One more week!!

We fly to Crescent Moon in just 1 week from today!  I am beyond excited!!!  I am already packed and have Z's things packed as well!  I keep adding things as I think of them, but if we were to leave right now I would have plenty of stuff.  And, there are Wal-Mart's there so I can always buy more if I do manage to forget anything.  (Side note:  I am more excited about Wal-Mart than you can imagine because Germany doesn't have them.  It isn't the prices I miss, but the constant availability.  Here if you want sandals, for example, you have to buy them during a 3-week window or you are SOL.  That sucks!  Especially for impulse shoppers like me.  I have become a hoarder because I am afraid I might not be able to get X again if I don't buy it RIGHT NOW!  And, often times, it's true. /side note)  D still hasn't packed, but he claims to be able to do so in 30 minutes flat.  We shall see!  ;-)  Actually, he will only be there for a little over a week, so it won't be so hard for him.  I will be away from home for 3 1/2 weeks, so I need a bit more than he does!  Thank goodness I am as low-maintenance as they come otherwise I would have too much luggage to handle!  As it is, for 3 1/2 weeks, I packed all of my stuff & Z's stuff into 1 large suitcase!  I weighed it the other day and my scale said it was 31.8 pounds!  YES!!!  And that is including a heavy book I am packing for a friend of the family to off-set some books I know I will be bringing back home with us.

The only "worry" we have is getting enough cash (in good $100 bills, of course).  We live in Euro-zone, so getting US cash is anything but easy.  Especially when it's such a large quantity!  D is handling that because he can stay calm easier than I can about stuff like that.  ;-)  I also got an email late last night that we need to watch a 40 minutes video on "bonding & attachment" and have a teleconference with someone at our agency before we leave.  Nothing like last minute!!  D thinks it's not a big deal, but I am freaking out because I feel like this week is already jam-packed with stress and activities and trying to find time to do that just isn't ranking high on my priority list.  If it were up to me, I would watch the video and then email and say that we watched it but we just don't have time in our schedule for a teleconference.  If it was important to them, they should have given us more advance notice than 1 week!  But, I'm sure D will win this one....

I guess I forgot to mention, I took all 3 kids to the Embassy last Thursday (DJ's birthday) to pick up our visas! (D was on a work trip or I would've gone alone)  They were not cheap little things, but compared to everything else we have paid, they are not much.  DJ & L were a bit crazy on the drive to the embassy, which is sad because I was planning to take them to the dinosaur museum in Frankfurt for DJ's birthday if they behaved.  Then I said that maybe instead we could have ice cream after I got the visas, IF they were good in the embassy.  Nope.  :-(  The passport photo machine and the spinning glass doors were just too much for them to handle.  Instead we came home and DJ wanted BK for dinner, so we got it to go.  Ah well....

Visa application

This morning, D & I had an appointment in Frankfurt to apply for our visa to enter Crescent Moon.  We made this appointment late last week and I remembered as we were going to bed last night, so it was a bit more stressful than it could have been.  Luckily, I had made sure to have all of our documents completed and ready to go in 1 envelope, so all we had to do was grab it and go!  (Yay for being prepared!!)  The stressful part was that the appointment was at 9:30 and, while Google said it was an hour and 15 minute drive, we ALWAYS hit a Stau (massive delay, usually stop & go for longer than you care to remember) going to Frankfurt.  We took L to Kindergarten at 7:30, which was when I thought they opened.  I forgot they started opening at 7, but we usually never get there before 8 so it never mattered before.  I dropped her off and quickly told the teachers that N would have to come with us because there was NO way we would make it back by 11, when they demand I pick him up.  L could stay until 12, though, so I told them she would be today.  After that we dropped DJ off at his school and headed out of town.  The GPS said we would arrive at 8:49 for our 9:30 appointment.  D even commented that we might have left a bit too early.  Ha!  4 Stau's later.... (A new record for us, I might add!) We found the building at about 9:35, but there was a long, SLOW line, so I didn't get our number until 9:50!  (Apparently, making appointments doesn't actually mean anything because the line was full of people without and they didn't even care that I had one)  Eventually our number was called and we were able to submit our applications.  They should be ready by Thursday, which was even sooner than I was expecting!  The way home wasn't entirely smooth either as we hit another small Stau.  We got back to town, I dropped D off at work, then rushed to get L & DJ from school.  L was nearly in tears as she does when I am there too close to 12 & DJ was waiting outside of the school where I told him to wait in case I was late.  (Good thing I said that because he sometimes tries to walk home and I'm not quite ready for that yet...)  So we had a rather stressful morning, but it was another major step that we needed to do.

