About to Pop

<--- This is how it feels to be waiting for an LOI!

(I recently found this photo of me goofing around many Christmases ago and had to laugh.)

Being this close feels a lot like waiting for our water to break. Everyone we see has that excited, questioning look in their eyes, and all we can do is just rub our belly, smile and shrug our shoulders.

It also feels like the night before Christmas and we’ve been up all night wrapping gifts, and we’re finally ready for the sun to come up. We sit on the couch, cradling mugs of steaming cocoa, and wait for the inky sky to fulfill its promise for streaks of deep violet, pink, orange and finally brilliant yellow.

It also feels like we are approaching the end a slow, long climb up the crest of the most giant of all rollercoasters. The 'chenk-chenk-chenk' sound is coming to a stop, and we are poised for a millisecond at the top of a very tall arc, about to zoom through the most thrilling, scary, wonderful ride we've ever imagined.

It also feels like the beginning of spring, when you see all the hard work of last season begin to sprout. Vines start off on their trails, flower buds peek open their sleepy eyes and dry brown turns first to bright green and then deep emerald.

It also feels like we are juggling. Finally all the hoops are in the air at the same time, and we’re just waiting on that final one to be thrown to us before they start dropping. C’mon Kaz…throw us another one. We can handle it. Hurry before some document (aka hoop) expires!

We are as prepared as we will ever be. Our paperwork is ready, our bags are packed, our bills are on auto-pay, the bank and our employers are on notice, we’ve selected an IA doctor, travel insurance agent and travel agency, the shopping is done, the lists are checked off, our house is clean, our house-sitter is ready to move in, our laundry is done, our yard is groomed, the files are organized and the laptop is ready.

Actually, the laptop is the thing I’m nervous about right now. I bought a new Dell 3 months ago, which came with Windows Vista, and I’ve almost thrown it into the Ashley River twice. Vista stinks. It crashed again today. I really wish I had bought a Mac. Our computer will be our lifeline and we don’t have time to send it back, buy a new one and reload/reconfigure everything. If this one dies in Kaz, we can always go to the internet café to post quick blog entries, but we’re really depending on it for everything from blogging to watching movies to playing music, to journaling, e-mailing, Skyping, making movies, editing photos, etc. I really hope it comes through. (How many leaps of faith can one squeeze into one adoption?)

Overall we are surprisingly calm, considering that the very next phone call could be the one. I think my anxiety level was higher during the wait for our region assignment, since that greatly influences much of what our overall experience will be. Maybe we are unruffled because it has been so long since we thought we might be “going soon” and it’s hard to believe that this timely confluence of circumstances is finally a reality.

We shall see. In the meantime we will just keep staring at my belly.


By the way, Frank raised a lot of money this weekend with his lemonade stand! For those of you who commented that you'd like to see him in a bikini, here is a little eye candy just for you.



(Just for the record, yes this is Borat's body. And just for the record, I'm only slightly ashamed of myself.)