and down again...

I've had a few days to get used to it but we received bitterly disappointing news again the other day from our agency. Sill #2 on the list. (By the way #1 has been waiting since August when they were bumped in front of us.) What does that mean? That it could be a long while before anything happens for us. Oh yeah and there is also some kind of judges strike in Colombia so cases are backing up. And oh yeah, Colombia has starting making it harder for babies to leave Colombia- they want more babies to be adopted by Colombians. Understandable, but it sucks for us. 

I've been telling everyone "early 2009". It could still happen then but I'm trying to not get excited period this time until I'm on the damn plane.

(by the way, this mummy from Mexico shared in our horror at the phone call)

Spanglish

Sunny Guanajuato, Mexico. Nice! We had a great trip on what will hopefully be our last solo outing for a while. It was great fun to be in school again, this time learning Spanish. Boy some of those brain muscles have atrophied over 15+ years since college. Here I sit on the steps of the big University in Guanajuato thinking that I need to study. Some things never change. It's not like I didn't want to study. I just was distracted so very easily, just like when I was last in school. Oh cool - look at that guy selling doughnuts! Yum, I wonder how he makes those. How would I ask him that in Spanish? Hmm, Adonde hecho... no, wait  I never learned past tense. Ok, forget that. 

We did learn/remember a lot by the end of the week but it made me realize what a drop in the bucket it is. There are over 100,000 words in the Spanish language. I read that most people have a speaking vocabulary of around 20,000 words. 20,000?! They also say you can communicate reasonably well with about 1,000. Ok, that sounds more like it. However if I'm going to try to raise our kid bilingual I'd better get busy. 

anticipation

A gift from friends. There it is. A plush rocket ship with aliens and astronauts inside. This is the kind of thing that makes me freak out with excitement about our kiddie coming to live with us. This little person is probably born already, living in Colombia somewhere. I wish he/she was with us now so we could play with this very rocket ship today. They could smell the sauce I just cooked. They could see the sunshine streaming through our front windows and sign and coo and make gurgly little baby noises. I could sit here and stare at them and wonder how anything could be so beautiful. Is it possible to love a child you've never met before? A child that may not even exist yet?

Nesting

Aren't we supposed to be getting the baby's room together? Right now it's somewhat a collection of cast off furniture and a pile of gifts still in their boxes. They say it's important for us to set up the room all nice nice. Why haven't we done it yet? It's on the to do list, like finding a pediatrician, etc. I think without having the big belly leading the way it's hard to realize just how soon it could be for nino/nina to arrive. We were with friends today that are having twins and for her I'm sure hardly a moment goes by that she doesn't realize the babies are coming soon. For her husband the sight of her growing larger by the day must be a powerful motivator as well. Do the hormones force you to deal with it? I'm still waiting for our hormones to kick it up a notch.

Settling in

So after the last postings bad news we've had some time to reflect. We also got another email from the agency. This time they were very apologetic. Back in May they asked us for some additional papers to clarify a few things. It took a few weeks to gather it and in the delay CRAN moved another family ahead of us. This is what the agency contact person had to say:

"adoption is such a leap of faith, and I like to believe that your child will come to you when it is supposed to happen. And one day, way into the future, you will look back and realize that you were meant to be parenting that particular child and won't be able to imagine it could have been any other way"

It's a nice idea. We're back to our orignal timeframe and  thinking about all of the stuff we can do before the wee one arrives. 

BBBBummer!

The following is an email we received from our adoption agency contact:

"I just heard from CRAN (the agency in Colombia). There is one family in front of you, so you can breathe a sigh of relief. As soon as the next family receives a referral, I will let you know. It is normally several months in between referrals. As it is now August, I believe that you might not be hearing until early 2009, after the holidays. I might be wrong so don't hold me to it but that is my best guess at this time."

Sigh of relief?! Early 2009?! What a bummer! 

Not exactly what we were told a few months ago so we're reeling a bit. I know these things are complicated. I just wish that we were never told it could be "soon". We had been preparing for early 2009 all along. The roller coaster just went on a sharp downhill and I guess we're just trying to hang on. The concept of how it's going to prepare for the unpredictability of parenthood is of little consolation on this side of the parental divide. 

Baby "Update"

Did I mention that there is no news about when the next Brooklyn Verni will arrive? That's because there is no news. I wasn't sure if I said that or not but there is definitely no new news about our adoption. I am waiting patiently though, I swear.

Good Luck Maria!

This picture is a view into what lies ahead for Maria: a preenanctment if you will of her appendix surgery. 

Good luck Sis, hope that removing the beast from your innards fixes you up nicely.

Get Well Sharon

Here is a highly detailed photo of the gall bladder that Sharon just had removed. It's right there in green attached to the light blue pancreas and the brown liver. ( i think) 

We wish you a speedy recovery. 

Poconos

Smiling children. There was lots of that on display in the Poconos where a large gathering of the clan Verni was held. Uncle Joey saved the day by bringing great weather and a fabulous addition to the entertainment roster of the lake house: a kayak. 

disclaimer: this is my blog so I can claim anything I feel like. >:)

FOUR Strong

Me with my bad-ass nephews.

baguettes and accordians...

Ok, so I'm still learning how to do this whole blogging business and i didn't intend to post this first picture of the 4 of us sitting on a bench in the Louvre Museum. I can't quite figure out how to remove it now that it's attached.  When we looked at the picture my mother-in-law gave it the very enthusiastic review of "well... it's better than nothing". My apologies for putting it in here Mommy.

Even dogs love a fresh baguette. Here is "Aurtur" casually gnawing on breakfast at a cafe close to our apartment. We spent a few mornings having breakfast while watching the local morning foot traffic. It was a great corner for people watching.

The sight of a Parisian walking with baguette in hand was something we'd seen in photos but thought it was just a funny stereotype. There were people of all ages carrying around and chomping on baguettes. We counted one day for the hell of it- 13 people in all, which doesn't include us. It's no wonder though; such great bread and fresh pastries were easy to come by. 

June 21st was Music Day in Paris. Over 200 bands set up and played music all over the city. We saw a Death Metal band on a street corner, acoustic duets in front of cafes, an alt rock band in a plaza and this woman playing her traditional accordion songs up on Montmartre. Hilary dug it and took this video. Enjoy all 6 seconds of it. 

  

intro

Hi Peeps,

This our blog. We plan to write all manner of interesting things about ourselves here. Ok, really the baby-to-be will be the star of this site. Checking back with us in a few months(?) should reveal a world of interesting reading.

until then...

J + H