if Christianity was about the end of religion and score keeping and judging and shaming?

What if Christianity was not about morality at all?

What if instead of trying to make bad people good it was trying to reveal that good people are the same as bad people?

What if God was never disappointed in us?

What if the world wasn't going to hell?

What if salvation included people outside of Christianity?

What if the church accepted everyone?

What if the church didn't kick people out?

What if culture was to be embraced rather than avoided?

What if how people treated people was more important than what we believed?