Wow, I haven't posted in a long time!

I just realized it's been 12 days since I've posted. That may be a record.

We were without internet for several days. Then Thanksgiving, now I'm in Dallas for my Daddy's surgery to implant a pacemaker/defibrilator. He had that this morning and is doing well.

So, here I am.

Not much news on the adoption front, but it may be getting ready to begin again. Our casemanager called a couple days ago and said we need to go ahead and set up our time to meet for our homestudy update since we've moved. We've got a couple more documents to gather as well.

On the new house topic, we've got a form around the perimeter and hopefully we'll have the pipes installed underground this week so they can pour the foundation next week! I'm still hoping and praying we're under roof by Christmas. It could be possible, but cutting it very close. I'll get some new pix uploaded soon.

I haven't read FRUA today, but from the looks of things yesterday, it sounds like a few agencies got good news of their accreditations being approved on Thanksgiving day. Do you think the Russian officials are purposely approving these on American holidays? Maybe we'll get a great Christmas present on December 25 with our agency being accredited!

Gotta run and help my stepmom get things done around here, we'll have another early day at the hospital in the morning, though not as early as this morning (I got up at 4 a.m.).

Just wanted to check in and say hi and let everyone know I'm still alive.

A Glimmer of Hope??

Церковь и солнце
Originally uploaded by flushkin

We received an e-mail from our agency today stating that it has been confirmed that Three of the Four Ministries have signed off on Buckner's accreditation application. It is the Ministry of Internal Affairs signature that they're waiting for. It was this Ministry which caused the hold up on this latest batch of agencies' accreditation due to confusion in the review process..

It is their hope that they will be approved in the December Batch.

"Please pray specifically that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has resolved their review process and will sign off on Buckner's paperwork without delay and that all the final approvals will be in place by December."

What a wonderful Christmas gift for all of us - waiting children, pre-adoptive parents and agency staff alike.

The Hallmark Channel recognizes National Adoption Awareness Month

For some reason, it's not letting you click on it up there. So - CLICK HERE to watch episodes.

Permit? Who needs a permit?

Beautiful Path
Originally uploaded by WaltBeall

Well, apparantly we do! Ugh, it's been since last Wednesday that there has been ANYTHING happening at "the Land!"

Hubby finally called the builder on Monday and said, "what's up." Well, the city is dragging their feet on getting the permit assigned. Ok, so I would expect this in New York, Chicago, even Dallas. But not PoDunk USA!! How long does it take people?!

So, nada until that permit is assigned. Ugh and double ugh!

Ok, I'll quit grumbling. I'll focus on what has been done, how's that? We got the culverts in last Wednesday so we have a temporary driveway thing happening. We can at least pull off the road now when we go to visit what we've taken to calling our "home dirt." We drive by each afternoon after school and D goes, "Hey Home Dirt!" It's cute. So, we've got a nice tall pad. It's probably about 20 inches high at the highest part, so hopefully I'll get at least one, maybe two steps up to the front porch afterall!

We finalized our choice of brick, mortar, roof, stone for the fireplace and the windows. We got that turned in to the builder yesterday with pictures so he'll know exactly what we're talking about. We don't want any surprises!

So, now once the permit comes, they'll frame out the form (the wood that outlines the shape of the house), dig the trenches for the plumbing and get ready for pouring the cement foundation.

Someone asked if we will have a basement. No, sadly, in our area of the country you can't dig that deep without quickly hitting water. The water table is not far beneath the ground so no basements here.

Not much adoption news to share. We received an e-mail from our agency stating that they have confirmation that 12 agencies will receive their accreditation certificates soon. But our's is not one of them. They should be in the next batch. But it does cause me to feel a wee bit more urgency since who knows how quick (glass half full) we'll get it! So, we're going to hammer out the last two documents tomorrow and I'll print up yet two more picture books to send to Smolensk.

I looked at the databank website last night for the first time in a long while. I didn't even look at the old region - that was weird. I only looked at Smolensk. There was a new little girl on there who hasn't been on there previously. I would have remembered her. Hmmm, her name is Keera. She has reddish hair and the most beautiful blue eyes. She's 15 months old. I know, I'm not supposed to do that!! But what if?? Don't worry, I've been through so much that I'm not placing any bets. But wouldn't that be cool? We'll see!!

Family Fun . . . not so much

Syringe
Originally uploaded by yanivba

Yesterday after school, we drove to the Medical Clinic and our whole family had our flu shots. We tried to make it as fun as possible. We let D pick who went first. She picked me! Yep, it stung a bit, but I was brave. Then of course she chose Daddy to go next. She went last. I held her in my lap and she had to have the shot in her leg since her little arm is so thin. She watched! I can't do that! She remembers having the flu last year and her Pedi said she'd need the shot this year. D had to miss her Christmas party at school last year, so she was all for getting the shot so she wouldn't miss her party this year!

She was super brave and afterward we went to Wally-world and got a "prize." She chose a .50 pinwheel :O) gotta love that!

As of this afternoon . . .

Wow, I'm glad I let her play in the dirt last night because it is squished flat now! I barely made it over there in time to see the guy getting the last bits from the dirt pile.

The greyish dirt behind the "house" is from what they dug up in the ground breaking phase. The reddish dirt is the new dirt to make the pad with. Right as we were leaving, this dump truck guy pulled up but didn't dump the dirt. So we don't know if he was delivering to us or just coming to ask the squisher guy a question. But, this is the first time we've actually caught the dump truck guy there, so I wanted to get a picture for D of the dump truck.

Weeeee - this is fun!

There was more dirt delivered yesterday to "the Land" and we stopped on the way home to let D play in it a bit. Even though we had just picked up pizza and it was getting cold in the car, I didn't want her to miss this fun opportunity to play on the dirt hills and get filthy! It may be squished flat today by the time she gets out of school. I want this house-building experience to be a fun memory for her.

So, here are some pix and video. There were 7 mountains yesterday afternoon and they've delivered 3 more this morning - that's a lot of dirt!

I'm adding a picture of D next to the stake that will be the front corner of her bedroom.

Our little Cowgirl

D dressed as a Cowgirl for the church fall festival this year. We had great fun riding a horse drawn carriage and a hay ride; playing on inflatable playthings; playing carnival games and face painting. Here are a couple of pictures of the fun time with our little missy!