Drugs, drugs, and more drugs.

I'm on as many drugs now as I was when I was taking fertility drugs. I had so much fun giving myself various shots every day that I've taken it up again. My right arm now is the beholder of a tetanus vaccine and a hepatitis A vaccine. My left arm is filled with a yellow fever vaccine and a hepatitis B vaccine. The yellow fever one did sting pretty bad. I related the pain to getting a tattoo. It hurts worse in the flabby part. Needless to say I will never be getting an armband.

Plus we have taken two typhoid pills. Unfortunately I think the first one is invalid. Rob was watching the NFL draft on Saturday drinking a Corona, we'd been eating chips and taco dip all day (very healthy, I know), and gave him a pill and took one myself. THEN I read the directions. "Do not take pill within two hours of consuming food or alcohol." Oops.

Oh, the waiting....

It's driving me crazy! You'd think we have enough going on in our lives that I wouldn't think all day "Is today going to be the day?". But no. I still manage to fit that in. It's been a busy week...the governor was here on Wednesday night so we went to that banquet. Thursday night I taught piano lessons and then went to the National Honor Society banquet. Wednesday afternoon we had our appointment with the doctor regarding vaccines. He gave me a tetanus shot since it's been a very long time since I've had one and gave us both prescription pills for typhoid, malaria, and hepatitis A & B. PLUS we have to go to Sioux Falls today to have yellow fever shots. I could care less if we take most of those but Rob would rather have the shot than the disease. So we're working until 11:00, driving the 2 1/2 hours to SF, getting the shot, and driving the 2 1/2 hours home to work at the Parent Teacher carnival. Tomorrow is the golf course clean up day (and for me...the day to clean the house). Next week is the athletic banquet, prom, and Rob has guards. PLUS, we started grinding corn yesterday! It was pretty exciting. The three of us girls in the office decided to cook for this special day. Someone slap us the next time we think that. After the governor's dinner, I made a pan of banana bars and two pans of taco dip. I also cooked 10 pounds of sausage and Rob cracked 120 eggs. At 11:00 I took out the bars and taco dip and chips, along with all the supplies for breakfast burittos and the sausage in a crockpot to the plant. In my pajamas, by the way. This way, when I went home I could just crawl in bed and get up the next morning and not have to find something to wear. I had a huge brain lapse when I said "Sure, I'll do breakfast!". The crews work from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. and then the next crew works from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. To make sure the night crew got to eat, I got up at 4:00 to start scrambling eggs. I finished at 5:00 and took them out to the plant. I got home at 5:30 and thought "I wonder if it will be bad to go back to bed?". Yes, it was. Don't ever do that. My alarm went off at 6:00 and I hit the snooze until about 6:30 and still made it to work at 7:00. Very groggy and not looking very good, but I was here! And then the real day began! Donna and Ashley made smokies and chili for dinner and we had bars and taco dip and we ate and ate and ate and ate.

Do any of you watch "How I Met Your Mother"? The above paragraph reminds me of a few episodes ago when Ted was saying that Marshall and Lily tell each other EVERYTHING. Right down to "and then I brushed my teeth and after I brushed my teeth I went to the bathroom...".

So now I'm off to work. Still groggy and still not looking too hot. But I only have to work four hours today so that always makes things better! :)

Happy Birthday Rob!

Rob's birthday was Saturday so we went to my mom and dad's cabin for the weekend. Our idea was to relax and we can't really do that at home. There is always something to do. So we took some games and books and got just enough groceries to last us two days and off we went. It was around 80 degrees on Saturday but we didn't make it outside. I'd read and Rob would watch TV for two hours, we'd play two games of Backup, then we'd repeat the cycle. All day. I had an awful experience on Saturday afternoon. We had gotten two salads at HyVee that were ready to expire so they were really cheap. Both had turkey on them but I took mine off and put it on Rob's. All of the sudden, I knew that what I had just eaten wasn't cheese. It was a piece of turkey. And for as much as I tried not to be sick, I couldn't help it. The memory will be with me for a very long time. I didn't think that eating meat would make me sick like that but I know better now!

