Christmas has come and gone and 2008 is on it's way

We had a nice Christmas. We've all been sick for the whole month of December so we've had a pretty slow and simple Christmas.

D asked Santa for a stuffed Skunk and a Webkinz Duck and he came through for her. She also got Polly Pocket Race to the Mall and a Leapster from Mommy and Daddy (along with several other odds and ends)

The began the framing on our house the Friday before Christmas by doing the outline of the house on the floor in 2x4's. The didn't do anything else on it till yesterday and today they've just about got all the perimeter and the interior framed up!



Well, it doesn't look like our agency will hear any good accreditation news this month and if there is anything to come in January, I'm sure it won't come till later in the month since the Russians will be celebrating Christmas and New Years for half the month.

It was good to hear, though, that several more agencies received their accreditation last week, so hopefully we'll be next.

Last week hubby and I had a talk about how long will we wait? I admit, I've had thoughts of just stopping and being content with our precious D. But I just hate for her to grow up as an only child. And I'm not quite ready to set aside my dream of having another child. My arms and heart still feel as if there is an empty spot. We haven't set a deadline yet, but we'll see where we are after we're in our new house if nothing has happened accreditation-wise by then (heaven forbid!).

I've thought a good bit about losing Viktoria these last days. I pray that she is in a loving family and will enjoy her first family Christmas. The hardest time that it hit me was when I set the table for Christmas Eve dinner and there were still just three place settings. The absence of that fourth was very apparent to me.

I hope 2008 will be a very happy year for all the waiting families and the children who will join them.

Hallmark Card Contest

A young lady in our church, Meredith, is a finalist in the Hallmark Card contest. Please help her by voting for her card!

Her's is called "Connecting the Dots."

Thanks!

Catching up and adding pictures

Well, it's official - I will not be having any internet at home until we move into our new house. The mobile home was "wired by owner" and the phone connection is not compatible for even dial up. I tried for over 35 minutes yesterday to just get ON the internet, much less do anything.

So, today I am at hubby's office, filling in for the receptionist while the staff has their Christmas luncheon. So, since I have no duties except to answer the phone and say hello, I'll update my blog.

I went ahead and brought my camera card too, so I'll just do my pix from here.

We have a foundation, but it must sit and cure for 5-7 days, so there has been nothing else done to the new house since last Friday. I've been hoping they'll get started this Thursday with the framing. It will be so exciting to see the walls finally going up!

Still nothing new on the adoption front. We've got to get our home-study update done in the near future. Also, our fingerprints expire in January, so we'll have to see about having those done again too. I haven't gotten to check blogs, or FRUA in ages. So I feel so out of the loop.

Ok, I'll add some pix of our latest house adventures!

November 6 - The culvert was added so trucks could get onto the property


November 19 - We were so excited when after 2 weeks of NOTHING happening, we saw the port-a-potty had been delivered!!! This meant things were about to begin. See the little white paper posted on the pole? That is what held us up for two weeks - the permit!


November 27 -Seeing these forms go up was one of the most exciting things we had experienced up to that point! We were just ecstatic to finally see the outline of our new home!



December 3 - And the then plumber came and laid the foundation pipes!
It is great to look and think, "ok, there's my corner tub, the potty, the sink,
the dishwasher etc, etc."

December 5 - The Electrician came to do the initial foundation wiring!

December 6 - The concrete crew came out and prepared the slab for pouring the foundation! I thought it was interesting how they dug a deeper area for our fireplace (it'll be in the corner of the family room)


December 7 - On the way to school, D and hubby stopped by "the land" and saw the concrete crew had already been hard at work for a while. Our foundation was being poured!


A crew of 12 men worked quickly and by 10:00 our foundation was poured. The rest of the day they trowled, smoothed and leveled it.


And that brings us to today where we just wait for it to cure. It's been raining a bit every night, but that shouldn't hold it up from curing. It looks so small right now, just looking at the cement slab, but everyone warned us that it would!

So firm a foundation . . .

We will have a foundation poured tomorrow on our new house! I'm very behind in keeping the blog up to date on the latest advances in our new home construction, but things have been happening every day and it is very exciting!

Since I last posted, we have had the forms framed around the perimeter of the house; the plumber has done his initial pipe-laying work; the electrician has done his initial work and the cement crew was out today working like a little army of ants getting everything ready to pour cement tomorrow!

I've got pix of every step, but with the dial up we have now it is nearly impossible to post from home. I am at hubby's office right now, but D is playing on the computer where I can upload pix.

I'm heading up a Christmas Cookie Exchange tonight at our church. It should start in 15 minutes. No one is here yet, that doesn't bode too well, does it? We'll see if anything comes of it.

Gotta run, just wanted to check in!

update . . . the cookie swap was a success! We had about 10 participants and now have 10 different varieties of cookies to eat and share for the holiday!

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.