No News Flash

Hello friends! Sorry I have been out of touch, but I recently returned from a long business trip to Dallas, Texas. I missed y'all!

No big news to share yet, but something exciting is that Frank’s co-workers are throwing us a baby shower Thursday evening. It feels so wonderful and weird and cool and awesome and scary and surreal. I'm actually a little nervous.

We’re still waiting to hear our region assignment, and hope to know within the next couple of weeks. It will be super exciting to find out where our child is and in what city our little family will be formed. We still hope to travel around March or April, but there could still be delays. Rumors of delays recently abound in the Kaz adoptive world, but we’re just trying to go with the flow, expect the unexpected and stay flexible.

We’ve been extremely busy with preparations. I’ve started the last bit of paperwork – our Travel Documents. Many of these are “do-overs” to ensure important papers don’t expire during our trip. We’ve also been hustling on many other fronts. We’ve researched/chosen an adoption doctor to consult with while overseas, bought super-warm coats, ordered power converters and surge protectors, created a serious packing list, learned lots more Russian, purchased gifts for orphanage caregivers and liaisons, learned Baby Sign Language, started “while I’m away” lists for work and home, registered at Babies ‘R’ Us, rearranged the nursery, shopped for a glider, tried to figure out where to put all the stuff in the baby’s closet, and tried to keep up with other blogs and newsgroup messages to stay in the loop. With all that plus a gazillion other things not adoption related, time is actually passing pretty quickly!

By the way, Frank wanted to express his thanks for the many thoughtful words and e-mails he received about his January 10th post. It is great to know that sharing his story has encouraged and touched so many others.

Here is the man himself, modeling his brand new, super-warm coat and hat fit for a Siberian spring. He's trying to look Russian, and doing a pretty good job I think. ;-)

Speaking of puffy and grumpy, while I was in Dallas I had a dreadful little bout with food poisoning. The bitter and repeated reunion with my dinner throughout the wee hours of the morning left me feeling so weak and miserable that I had to stay in my hotel room the entire next day. As I lay alone, feebly curled up in the bed, sipping Sprite and dozing through a fever, I didn’t feel sorry for myself so much as I worried like crazy how I could possibly have taken care of a baby at the same time. There was no way! Just lifting the phone took considerable effort.

I’m fortunate to have Frank as my co-pilot, but what if he is out of town? Or also sick? How on earth do single moms do it??? Trying to fathom all of that was far scarier than being up close and personal with the very unfriendly contents of my belly. Everyone says you just find a way because you have to. I’m sure that is the case, but I just I hope that I never have to cross that particular bridge again. The Coconut Shrimp Bridge of Hell!