We got home around noon today and have been busy catchng up stuff around here. We got our travel info from the social worker so I've spent some time reading today. Maybe we'll get some good news this week!

Happy Birthday....

to my Dad and Kalla! We love you both!!!!

No news...

I figured I'd put that first since that's the question on everyone's mind! BUT, I am in a better mood than last time! :)

Rob had guards this weekend so he was pretty much out of commission. Saturday I accompanied kids at the junior high band contest and did laundry. Sunday I played for church and did laundry. See, I do know how to do laundry! Rob and I went for a bike ride Sunday evening and I thought I was going to pass out. I just can't keep up with him. He will definitely be pulling the baby carrier behind him and maybe that will slow him down a little! It really did make me wish the baby was here!

Speaking of which...I've never really been nervous during this whole process. I think it's because we've just been so busy with the whole thing. But now that we are SO CLOSE...I'm getting butterflies! Seriously! I just can't wait. We totally not ready but I just can't wait! :) I know we'll never be ready. There will always be something to do. And I truly feel unprepared. But this baby is coming whether I have stuff in my house or not! :) So bring it on!

We have a slight problem with the FBI prints...they haven't been processed yet. Totally my fault. I sent them FedEx over a week ago. They arrived in West Virginia at the FBI on Monday, April 9. I wrote on the cover letter that we are applying for an INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION but means nothing if they don't open the envelope! I didn't write ADOPTION on the outside of the FedEx envelope so they just throw them in a pile until they have time to do them. I didn't think I could write on the outside of the envelope! So when I called today to check the status, she told me they weren't even in the system yet and Rob would need to send an email to them requesting the prints be done ASAP. So I typed his email requesting that they process the prints either today or tomorrow and forwarded it to him, he sent it off, and now we wait. I'm a little nervous that his minor will show up this time even though it didn't three months ago.

I emailed the social worker yesterday on the status of our orphanage acceptance. I just didn't think her info was right. What do you know...it wasn't! She said that only one of the Colombian orphanages accepts the family after they receive the application...Los Pisingos. The others don't accept the family until after they receive the dossier. So then I questioned if our application had been submitted to the orphanage since it has been seven weeks sent it was sent down. She emailed back and said that she received our acceptance letter on March 22. It was just never sent to me.

So now I guess we're just waiting. And still trying to respond to some of the emails that I've received! I'm working on them. I promise. And I'll let you know as soon as we hear something!

Everybody send good vibes to the FBI!

We need FAST vibes...not just good vibes. The SW emailed today and said that the facilitator in Colombia said we'll need to redo the FBI prints. So I'm glad we went ahead and did it. I checked my FedEx account and the prints have not been sent out from West Virginia yet. Once they get here I need to have them notorized and then sent to the state to be apostilled. I can get that done in one day. I should get them back from the state the next day and I can turn around and send them to MN to the SW. Of course it always seems to take her a few days to do her part so I know this is going to drag on for another week. I'm grumpy...can you tell??? So anyway, she said they won't present our dossier to the orphanage until we have that form there and we won't receive our orphanage acceptance until a few weeks after they have received our dossier. So much for our one to two month time frame as of February 27. :(

Oh the passport fairy has looked favorably upon us! :)

This morning I noticed that the website said that Rob's passport had been sent. We went out for supper tonight with Rob's secretary and her husband and when we came home it was propped up in the door! So I have to copy the passport and send it to the SW in MN. We're still waiting to get the FBI prints back. They arrived at the FBI headquarters in West Virginia today. I don't know how long it will take them to be processed. We're inching closer!

We had a nice Easter. Rob took some kids to a national AAU wrestling tournament in Detroit. They left on Wednesday and got home Sunday morning. I went to my mom and dad's on Saturday morning. We went out for supper with some friends, Sunday went to church, and then went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner. We went to visit my grandma in the afternoon. Rob got up there around 3:00. We got home around 8:00. It was a good time.