Then, this afternoon I dropped off several documents that we need notarized.  3 are for our adoption and we also made our wills and need those notarized.  We aren't planning on dying anytime soon, but figured it was better to be prepared so our kids would be provided for in the unlikely chance that something does happen to us while we are away from them during the adoption.  Ah, the joys of being a grown-up....

A Precious Dream

I don't have much time to post because I need to leave in a few minutes for an appointment, but I just couldn't wait until I had more time.  Last night I dreamt about the time when it will be just Z & me travelling to America to visit family, get her passport, and have her eyes checked.  Truthfully, this part of the process has scared me because I don't know how she will react to anything and I don't know how she will handle the stress that she will undoubtedly be going through.  I have been trying to stay practical and a bit detached about how that "week" will really be.  Then I had a dream... It was SO comforting!!  She was very sweet and kind and gentle and oh-so-patient!  She didn't know any English, yet she trusted me.  Apparently, her foster family or the orphanage had tried to teach her some English, but it wasn't great.  The 1 thing she "knew" in English was to say "I love you", which she said to me often.  Her pronunciation was certainly terrible as learning it from someone who also knew no English, but it still melted my heart in a way I never thought possible.  I already love this girl as my own daughter, but "hearing" her say she loved me just made it that much stronger.  Waiting to meet her is now the most "scary" part of the process because it is that much harder now.  And I certainly won't be disappointed if this dream doesn't come true literally.  Heck, N is 3 and he still doesn't say he loves me, but I know he does.  It's one of our favorite games actually!  Every time I tell him I love him, he kisses me then shakes his head "nuh-uh" with an adorable smile.  Love it!!  

Speaking of thinking practically, I made an appointment last night for Z to see a pediatric ophthalmologist at the U of I Chicago.  They said to expect the appointment to take around 2 hours!  Yikes!!  Then, there's a chance that after that, they will refer us to neuro-ophthalmology, possibly on the same day.  I hope she's awake enough to be able to tolerate that well.  :-\

Flights Booked, Appointments Made!

I have been so busy thinking about everything I still need to do that I have forgotten to blog about it.  We have booked our flights for our trip.  D will be going for a little over a week and then flying back home to be able to save vacation time and help out with the kids.  (His step-mother is flying over to watch the kids for us, which is a HUGE relief for us!!)  By the time everything is said and done, I am going to be sick of airplanes!  In addition to 14 hour flight to Crescent Moon, Z and I will be flying to the states for 15 hours and then back to Germany for 9 and that doesn't even include all of our "local" travel inside of Crescent Moon!!  The most frustrating thing for me was the lack of direct flights this time around.  We paid quite a bit more to get a direct flight from Crescent Moon to the states, but the only other option was an overnight layover in India.  No thanks!!  Apparently, there were NO direct flights from the US to Germany, which there used to be an abundance of, so I'm not sure what changed but the only good part about that is that our layover is in Dublin, so I can "visit" Ireland, unofficially.  The flights were both more expensive and less expensive than I thought.  Most of the individual flights were pretty reasonable, but when put together they were quite a lot more than I was anticipating.  I think needing the direct flight really hurt our budget there.

In other news, we have an appointment to apply for our visas on Monday at 9:30, so that's exciting!  Of course, it means I don't have much time to get the rest of the information for the application.  I swear the details required just to apply have blown my mind time and time again!  We have to have booked flights, booked hotels, health insurance information, and complete contact information of the "inviting party" and an in-country contact.  This is in addition to the obvious passport information, birthdates, etc.  It feels a bit like the Spanish inquisition or being interrogated by Scotland Yard!  I am hoping that the plus side is that applying will be a matter of handing them the forms and coming back on the day they say they will be ready.

Besides all of that, I still need to make lists for D's step-mom so she knows the daily routine and anything else she might need to know.  I need to mail some more forms to our agency.  We need to finish our wills and have them notarized along with a few other adoption-related forms that need notarized now.  I would love to start packing, but I know it's still a bit early for that.  (My brain is wanting to plan backwards, so it's hard not to just let myself do it and check it off the list)  I need to make appointments in the states for Z to have her vision checked and get her passport.  I actually tried to do the latter already, but they said I can't make that appointment until May 13th, so I will have to do it from Crescent Moon.  Hopefully I can just make it online.  And, don't tell anyone, but I filled out that application with blue ink and it said I was supposed to use black!  ;-)  I also need to come up with an itinerary for our family's vacation in July because come May, I won't have any time to do that.  But all of that has to wait because DJ's birthday party is this Saturday and the house is still not clean enough and I need to make sure I have plenty of food.  *sigh*