Twista

I can't remember if I mentioned the wicked storm that happened last Thursday night. If I did - sorry to bore you with it again. If I didn't - wow, it was a doozy! It was Sydney-level lightning & thunder, and it must have gone on for over an hour (that's how long the power was out). I was sitting there, by myself (of course Andrew was golfing on the other side of Toronto that day), looking outside & thinking, "should I grab the cats & go downstairs? This looks really bad". And it did - I thought the wind was going to snap our tree - thankfully it's still staked (it's only 5 years old), and possible whip the table umbrella around so much that it would shatter the glass table. Thankfully we didn't have a lot of damage, as it turns out there was a tornado just a few blocks away! Eek!

Hope

It's been yet another fairly uneventful weekend, quiet but not bad on the fun front. I am feeling a little more hopeful today about the resurrection of the agency. According to the steering committee, the proposal is about a week away from completion. We'll be able to look at it & vote on it soon, then it goes to the Ministry for review & to the court for approval. To know there's finally some movement with the proposal makes me feel a bit better. I'm sure it's been worked on ever since the meeting on July 30, but to actually here some news about it is a good thing. It feels like we're finally getting somewhere. Maybe this might happen overall. One of the bloggers I read, who is adopting from China, finally received her referral after almost 3.5 years of waiting (she's now mom to a 5.5 month old baby girl). I can't imagine signing on with a program thinking you'll have a referral within a year or so, then having referrals slow down to the point that it's 3.5 years from the log-in date before you get your referral. The amount of patience required in this "game" is astounding. Well, here's hoping it's a good week. Amazing to believe it's only been 1.5 months since the agency went bankrupt.

Here's hoping that everyone in the Ethiopia program is able to get a court date, if they don't already have one, and the court dates are successful so their children can come home soon.

Nothing

I haven't been inspired to blog much lately, all this waiting for the proposal to be done & approved by the court is sapping away my optimism. Every day I feel exhausted by the end of the day. Today I am exhausted at the beginning of the day - darn Pippin & her hairballs. I swear she coughs one up every week, usually at some wee hour of the morning when it's her turn to sleep with us. This morning's offering was presented around the time I was going to get up anyway, but it's still jarring to leap out of bed for that reason. Good thing it was Andrew's turn to clean it up.

Speaking of Andrew, he wrote his Canadian citizenship test yesterday, and thinks he did rather well. Now we wait to hear when the ceremony will be. Yay Andrew! When I got my Aussie citizenship I didn't have to write a test but I think they brought that in afterwards. Soon we will be a dual dual-citizenship household.

Well, that's about all from here.

Heh

- on a related note, I once knew a Siamese named Ralph, he was cross-eyed, and just about the cutest kitteh I've ever seen.


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Nothing, really

I'm looking forward to this weekend, let me tell you. Not that this week was that bad, but it had more than it's share of bad days (adoption-wise). Not that anything new has happened on the adoption front, it's just that since the proposal's being put together there's no real news to speak of. Some days it's harder than others to believe that this is going happen. If this adoption does happen the referral wait will be a piece of cake, stress-wise, after all this waiting.

This weekend we're going to go for a bike ride, in the morning when it's cool, then we'll measure the front room & the living room & head out to Home Depot & Lowe's to price out laminate & installation prices. We also have to get quotes on getting some outlets installed in the basement so my folks can get us a small chest freezer for Christmas. We're having friend over for dinner & drinks on Saturday and Andrew's going golfing on Sunday morning with Rob. By the way, if I haven't mentioned it, our friends Rob & Kate own this great Indian restaurant in Streetsville - Hill Station Curry Co. Best chicken tikka EVER. He also makes a great garlic naan, but man is it spicy!

Anyhoo, that's all from here. Enjoy your weekend!

Man, do I know what this feels like.....

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New Evie pics

She's 4 months, 1.5 weeks old now. Sigh, they grow up so fast.



She looks so stern in this picture.



In this picture she looks JUST LIKE MY BROTHER when he was a baby. IDENTICAL. Freaky.

Happy Duran Duran Appreciation Day everyone!

They're my favouritest band ever, don't ya know?!? I'd post a concert pic my friend took a couple of years ago but it's on my other 'puter. Oh well. Enjoy the day, it only comes but once a year!

I believe

In my heart, I still believe this adoption will happen. My pesimistic side sometimes gets the better of me, though. The proposal to resurrect the agency should be complete in 2-4 weeks (so, by the end of August), but then it goes before the court. Is that a simple, quick process? Who knows? Do we need to wait (and wait & wait) for a court date or will we get one right away? Will the court approve the proposal? If so, how much more money will we need to give to complete this adoption? There are so many unknowns, and that gives me a lot of anxiety. I mean, there are always lots of unknowns in the adoption world, but this is an unusual case. And with all this indecision, we're trying to decide whether to put our dossier through CAS as well. If we get an adoption through them, it may delay or jeopardize our Ethiopian adoption. So many decisions, and not much info. Gah! No wonder I'm stressed & tired most of the time.

On a separate note, we bought bicycles this weekend, so I can't wait to go bike riding. It's been 20 years since I owned & used a bike. Man, I feel sooooo old!

Blah

Feeling blah today - this damp weather is making my back ache. Stupid dampness.

We had a great weekend - my parents came down on Friday & were sitting on my front porch when I got home (they forgot their key). Saturday we pretty much spent the whole day with my brother's family. We had a great time then, too - the folks are always in a great mood when they get to see Evie. She's such a doll - she likes to talk with me and stand on my lap. I was wearing a hot pink shirt that day & she loves hot pink so I really held her attention. I was blowing raspberries on her arm at one point & she was laughing her head off - it was sooooo sweet. Four months old is a great age - they have a personality but they're not mobile yet. Sigh...... Anyway, everyone says I'm really good with her, so I guess that's good?

Sunday we went to take my dad to the BBQ store across from where I work but it was closed (damn it). So we went to Vaughan Mills instead - A & my dad hung out in Bass Pro Shop & my mom & I shopped for a dress for her for the church's 50th anniversary. Because she wasn't "looking" she found a really great dress - navy blue with small white dots & a white short sleeved blazer for over the top.

My parents left early Monday & I didn't do much of anything after that. Ah, holiday Monday.

That is all.