Since it was winter when Kramer died we couldn't bury her. My parents kept her in the Morton building until it started getting warm out then my dad's cousin (a taxidermist) took her to his freezer. I buried her on Saturday. It was very sad and brought up a lot of emotions that I don't deal with on a daily basis. I really miss her. I swear sometimes I can feel her snuggle her head up to mine like she did when I got home from work and she took a minute to show me some love before she turned wild. I still don't understand. But there are lots of things in life that I don't understand.

I emailed the SW in MN yesterday and she told me that I was confused...she never said that we were second overall. We are second with LSS. Maybe there was a misundestanding when I asked, but I specifically asked her that question and she said overall. So now we're back to being second again. The couple ahead of us hasn't gotten their referral yet. The couple that DID get their referral is working with Bethany and they flew down to Bogota yesterday and received their baby today. I'm so jealous! I can't wait! So I really have no idea where we're at or when to expect anything.

It looks like we're in the middle of a blizzard again. The half of a foot of snow we got last week just melted yesterday. While the rain and snow doesn't make it very conducive to semis bringing in loads of corn, we're really getting close to start up. I am excited to know that I'll be around to see it!

Passport Jackpot!

Well, I had to lie but it worked. I happened to call the number this morning around 6:30. Right away I knew it was going to be a good day when I got a different message. Sure enough it told me to stay on the line for the next available representative! AND I waited less than a minute. The rep got on the line and of course she wanted to know if this passport was for me and I said that it was for my husband. She said that due to privacy laws she couldn't tell me anything. And I knew that. She wanted to know if she could talk to Rob and I figured that him being gone on a military trip would seem better than if I told her the truth and said he was gone to a wrestling tournament in Detroit! So she said that it's still being processed and that it has two more weeks to go. She told me that I WILL be leaving on April 13 so she is going to expedite the passport, they will overnight it, and we should have it in the next few days. I'm pretty sure we won't be leaving on April 13 but if she has to say it to get our passport here, I'll take it.

Well my vegetarian hands survived.

I took a whole bunch of Saran Wrap and wrapped them around my hands and taped them shut so they were sorta like gloves. It worked perfectly. I didn't have to touch the meat although I could feel it squishing in my hands. That was bad enough. I told Rob he owed me BIG TIME! Our friend Rahn says that my veggie burger tastes like range cake or cow candy (I have no idea what's in it but cows love it). I totally disagree. (I know this because my brother dared me to eat it.) Rob even admits they don't taste too bad. And it's not nearly as digusting to think about. I'm totally doing the carb thing tonight...mashed potatoes and toast. Who needs meat when you have potatoes and bread!?

Still no passport. I sent another email on Tuesday, pretending to be Rob of course. I must not sound desperate enough. Or maybe they've seen Rob's passport picture and realize he's 6'4" and 275 pounds and I sound too desperate. I always think I'm going to call Senator Johnson's office in Aberdeen over my lunch hour but I spend my lunch hours practicing with junior high kids for the upcoming band contest.

Today's my mom and dad's anniversary. Love ya. :)

You know, when we were trying to get pregnant, I've never felt more alone in my life. Even though I'm extremely close to my parents, my brothers are not just my brothers, they're my friends, their wives have been my family as long as I can remember, I'm close enough to my nieces and nephews they could be my brothers and sisters, I have my best girl friends, and I have my best friend...my husband, I truly felt alone. My friends became pregnant the first time and again and sometimes even again. People I didn't like got pregnant again and again and again! And even though someone very close to me dealt with infertility as well, I truly felt alone. It wasn't jealousy. It was a sadness over what I didn't have. And now I find it amazing at the number of people who have dealt with infertility as well. They were around me all the time. I have this bond with people all over because of infertility. People I know and people I don't know. People whose blogs I read. I don't know them but I feel like I do. And whether it's because of the strength of my family ties or my belief in God or my realization that there is a child out there that needs us as much as we need him or her, I don't feel alone anymore.