Paperwork and Fires

Last Friday was a crispy, cool, fall day. Just the perfect thing to entice me stay inside with a cup of coffee and a fire in stove. My wood stove is an instant happy place for me. It crackles and pops as it expands and contracts with the heat, creating a sensory experience reminiscent of fluffy socks and good books. I sat down with the huge pile of papers for our dossier, my favorite pen, and carefully read the instructions.

I love checklists.  Having a little box to put my finished mark in makes me happy. Kind of like those tests with the bubbles to fill in. I love those too.  Happily, my stack of instructions came with two sets of checklists so I can have twice the amount of fun.

After carefully reading the instructions about how this is an OFFICIAL document and no white out, corrections etc could be made, I very neatly started filling out the first page. And then proudly took a picture of my work.

That was the point when I realized that I had got my hubby's name wrong. Seriously. In tidy black handwriting, I had given him my maiden name. And while he was, no doubt, honored to officially become a Hewitt, I'm guessing the foreign government might be a bit less impressed with his name change.

Speaking of which, if you know who's flag this is, then you know where we are adopting from.

A Family That Flushes Together...

I became a little bit more of an urban hippie today. I bought a neti pot. Aidan has been sick with a cold, and often it seems to get stuck in his sinuses bringing a headache and vomiting. A couple of people recommended that I do a sinus flush. Can I just say, Gross? But hey, if it's going to help my little man, I'm all over it. So there I am at the checking out my options, and I couldn't help laughing at the advertising. Sorry for the poor quality pic, I was sneaking a pic with my iphone.

Look at all those happy faces! And there is a whole family nose flushing together with huge smiles on their faces!  I especially love the "Little Squirt to go". I'm going to have to get one for my purse, just in case.

I bought a cute little ceramic one that looks like a mini tea pot. It's teal. And made in the USA. The lady at the check out admired my cute little pot and told me that she found a nasal flush to be invigorating. Good to know.

Happy Tuesday, it might be time to buy your own little squirt to go...

Finally!

It's official now.  We finally have our home study approval.  I was going to be blogging about the whole process, but there was so much waiting involved, it didn't feel like I had anything to say. But that part at least is over. We went in today and signed and signed and signed. 

I was so nervous before our first home visit. I cleaned the house in a frenzy. I didn't know what she was going to be looking for so I prepared for an invasion of Martha Stewart type proportions.  At one point, when I was on my hands and knees with an arm stuck in the fridge, I wondered what the likelihood was that she was going to have an urge to pull out the lettuce drawer-but still, I was prepared. (Sadly, she didn't, and so the gleaming, white underside remained an unseen testament of our adoption worthy house.)

The whole process was partly fun. After all, I got to sit there and talk about how amazing my kids and husband were, definitely my favorite subjects. In fact, I think our social worker wanted to be adopted by us at the end, but that could have just been the sugar high from the chocolate chip cookies I was feeding her.

It was also partly invasive, uncomfortable, and definitely stressful. I'm mostly a private person and not the sort to give all the intimate details to the hairdresser. So having a fresh faced collegiate ask all sorts of personal questions while busily bullet pointing on her laptop was not my favorite thing. I would have rather she just looked behind the lettuce drawer.

Now on to the dossier which is a HUGE stack of papers that makes me want to cry just looking at it. Basically, I think that we have to find the originals of every scrap of paper detailing our lives and have it notarized. But this part is on me to gather and submit. Part of the reason that our home study took so long was that we had to wait on wheels to turn in our agency that were not turning. People left, and new people took their place...things got lost and had to be resubmitted...etc..etc.

Oh, I never mentioned which country we are adopting from. Next time then, because there is a wee story involved and I need go make a pumpkin pie.